A UAE-headquartered façade provider has been named for Saudi Arabia's Sail Tower project in Jeddah.
Al Rajhi Building Solutions Group (ARBSP) announced that Cladtech International, a civil engineering and construction company, had won Al Saad General Contracting Company's contract to manufacture and install curtain wall façades for Sail Tower.
Overlooking the Red Sea, Sail Tower is a 60-storey building that will comprise 242 luxury hotel rooms, 104 serviced apartments, and parking spaces for 600 cars upon completion.
Commenting on the contract award, Dr Khalid Al Rajhi, chairman of ARBSP, said: "We are proud to be part of this mega-project, which will play a key role in the efforts to enhance Jeddah's business and investment environment.
"This contract win also demonstrates our commitment towards fostering strategic partnerships with companies like Al Saad General Contracting Company."
The fundamentals of façade selection are changing in the Middle East, as regional construction outfits opt for systems that may boost their facility's sustainability performance.
Belarmino Cordero, division manager for façades at AESG, a UAE-based consultancy, said positive regulatory effort was among the key drivers of innovation in the façade design sector.
"One of the main influencers of change is regulation – whether this involves new standards that are being implemented or old ones that are modified," Cordero told Construction Week this October.
"Examples of these efforts include the use of building information modelling (BIM) being made mandatory for architects, new fire and life safety codes that impose more restrictions on materials and testing, and regulations demanding the use of thermal breaks."
Cordero noted that awareness about "the sustainability aspects of façades, as well as [their] performance, quality, and durability" was also increasing across the Middle East.
He continued: "We also see that building envelope commissioning is now being demanded from design through to construction stages.
"More and more, computational technology such as BIM and parametric design for façade optimisation is now being introduced to façade design."