Foster + Partners has revealed how it used an integrated and technology-driven approach to designing the distinctive quartet of Lusail Towers in Qatar.
The complex project, in which the four towers frame a new 1.1 million-square-metre central business district in Lusail City is on a demandingly fast schedule.
Luke Fox, head of studio at Foster + Partners, said: “The complexity of the project and the compressed timescales meant that the exchange of information between architects, engineers and other consultants needed to be almost instantaneous. From the outset, we established an innovative approach by creating a single platform that communicated design changes in real-time, enabling our integrated team work cohesively and at speed.”
The team deployed an in-house software system called Hermes that coordinates design data for the project and facilitates sharing of this data in real time across different applications, disciplines, organisations and locations around the world.
Using specially created plug-ins for the different software applications used by architects, engineers and other consultants, design changes made by one group are instantly be available to the digital models being used by others.
The project is part of a larger masterplan also designed by Foster + Partners, which carried out the architectural and environmental design, plus structural and MEP engineering for the entire project.
Located at the end of the grand boulevard that links the new football stadium (for the 2022 World Cup) to the corniche, the two taller towers stand at 70 storeys, while the other two are 50-storeys-high, all arranged around a plaza.
Image: Foster + Partners
