Products used: CW-FS | Perimeter Barriers and Firestops for Curtain Walling, Siderise CW-FB | Curtain Wall Fireboard

Standing at 340m high, the 79-storey Uptown Dubai Tower 1 is the latest super-tall tower in Dubai’s iconic skyline. Nicknamed Burj 2020 in honour of Dubai’s Expo 2020 win, once complete, the tower will serve multiple purposes, containing a 5-star hotel, a health spa, restaurants, grade-A offices, extensive conference facilities, and 237 private residences.

Located in the highly desirable Jumeirah Lake Towers development, it has been designed to make a statement, inside and out, with an angled curtain wall façade system redolent of a faceted diamond, creating stunning aesthetics whilst offering people floor-to-ceiling views of Dubai’s waterfront.

With multiple purposes set across multiple storeys, high levels of fire safety were paramount, including code-compliant passive fire protection.

Design and specification

The tower’s elevations are enclosed by a unitised curtain walling system, featuring non-fire rated extruded aluminium mullions and transoms with double-glazed glass panels installed at varying angles to create the faceted effect.

To ensure compliance with the UAE Fire and Life Safety Code, this external wall system needed to be protected at each floor level using a passive f ire protection solution that not only prevented floor-to-floor fire spread, with a perimeter fire seal that achieves a 2-hour minimum fire rating, but also provided a 1-hour fire resistance protection to the spandrel panel and exposed mullions.

Two qualifying solutions were identified.  Façade contractors, BESIX, favoured the one-part, dry fix solution from Siderise over a two-part wet-apply alternative. The Siderise solution combined the perimeter fire seal and spandrel protection to provide a complete system under one warranty from a single manufacturer, with the confidence that each component was compatible.

The specified Siderise protected spandrel solution was based on a design that had been holistically tested to the onerous EN 1364-4 method and certified by an accredited body. The tested system comprised a stick curtain wall, Siderise CWFS120 Curtain Wall Firestops with two layers of Siderise CW-FB Curtain Wall Fireboard protecting the spandrel. This UAE Fire and Life Safety Code compliant system achieves a 3-hour (EI 180) result for both the perimeter firestop and spandrel panel.

Since this project only required a 1-hour fire resistance for the spandrel it was possible, via Engineering Judgement, to reduce the spandrel protection to a single layer of Siderise CW-FB and still deliver the desired performance, while Siderise CWFS120 was able to exceed the required 2-hour fire rating for the floor-to-floor compartmentation. The Engineering Judgement was created in accordance with the certified EN 1364-4 system (EFR-17-U-000353) and Certifire CF563 third party approvals.

The project also used unique brackets that were face mounted, therefore required further protection against fire. To fulfil this requirement, Siderise CWFS120 was installed under and around the brackets with additional Siderise CW-FB fixed to the underside of the steel closer at the bracket location to enhance its insulation and integrity performance.

Siderise CW-FS120 was also used to provide vertical compartmentation.

Installation and inspection

The façade works started December 2020 and finished July 2022, with 8,500 glass panels installed in total. To ensure the Siderise perimeter fire barrier system will perform as expected in the event of a fire, it is imperative that it is installed as defined in the test report that informed its specification.

The Siderise UAE team worked closely with BESIX’s contractors, providing onsite training and guidance on the proper installation of the full spandrel protection system.

The quality of the installation was verified and documented through onsite inspections by our technical service engineers. These included detailed checks of the performance critical aspects of the installation such as product direction (vertical fibre orientation), compression, and tight jointing. All the respective notes and images have then been compiled into comprehensive reports, evidencing that the installation has been carried out to a high standard and in line with our recommendations.

Summary

As the first super-tall tower in the district, Uptown Tower 1 sets a tone of highly innovative design that prioritises safety and performance, without compromising on aesthetic flair. The Siderise perimeter fire protection system and complimentary technical support all helped to achieve all the project aims, ensuring that the passive f ire protection requirements were met efficiently, compliance was achieved, and the result was a building built to last.