Al Bahr Towers

GAD / DESIGN STUDY

Al Bahr Towers: A Moving Screen with a Fixed Responsibility

English study · Chinese summary · 2026-10-09 · Study dated 2026-10-08

Al Bahr Towers makes solar control visible as a changing layer outside an office building. Designed by Aedas’s UK team with multidisciplinary engineering by Arup, the Abu Dhabi project is now documented in AHR’s portfolio. Its dates need some precision: Arup’s contemporary account records substantial completion by late 2012, while AHR lists 2013. The completed buildings make an instructive case study in responsive façades. Arup’s contemporary project account, AHR portfolio.

The defining element is a field of folding screens on the east, south and west elevations. Inspired by the mashrabiya, the external lattice traditionally used to mediate light and privacy, the units change configuration as the sun moves. Their task is to intercept direct solar radiation before it reaches the glazed enclosure. The design treats shade as a separately controlled layer rather than relying entirely on darkened glass.

That separation has a clear spatial consequence. A screen can become more open when direct shading is less necessary, allowing a different relationship with daylight and outward views. Arup identifies this as a way to reduce the need for heavily tinted glazing. The relevant architectural question is not whether a moving façade is intrinsically better, but whether its different positions give the occupied interior useful environmental choices. Arup’s façade overview.

The screen also needs to be understood as an assembly. Arup’s journal identifies PTFE-coated glassfibre mesh as the selected shading material, while AHR records 2,098 dynamic units across the two towers. This is not a flexible outer wall that replaces the weather enclosure. The folding layer works in front of a separate glazed façade, with its own supports, mechanisms and control responsibilities. Distinguishing these layers makes the system easier to assess.

Repetition brings both opportunity and obligation. A module can be developed and tested as a repeatable component, but many modules multiply the importance of reliable operation and maintenance access. The completed architectural image depends on more than the screen’s initial form. It also depends on how parts move, how their condition is monitored and what happens when a unit needs attention. Those considerations belong to the design of the façade, not merely to a later facilities-management problem.

Performance claims require similar care. A reduction in solar gain through a screened elevation is not the same measure as a reduction in total annual building energy. Lighting, cooling equipment, occupancy and operating schedules affect the latter. The primary sources describe the intended interaction between shading, daylight and mechanical systems, but their headline percentages should not be treated as interchangeable proof of a single measured outcome.

Al Bahr’s most transferable lesson is the clarity of the environmental task assigned to its outer layer. The movement responds to a particular exposure problem, and the underlying glazing continues to perform a different job. Its visual variation is a consequence of that division of labour. The project is most convincing when the changing pattern is read alongside the fixed responsibilities of enclosure, support, control and care.

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