Construction of a new business district on Sowwah Island—a 100-hectare island that is part of Abu Dhabi—is progressing, including a five-building complex housing the United Arab Emirates’ new financial center.
A key element of the buildings is their facades. The stainless steel materials for these facades—more than 400 tonnes of Nirosta 4404 material (partly with linen finish)—were recently manufactured at the Krefeld and Dillenburg plants of ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. The order was acquired and handled by ThyssenKrupp Stainless International, which delivered the material to companies in the United Arab Emirates and Austria for further processing.
The “Sowwah Square” project was designed by Chicago-based architects Goettsch Partners.
The group of four towers, from 31 to 37 stories, in the future financial district will offer around 285,000 square meters of office space. There will also be a five-star hotel. Standing in front of the four towers is the 22,000-square-meter Securities Exchange. This four-level trapezoidal building rises 27 meters above a water feature on four piers. The building’s roof is the size of a football field and is equipped with photovoltaic panels.
Due to the extremely hot climate, the buildings have ventilated, double-skin facades. There is also a system of external blinds that automatically follow the sun to control the interior temperature. The exteriors of all five buildings on Sowwah Square feature stainless steel, in part combined with other materials such as glass.
Construction work on Sowwah Square started in 2007 and is expected to be completed in the coming months. Abu Dhabi’s new financial district will open next year.
ThyssenKrupp Nirosta GmbH is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of stainless flat products with a range of stainless steel grades, sizes, and finishes. The Krefeld-based company has supplied materials for many skyscrapers, including the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. ThyssenKrupp Nirosta has several sites in Germany and employs around 4200 people.
ThyssenKrupp Stainless International (Krefeld) complements the direct sales activities of ThyssenKrupp Nirosta in Germany and ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni in Italy, selling cold-rolled and hot-rolled stainless steel in all market regions worldwide except North America. The company has around 400 employees and sells approximately 700,000 tonnes of material worldwide each year. ThyssenKrupp Stainless International has service centers in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Poland, Hungary, and Turkey as well as a sales company in the Benelux states and a warehouse with processing facilities in southern China. It also has sales offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Brazil, Singapore, and Vietnam.