THE e18hteen is an eye-catching, futuristic commercial building that offers luxury services, amenities, and dedicated facilities to its tenant companies. This 36-floor high-rise is an international class (A) office building designed for a specific site in the Marina District of the new Lusail City Development Doha. Overlooking the turquoise Arabian Gulf, the silhouette of THE e18hteen tower recalls a Qtari dhow, a typical sailing boat. The architectural features of the tower mimic a sail, perfectly blending with the elegant marine environment of Lusail City, quietly asserting its elegance and roots in the city.
The lighting team approached the spatial experience of the property with a focus to create drama and allow the local organic cultural backgrounds to unfold providing a comfort level that ensures it is a space worth experiencing.
The character and texture of the lighting takes its inspiration from the reflection of a sail on the sea, or the silhouette of a sail in the calm waters in early morning light. The faceted geometry of the “sail” is echoed by the diagonal lines of light zigzagging across the main façade. Geometric diagonal elements extend from top to bottom to create clean yet expressive visual lines. Gradient luminaires follow this diagonal “zipper” to create a striking skyline view.
The goal of the project was to create a low-resolution media façade to display video content, while integrating unobtrusive lighting fixtures into the existing architecture. A bespoke LED fitting was engineered and installed in the interspace behind the windows delivering the illusion of a massive, uninterrupted screen. The main challenge of this project was the varying window dimensions, the random inclined windowsills and the mandatory homogeneous indirect light effect.
Mixing flexible design solutions with smart engineering applications, the results were outstanding, and in full compliance with the strict illumination and “noise” pollution levels defined by the local district regulations.
Over 2.000 custom linear LED modules with independent pixel control were engineered and manufactured in Italy to meet the design specifications and site requirements. Another 400 linear dynamic white light profiles, supplied to enhance the sea-wave patterns of the kinetic panels on the podium, and an additional array of 600W floodlights complete the all-round choreography. The intelligent light management system provides for the comprehensive and user-friendly control of the personalized video graphics and animations.
