Wasl Tower in Dubai: The 300-meter skyscraper with a ceramic facade revealed

Wasl Tower, a 302-meter skyscraper featuring a ceramic facade will be completed by 2021.

The new skyscraper will be constructed on Sheikh Zayed Road, very close to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world that reaches a height of 828 meters.

The building will host a luxury hotel, apartments, offices and a series of swimming pools in its roof. It will be directly linked to the Burj Khalifa metro station with a pedestrian bridge.

The design of the structure initiated in 2014 and is handled by UNStudio, an architectural firm established in the Netherlands occupied with urban development projects. The company is collaborating with Werner Sobek, a German architect and a structural engineer.

Construction works on the site began in 2016 and will be completed within the next year. The total cost of the project is expected to reach $400 million.

The structure will feature a design inspired by "Contrapposto (Italian for Counterpoise) Pose", a term mostly used in art to describe a pose in which a figure stands upright with its body slightly turned on one side and one shoulder raised. The pose is intended to present a dynamic effect as it appears to be in motion. The framework of the skyscraper will be twisting and unsymmetrical. "Designed around its Z-axis and adopting a classic 'contrapposto' movement, the Wasl Tower faces almost every direction. The geometry of the tower achieved its holistic appearance design and high-tech engineering." UNStudio designers stated.

The facade of the structure will consist of ceramic materials (made of clay) as they are energy efficient and can reduce the absorbed heat from the scorching Dubai desert. Moreover, according to the developers, the unique shape of the structure will provide the opportunity for the ceramic facade to reflect sunbeams or artificial lighting (during the night), in an extraordinary pattern giving the impression of "rupturing".

Wasl Tower will also present another impressive innovation. Its facade will feature a vertical route that will stretch from the bottom to the top of the skyscraper. "The open seam that runs the full height of the tower forms a ‘vertical boulevard’ which is topped by infinity pools on the tower roof. This seam is created by a stacking of outdoor balconies, forming a green vein along the building's silhouette. This boulevard connects the outdoor with the indoor, which is a unique feature for this region," UNStudio, mentions.

Sources: UNstudio, CNN, Archdaily