D1 Tower Timber Canopy

A project of the Sunland Group Ltd and Emirates International Holdings comprises the 284m high D1 tower in Dubai’s district Culture Village. The 80 storeys of the skyscraper house 529 apartments, as well as luxury penthouses, a swimming pool, a cinema and a restaurant. The brief incorporates four free-formed wooden canopies, the so-called “Petals”, which are arranged around the base of the D1 Tower footprint. The structure of the self supporting canopies acts as a unique feature and as architectural shading canopies for the pedestrians. The petals are supported horizontally and vertically by steel columns near the front edge. Additional support is provided due to the connection to the D1 Tower slabs by several compression members. The free-formed load-bearing structure of the self supporting canopies comprises a grid of curved timber elements, which is divided into primary and secondary elements. The individual girders of the grid structure are made out of one-way curved glulam timber elements. The dimension of the fir-tree timber sections is approx. 68 x 18 cm. A wooden bracing frame within the outer fields of the grid is used to give additional horizontal stiffness to the structure.