Giant glass panels arrive for the leaning tower of Abu Dhabi

Monster glass panels for Abu Dhabi’s 'leaning tower' development have arrived on what the project team claims is the world’s biggest flat bed truck.

The panels are for the Capital Gate building, which architect RMJM recently submitted for the Guinness Book of Records as the ‘world’s most inclined building’.

It has a tilt of 18 degrees – over four times more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Capital Gate is the centrepiece of the £1.5bn Capital Centre scheme, a business and residential in the heart of the city of Abu Dhabi.

In coming weeks, the specially constructed 35 tonne, 4m wide truck, will bring 728 unique custom-made diamond-shaped glazing panels to the site. Each to be fitted at a slightly different angle. The first two glazing panels, weighing approximately 5 tonnes each, arrived this week. The delivery required the closure of three lanes of the northbound Coast Road motorway running from Mussafah to Abu Dhabi, with police escort.

On arrival, the 8 metre high glazing panels were lifted into place on to the Abu Dhabi landmark building, which will eventually have a glass façade of 23,000 square metres.The glass is shipped from the US to Abu Dhabi, while the rolled steel tubes for the frames are laser cut in Austria to exactly the right size before they are shipped to Mussafah to be welded together and glazed.

The AED128 million (£24 million) glass façade is by Austrian steel and glass engineer Waagner-Biro.

The RMJM project team is using the glass to create a new kind of glazing system called ‘Cardinal C240’, which is anti-glare but also highly transparency. The glass has two silver coatings which minimise glare and maximise light transmission. The double glazed façade will allow natural daylight into the building while boosting energy efficiency.

Capital Gate will house the 5-star ‘Hyatt at Capital Centre’ hotel and office space.

RMJM associate director, Tony Archibold, said: “It is very exciting to see the first two glass panels safely delivered and installed to form the first pieces of this highly complex glass jigsaw-façade. There was a united intake of breath as they were gently unloaded off the truck into place.”