Wednesday 4 March 2009

Intelligent, Self Cleaning Glass By IKU, Dubai

Al Jawhara Tower brings new accounts for successful company trio from Kuwait and Austria: The Austrian company iku® intelligente Fenstersysteme AG, specialist for self-cleaning façade systems, currently finalized its prestigious account in Kuwait city. The Al Jawhara Tower, with a height of 135 m and 32 floors, has been equipped completely with the iku®windows Unitized façade. All in all 8000 m2 aluminium glass façade, totally 2000 Unitzed façade panels, has been fabricated and installed on site.


The rise of a jewel: The office tower is a new landmark of Kuwait city. "Al Jawhara" standing for "Jewel", now is perfectly shining always with iku®windows - self-cleaning facade systems, just at the touch of a button. The start of the construction work was January 2007. The installation of the first facade panels on site started in August. In December 2007 nearly half of the building already had been glazed. Till July 2008 the whole façade construction was completed. During the second period of construction all electro mechanical works have been executed. After the finalizing of the power and water feed lines, 100 motors, which are carrying the wipers as well as the electronic units for the controlling of the cleaning cycles, have been installed. Till the end of 2008 the final test with numerous washing cycles have been conducted, which caused astonishment by the local construction people and passing by pedestrians.
Clear arguments for iku®windows in comparison with traditional cleaning methods: There are many advantages of iku®windows system for the building owner compared to traditional BMU systems: The cleaning of the whole façade, e.g. the Al Jawhara Tower, could take several months, depending on the weather conditions. Only seven hours will be needed to clean the whole façade with iku®windows - self-cleaning façade systems.

A world patent from Vienna sets new standards in modern glass architecture: The investment for a traditional BMU system is about € 200.000,-. For the solution with iku®windows the investment is around € 300.000,-. Given the building is cleaned 12 times a year, which is a must in the countries of the golf region with its hot, humid and sandy air, the amortisation of the additional investment is reached already after 1.9 years. From this time on the owner makes a profit. Some owners are performing cleaning cycles once a week, as the use of the system is very simple - at the touch of a button. The running cost for one cleaning cycle is very low - only about € 10,- in the case of Al Jawhara Tower. And there are no additional costs for cleaning personnel. This way the running costs for a building can be reduced significantly. Not to forget the permanently rising personnel and maintenance costs for traditional BMU systems, which are important factors within the running costs.


A world patent from Vienna sets new standards in modern glass architecture iku®windows, with its headquarters in Vienna, is rolling out into the world market with an invention as simple as it is genius - intelligent glass facades with integrated self-cleaning and numerous additional options. The technology is based on a world patent, which was invented by company founder Julius Thurnher. Electronically controlled wipers with automatic water supply are enabling the cleaning of large façade surfaces at the touch of a button. Benefits: Apart from enormous time saving the systems convince by usability, security and cost effectiveness. It pays for itself soon with long term low running costs. Also facades that are difficult to access, can be cleaned easily. The newly developed maintenance and evacuation units are already applied for patent. The extended use of Photovoltaic and solar cells in the façade of modern buildings will further lead to the success of the innovative system. Especially in the golf region, the permanent cleaning of the solar cells is a must in order to keep their efficiency in the energy production.

Also see "Incredible Transformation of Dubai City." Click on the pictures to enlarge, the first picture shows how Dubai looked in 1990 & the second; 13 years later in 2003. Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world’s cranes. The Dubai Waterfront — when completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world. All of this was built in the last 5 years, including the island that looks like a palm tree. The Palm Islands in Dubai — new Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands; they are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space — three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities; it is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people and is advertised as being visible from the moon. The World Islands: 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world; each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million. The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai: The worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only ‘7 star’ hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world, it stands on an artificial island in the sea. Hydropolis, the world’s first underwater hotel, was entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai; it is scheduled to be completed by 2009. Dubai Sports City, a huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubai Land - an amusement park.







See previous blogs on Dubai here, here, here & here.

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