Façade Engineering Award of Excellence: ToHA Tower 1, Tel Aviv
Rami Bone
President & Chief Engineer
Aluminum Construction Group, Jerusalem
A Double-Skin and Automatic Solar Sensing Façade
Similar in shape to an iceberg, with each floor rotated relative to the floor, ToHa Tower 1 stands on three, seven-story legs, each containing the technical infrastructure of the building in order to liberate the roof for programming. Each floor in the building is separated from the rest by an insulated concrete slab covered with Dekton cladding. The depth of the concrete slab varies from floor to floor, from a minimum of 500 millimeters to a maximum size of 2,500 millimeters. The mechanical floors are also cladded with Dekton in a X-shape geometry that allows air transitions as required for technical floors. The building has an entrance atrium that rises to the entire height of the building. The top of the atrium has a skylight which allows natural light, in addition to two sides of cable walls that rise to a height and width of 25 meters, which also allow natural light to enter the atrium space.
The façade combines a unitized double-skin closed cavity façade (CCF) with a screen system that combines a reflective, diffusing fabric, which can move up and down as well as automatically track the sun, offering significant savings in energy expenses. The system enables each tenant to control the curtain's setting and the tracking system resets every night. The dry air flow system provides dry air differentially only to the floors and façades where sensors indicate potential for condensation. When excess pressure is created inside the cavity this pressure is released through a one-way valve located at the bottom of the module. Two trapezoidal cable walls form a vertical incline of 9.5 and 10.8 angle degrees, respectively. Laminated glass is printed for the purpose of optimal radiation distribution.
