By Rogier van der Heide
W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island, Facade System in Abu Dhabi was designed with Asymptote Architecture along with Billing Jackson Design (BJD) to develop and detail this geometric elegant shading system. The 499-room, 85, 000-square-meter structure was covered by a gridshell formed roof structure that creates shade to the habitable accommodation.
The primary gridshell structure creates the geometric framework for the secondary system that connects the “nodes” and “diamond rhombus” glass panels that reflect and refract light during the day and host artificial LED lighting at night. There were 5, 000 panels in total to create this dramatic visual effect.
The glass panels have a carefully-selected coating and frit pattern that balances visual transparency with light-responsive properties according to different local conditions. They are each individually lit with a bespoke RGBW LED luminaire designed to give asymmetrical light distribution. Resolving concerns about reflection off the glass panels, and the solar shading provided by the shell structure on the enclosed hotel towers below was a critical element of the project. Detailed radiance analysis made it possible to determine optimum glass panel positioning and rotation angles.



