HQ Al Dar

The Aldar Headquarters designed by MZ Architects has a distinctive and innovative design: a semispherical building comprising two circular convex shaped facades linked by a narrow band of indented glazing. This iconic fully glazed structure is completely circular in elevation and curved in all other directions. The circular skyscraper flaunts its form across the open waters and land, like a pearl resting on the sand shores.

The architecture is understood from a distance and is equally impressive from both close range and afar. Its timeless geometry, symbol of perfection and infinity, holds a rich presence and brings with it new challenges of stability and structure. Developing the concept, the ideas of simplicity, purity and learning from nature, were coupled with the reliance on one of the oldest rules of architecture: that of proportion. In fact to help MZ Architects bring their concept to life, the issue of stability proved to be a crucial one for the circular building.

The architects took the challenge and elevated it by looking back at the idea of the cosmic body of the man in the circle and by inscribing the pentagram into the circular façade, they were able to locate the two points of stability; the two points where the building will meet the earth. The complexities of simplicity indeed proved to be many, and the design of the HQ could only be a holistic one, merging architecture and structure. It became an object of both fields, showcasing the expansion and blurring of their respective limits in order to form a combined product. Like many of nature’s creations, the building comes together by allowing each one of its elements to play a crucial role in its being and construction.

Unlike the conventional four sided buildings, the project challenges the approach to construction by questioning the typical roof structure. This three faceted building relies on its zipper-like element, a continuous glass and structural band that stitches the two main facets together, creating a slim continuous surface that is both vertical and horizontal, side and face, window and roof