Slanted at 6 degrees from the vertical, The Pad’s design is based on the iPod. Billed as the world’s first ‘cybertecture’ building, with its design inspired by the Apple iPod, The Pad is a twenty-three storey residential development in Dubai’s Business Bay.
In plan, the building is a slim rectangle finished with a semicircle at each short end, following the form of the iPod.
Every end-of-building residence will contain a revolving floor. Apartments are designed with ‘morphable’ furniture that reconfigures at the touch of a button.
Following the design to its logical conclusion, the building is designed with a 6 degree from vertical lateral slant, giving the impression of a ‘docked’ mp3 player. A sleek finish is achieved by a glazed aluminium façade extending 11m above roof level.
Ramboll has designed the structures, building services and façades. Our structural engineers worked hard to pare down the size of all structural members, producing a lean concrete frame founded on a raft below three basement levels. The vertical lift core, partially visible from the exterior, provides the structural backbone — to produce the tilt, all other structural members meet this core at an angle. Lateral movement is further contained by sheer walls towards both ends of the building.
Predicting long term movement was a central challenge. To meet this purpose, our designs were subject to intensive analysis, cross platform testing and peer review.
Our experts ensured the design seamlessly integrated across all engineering disciplines, standardizing aspects wherever possible for efficiency despite the highly individual nature of the client’s requirements. Our building services engineers contributed to the design of prefabricated bathroom pods and worked with our façades team to make smart use of the façade in distributing power and information throughout the building.