City of Arabia is an exciting and imaginative residential and commercial district currently under construction in Dubailand. It is destined to become one of the major tourist destinations of the Middle East and includes the world’s biggest shopping mall, hotels, community buildings, high rise towers and over 2000 apartments in a low-rise development around a spectacular water feature.
Full multi disciplinary design service
WSP is providing full building services and structural design for the entire development. This includes the Mall of Arabia, residential and commercial towers, and the “Restless Planet”, a 50 000 sq m, fully air-conditioned dinosaur theme park.
Interesting and unusual challenges for the design team
- The sheer physical size of the shopping mall calls for the most efficient solutions in exacting detail. With one million sq m of retail space and around 1200 outlets, even an apparently small saving in installation costs is multiplied many times in reality, resulting in substantial savings overall.
- Air conditioning will be by far the largest energy expense. WSP’s designers are therefore working closely with the architects to ensure maximum efficiency of the building design both in its structure and in the integration of the services within the building envelope.
- Wadi Walk is a man-made water feature with an overall area of over 70 000 sq m, intended as a focal point for the surrounding accommodation. WSP has developed a sophisticated, bespoke design solution to maintain near pure water which is safe for people, but without the aroma or look of a swimming pool, despite Dubai’s high ambient temperatures
WSP is also providing structural design for four Elite Towers, comprising two 45-storey and two 30-storey residential and commercial towers.
Project information
Client: Ilyas & Mustafa Galadari Group
Size: In excess of 10M million sq m
Value: Over £1300M
Status: due for completion 2008