Al Hamra Firdous Tower

摘要

Located in the centre of Kuwait City, the Al Hamra Firdous Tower is a 412-metre (1,352-foot) high skyscraper housing a 20-metre (65.6-foot) tall lobby, two sky lobbies, a sky garden, six service floors and 62 office floors. Currently under construction and due for completion in 2010, the award-winning structure is designed to maximise views of the gulf and minimise solar heat loads. Its unique sculptural form was generated through an algorithmic design process. This was subtractive, similar to chiselling out the parts that are not needed from a block of stone. The 60×60 metre (197× 197 foot) building footprint was first extruded to 412 metres (1,352 feet). The centre of the square was then hollowed out to define a 13.5-metre (44-foot) lease span, creating a doughnut-like form. To achieve the target 2,200 square metres (23,680 square feet) floor area, one quarter of the doughnut was removed, starting from the southwest segment at ground level and gradually rotating counterclockwise to the southeast segment at the top to maximise views and minimise solar heat loads. To accentuate the spiralling of the void, the southeast tip of the building was raised to become the tallest point.