http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/27d18f2740.jpg


Rakan Tower is a 30-story office tower located at one of the most prominent intersections in Kuwait of Hillali Street and Fahed Al Salem Street. It will provide nearly 6,500 square meters of net office area, which will primarily cater to lawyer and corporate offices. The ground floor and mezzanine floor will serve as commercial shop areas that will be exposed to excellent pedestrian traffic as well as the visual exposure of Fahed Al Salem’s vehicular traffic. The design attempts to create a world-class office building by addressing and resolving 3 key elements:

Geometry: The site is located between two different geometric grids of the neighboring plots. The grid of Fahed Al Salem Street helps generate the horizontal movement at the ground level mandatory arcade and canopy of the building to the east, while the grid of Hillali Street helps generate the vertical movement along the elevator core of the tower to the west. This elevator core faces the intersection of the two streets and will be clad in a glass curtain wall to provide panoramic views of the city from the 2 south facing elevators and lift lobbies of every office floor. The top of this core has a clock that addresses the main intersection of the two streets, which is one of the main public spaces within the city of Kuwait. The tower, however, is then
set on another grid that is derived as the medium between the two opposing grids of the neighboring plots. Rather than relate to either of the two neighboring geometric grids,
the site establishes its own grid from which the tower gestures 30 stories into the sky.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/8416392335.jpg


http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/7669/dsc0039213wm.jpg

sorry for the shaky picture :bash:
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/1787/dsc0039310rx.jpg

Rakan Office Tower
December 2003

Perhaps the most challenging of these projects was the design of the Rakan Office Tower for Bader Al-Salem, who had an elbow-shaped site of 650 sq m and wanted to build a 30-storey office building catering mainly to the legal and law business sector in Kuwait.
Raj Patel, the principal designer states that KEO's design 'attempts to create a world-class office building by addressing and resolving issues of geometry, envelope, and programme.'

The site is located between two neighbouring plots which have different and opposing urban geometric grids. In a bid to harmonise and blend the building's mass with the surrounding urban environment, the design respected and extended the geometry of both neighbouring buildings into the site to create the core elements on either end of the site. The design then established a third grid derived as the medium between these two neighbouring grids which give form to the typical office floor plate.

The grid of Fahed Al Salem Street to the east of the site helps generate the horizontal movement at ground level along a metal and glass canopy, while the grid of Suhada Street (Hillali Street) to the west helps generate the vertical movement along the elevator core of the tower. This elevator core faces the intersection of the two main streets and will be clad in a glass curtain-wall to provide excellent views of the city from the two panoramic elevators and lift lobbies from every floor level. A roofless four-storey glass tower extends from this vertical elevator core and is lit at night, like a beacon which will be seen by the ships that come in and out of Kuwait's harbour.

The most dramatic and inspiring element of the building is the exterior envelope. Each of the four facades has been carefully designed and treated to reflect not only the different functional aspect of the spaces, but also to respond to views and the impact of the moving sun. For example, the cores of the building are located on the east and west side of the tower and house all the services as well as act as the main structural sheer walls for the tower. These sides, therefore, are clad in stone with small punched window openings to minimise the exposure to the sun.

The main office tower faces south and north and offers spectacular column-free views of the city and sea, respectively. The design of the main facades was inspired by the shifting sand dunes and landscape of the desert, depicting an ever-changing play of light and shadows on a bed of sand.
Thus, the narrow but tall glass curtain-wall incorporates several different glass colours and shades to create a pattern which the eye will register as a diagonal movement across the facade, as opposed to an entirely vertical or horizontal movement.
The ever-changing dynamic colour of the patterned glass curtain-wall based on the sun's movement throughout the day is a subtle gesture to mimic the pattern of the desert landscape which is a dominating part of life in Kuwait.

Three planning objectives were used to design and resolve the programme of the tower. First, the office plan is derived from a simple rectangular column-free office plate measuring 18 m long by 12 m deep, which allows maximum flexibility of office layout planning. Next, the entire service component which serves the office area, such as toilets, emergency stairs, and mechanical air handling units as well as the structural sheer walls are located in cores on either side of this rectangular office space area so as to completely and cleanly separate the service space from the work space. The third is to create an interesting elevator lobby which is naturally lit from the glass curtain-wall elevator core. This lobby will offer excellent views of the city and of the constant dynamic motion of panoramic lifts moving up and down the tower, while occupants wait for their lifts.

These three planning guidelines have converged gracefully to create a unique plan, which is both functionally and aesthetically pleasing to create a landmark building and promote a high standard of office space.
Construction work on the project commenced in August this year and is scheduled for completion by September 2005. Al Ahlia Contracting Group has the $15 million main contract for the project.

Click to Check (http://www.gulfconstructionworldwide.com/bkArticlesTA.asp?IssueID=229&Section=1032&Article=5288)

This looks really great :) How about putting the pic of awtad tower with the rakan tower in the background here?

why you dont put it ;)

This is the great pic that Skoulikimou took of Awtad tower showing Rakan tower in the background :)

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/6206/dsc002447gl.jpg

i found night shot of rakan tower i will post them shortly :)

the rakan office tower
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/2399/dsc002657rl.jpg

the wicked dream , i call this picture ;)
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/228/dsc002582lc.jpg

beautiful tower....and AMAZING job with the lighting!

an old picture of rakan tower taken during the final stage of construction
14-07-2005
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4520/thelatestpictureofrakantower8n.jpg

I was gonna ask you if I should put this pic. or not :)

if you want to post an article or a picture just do it you dont need my authorization to do so :)

this is a free frorum as long you dont insult or disrespect some one faith or ethnicity,just use your common sense ;)

skoulikimou I am really happy to find such a q8i guy , I thought people of your kind are all gone . I am proud of you as the rest of the q8is that r here I am sure. :)

im all blushed , im a just normal kuwaiti citizen looking forward to the bright future

i jsut want to keep you guys updated and proud of our kuwait allah ya7fetha inshalah

we all do , kathar allah mn amthalek :)

Qatar Airways opened its new Kuwait Headquarters here in this tower :) yesterday.

16-05-2007


http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/F9y/Rakantower1.jpg

:)

http://i36.tinypic.com/xauio3.jpg
By mhels_13