Far from being overshadowed by the Burj Al Arab, its five star sister hotel, the Jumeirah Beach, is hardly your average package holiday location.
The first part of the resort to be completed, opening in December 1997, the hotel is aimed at European holiday and business travellers. It was built adjacent to the existing Chicago Beach Hotel, which was demolished mid-1997 to make way for the Wild Wadi water park now standing in its place.
The building maintains the nautical theme of the resort. It is curved in both plan and elevation views to give the impression of a breaking wave, and the shimmering blue and white of the glass and cladding adds to the image. The bulk of the building façade is glazed; 22 556 m2 of low-emissivity, double-glazing providing protection from the external conditions.
Again, the structure is basically concrete and steel, with a total of 45 660 m3 of concrete used and 5831 tonnes of reinforcing steel.
At the ‘crest of the wave’, the highest point of the hotel, a height of 92.5 m is reached. This, like the Burj Al Arab, looks shorter, due mainly to the vast 298 m-length of the building, which stretches along the shore from east to west.
A width of just over 14 m gives the building a slim, rather delicate appeal from a distance. It also means each room has a sea view, with only one row of suites in the building. In these, floor-to-ceiling windows ensure unobstructed, dizzying views over the complex and out to sea. Setpoint conditions in the rooms are the same as in the Burj Al Arab, however guests do not have the same level of humidity control over their surroundings. Individual fan coil units with electric heaters combine to keep the temperature at 23±1°C.
Every tiny detail has been thought of, down to the ashtrays, which have the hotel’s symbol carefully stamped into the sand that fills them.
Eighteen restaurants let you eat your way around the world, from the Argentinean, La Parrilla, high on the 25th floor to the seafood restaurant at the tip of the breakwater in front of the hotel. The latter caused particular problems for the engineers as the building was originally intended to be onshore and the infrastructure services were designed to cater for this. Extending these along the 490 m-long breakwater added both time and expense to the project. It also meant the restaurant was now 1120 m from the central services area.
The hotel’s swimming pools were no ordinary venture. In Dubai’s harsh summer conditions it is necessary to mechanically cool the pools. On closer inspection, a 500 mm-wide strip around the circumference of the main pool angles into the water so bathers can rest on the edge without danger of burning. Several plinths included around the inside edge of the pool allow sun worshippers to fry in relative comfort under a thin layer of water.
Source
Building Sustainable Design
