In 2018, in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a real estate developer planned to build a 40-story skyscraper, and he was soliciting design proposals from the public, and the deadline was half a year later. Ikram is a decoration designer who just debuted and runs a small design company. After he saw the news, he was eager to try and wanted to undertake part of the decoration design. Friends laughed at him: “Such a big project, some design masters may not be able to get it, so don’t waste your time, it’s better to undertake some small projects.” Ikram said with a smile: “Take it as a practice, this is an improvement.” A good opportunity for fame.”
Ikram didn’t care about his friends’ ridicule, and secretly made up his mind to design a unique design. Not long after, Ikram summoned the team to start the design. Because he had never undertaken such a huge design, he organized the team to visit skyscrapers in various places and learn from relevant experience. After a month, they collected pictures of the exterior design of more than a dozen buildings and conducted research one by one.
Not long after, Ikram and his team came up with a preliminary design, and he called friends to discuss the proposal. A friend said: “It’s too ordinary, and compared with those skyscrapers, it lacks modernity.” Another friend said: “It has no characteristics.” Accepted, he and his team revised and improved the plan.
A month later, the new plan was designed. When preparing to formally submit the materials to the real estate developer, Ikram hesitated, always feeling that something was missing, and he had a premonition that this plan would not be adopted. For more than ten days, Ikram suffered from insomnia all night, thinking over and over again, but did not think of a way to improve it, so he did not submit the design proposal for a long time, and there were still more than two months before the deadline.
One day, Ikram and his family traveled to an ancient town. The climate there is hot all year round, with an average temperature above 40°C for 8 months a year, and the temperature in some desert areas may be as high as 60°C. They stayed in a hotel, which is full of traditional Arabian ancient buildings. Ikram found that there was no air conditioner installed here, so he asked the boss to check out, but the boss said that this is their characteristic. Although there is no air conditioner, it is not hot at all. He barely lived for a day, and it was really not hot.
This piqued Ikram’s curiosity. The boss told him that an additional wooden window lattice will be built outside the windows of traditional Arab buildings to reduce direct sunlight and lower the indoor temperature. The window mullions are fitted with carved openwork wood panels that protrude outward and can be opened and closed. From a distance, the window lattice looks like a small balcony.
Looking at the window lattices, Ikram suddenly had a brainstorm. He led the team to revise the design plan again, and cleverly designed a “shell” composed of umbrella-shaped components for the building, which tightly wrapped the glass curtain wall of the building.
The umbrella-shaped “shell” is connected with an intelligent control system, and Ikram commissioned a computer company to write a specific program to allow them to automatically open and close with the movement of the sun. When the sun rises in the morning, under the sunlight, the umbrella will automatically open and move with the movement of the sun. At night, the umbrella will fold up automatically, and people can enjoy the beautiful scenery outside the window through the glass. This effectively prevents the air conditioner from consuming a large amount of electricity, and the colorless and transparent glass also increases the brightness inside the building and reduces the electricity consumption required for lighting during the day.
When Ikram completed the design, the deadline was less than two days away. After repeated screening by real estate companies, Ikram’s plan was selected. In 2022, a skyscraper with its own parasols will be officially completed. Its special structure and functions have attracted countless tourists to visit.
Ikram found inspiration from the window lattices of traditional Arabic buildings, made bold innovations based on the wisdom of the ancients, and achieved success.
