On 23 February, the new Foster and Partners´ design for ´One Central Park´ was unveiled to the public in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Located on a prominent corner site within the ´Dubai International Finance Centre,´ the 80-storey 328m tower will be the world´s tallest mixed-use building, combining 520 luxury apartments with 25 floors of office space, and shops, restaurant, pool, and health club.
The eye-catching shape of One Central Park was generated by Foster and Partners´ desire to clearly express the structural system and internal organisation of the tower. The upper-level block of apartments - offering the highest residential views in the world - are supported by four attenuated A-frame ´fins´ at 27m centres, which are buttressed at each end elevation. 25 levels of column-free office accommodation are held within from these fins, separated from the residential levels by a glazed sky-lobby. The tower is orientated east - west to maximise views over the Finance Centre and to the coastline and desert. This orientation also reduces solar gain, with the building core mass absorbing heat to reduce mechanical ventilation loads. A system of sunshades shelters the interiors on the exposed south elevation.
One Central Park sits on a generously landscaped plinth level - with sculpted pools of water and underground car park - and is entered through a dramatic quadruple-height foyer. The main lift cores - serving the offices - are located to the east and west extremities of the tower. A small central lift core - serving 40 levels of apartments - rises to a double-height sky-lobby above the office levels and provides accesses to a variety of facilities for residents including a reception, lounge, restaurant, and fitness centre with a swimming pool. A local lift core then disperses residents to their individual apartments. The tower is crowned with 12 luxurious duplex and triplex penthouse apartments with spectacular views.
´One Central Park´ is scheduled for completion in early-2008 and is the latest in an evolving sequence of tall towers by Foster and Partners.
Norman Foster noted of the project: 'We have designed a landmark tower for Dubai - with a clear differentiation between the apartments and offices. The distinctive form of One Central Park continues our exploration of the skyscraper in the twenty-first century.'
Source: Foster and Partners
