Navigation Tower

Location: West Bay, Doha, Qatar

Overview

The main approach was to envision a building with two main elevations rather than four, working together with the plot orientation and communicating with the sun through the day, acquiring maximum daylight while avoiding direct sun rays and their resultant heat. Providing a striking, modern image, the simple, slick volume with sliced edges, contours an elegant silhouette that stands monumentally, recalling the glory of monolithic sculptures. Calibrated to the actual changing sun angles, the horizontal shades at the south and north elevations act like bridges between the vast east and west elevations mimicking the company international maritime role between the east and west of the globe. For greater working comfort in such expanse of space, natural daylight penetration to the workplace, as well as views to the sea and the city skyline, are optimized by utilizing the total transparency of the non-reflective glass. The overall organization of the building is straightforward, utilitarian, and clearly expressed. The column-free internal office spaces are conceived to adopt any layout requirement with areas ranging from 1,000-1,200sqm, thus simplifying leasability, office partitioning and daily performance methodology.