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Aspire Tower, Doha, Qatar

Qatar Skyscraper Development, Middle East design by Hadi Simaan and AREP

29 Jul 2009

Aspire Tower in Doha wins the Exterior Category at the Middle East Lighting Design Awards 2008

Architects: Hadi Simaan and AREP

Engineers: Ove Arup and Partners

Aspire Tower Doha

The Middle East lighting industry turned out for the 2008 Middle East Light Design Awards, on the first day of the recent PALME Exhibition in Dubai.

The Gala Dinner was held at the Park Hyatt, Dubai on Sunday 27 April with over 250 people attending to honour the outstanding and innovative lighting design achievements taking place across the Middle East. The awards cover projects within the Middle East, including the Gulf Co-operation Council countries as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran and Egypt. This is the second MELDA awards, the first being held in 2007 where KSLD won the Best Public Building category for PIFSS Kuwait.

The exterior lighting scheme for Aspire Tower in the Sports City was inaugurated at the opening of the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar on December 1st 2006. Kevan Shaw Lighting Design won an international design competition for this project in September 2005. The project team is led by a Joint Venture between Midmac & Sixco contractors. The team have delivered a 300metre tower in 15 months from commencement of ground works to structural and cladding completion, incorporating the external lighting designed by KSLD and a world record 12m Olympic flame at the top of the tower.

The lighting scheme consists of a grid of nearly 4000 three-colour LED luminaries individually addressed to allow animated patterns to be played across the tower’s skin. The luminaries were designed to provide high visible brightness through the principal viewing area below the horizontal with upward light spill minimised to reduce light pollution. The initial graphics for the Aspire Tower in Doha were designed and programmed by KSLD. Additional graphics were created for the opening ceremony of the Asian Games: these were designed by Andrew Doig, the Lighting Designer for the entire opening and closing ceremonies.

Kevan Shaw says: “This project has challenged everyone involved to produce an inspiring building against an incredibly tight and unchangeable deadline. This has been achieved by a dedicated team willing to meet these challenges by creative solution of the inevitable difficulties in such a large construction project. From my point of view the lighting does not only illuminate the architecture but creates a variable and dynamic form for the building that will allow it to respond uniquely to the many different events that will happen in Sports City”.

Aspire Tower Doha images / information from Kevan Shaw Lighting Design

Location: Doha, Qatar, Persian Gulf, The Middle East