Al Bahar Towers

Al Bahar Towers stand in Abu Dhabi, completed in 2012 to a design by the firm Aedas, built as the headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. Their defining feature is a dynamic exterior shading screen, a mashrabiya-inspired lattice of triangular fiberglass umbrella-like units covering the glass curtain wall of both towers, computer-controlled to fold open and closed across the day in response to the sun's position, reducing solar heat gain while admitting daylight when direct sun is not a concern. The pattern and geometry of the screen were drawn directly from mashrabiya, a traditional Islamic latticework screen long used in the region's vernacular architecture for shade and privacy, reinterpreted here as a fully mechanized environmental control system rather than a static ornamental motif. The towers' responsive facade was widely covered on completion as one of the more ambitious contemporary applications of a historic regional building technique to a large-scale modern high-rise, and it earned Al Bahar Towers a number of international sustainable-design awards.