The Abu Dhabi Financial Center/Sowwah Square is located in the Abu Dhabi Central Business District, a 570,000 square metre development comprising of four luxury high-rise towers incorporating office spaces, a retail area and the new Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. (Photo: DuPont)
Located in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Sowwah Square is part of the Sowwah Island project and is located in the new Abu Dhabi Central Business District, a 570,000 square metre development comprising of four luxury high-rise towers incorporating office spaces, a retail area and the new Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange.
Designed by architects Goettsch Partners of Chicago, USA – manufactured and installed by Folcrá Beach Industrial Company W.L.L and J&H Emirates ( Jangho) – the façade construction used on the Sowwah Square Towers comprises a high-performance glazed curtain wall system with external sunshade glass ‘louvers’.
By deploying laminate panels incorporating DuPont™ SentryGlas®, architects were able to successfully address a number of important structural and functional demands on the Abu Dhabi Financial Center. (Photo: DuPont)
These louvers comprise two side-supported open edge glass panels, which are installed horizontally in U-shaped fixation systems. The laminate panels each measure 500 mm x 1,000 mm, or 300 mm x 1,000 mm and use 1.52 mm SentryGlas® interlayer.
Constructed by German laminator BGT, the laminate glass panels used for the louvers were decorated with a special silk screen printed, two-color congruent pattern in order to minimize the G-value. SentryGlas® was selected for its resistance to humidity and high temperatures, as well as its post-breakage behavior and open-edge performance.
Architect Goettsch Partners selected SentryGlas® for its resistance to humidity and high temperatures, as well as its superior performance compared to PVB-based alternatives in terms of post-breakage behavior and open-edge performance.
As Charles W. Wittleder, Senior Associate at Goettsch Partners states: “Although no specific humidity levels were specified for this project, the effects of humidity on exposed edge laminated glass were considered when specifying the use of SentryGlas® for the sun shade elements.”
“Specifying SentryGlas® gave us greater design freedom. It allowed us to leave the glass edges exposed and to confidently design a two-edge captured system, with the glass panel spanning between edge clamps.”
Due to the strength of the interlayer, SentryGlas® laminates demonstrate excellent post-glass-breakage performance. Upon impact, the glass may break, but dangerous fragments will adhere to the SentryGlas® interlayer, reducing the risk of injury to people in the vicinity.
