
Nexus Tower WAF Commercial Skyscraper of the Year 2024
Commercial
Dubai, UAE 2024
The Breathing Skyscraper
Nexus Tower
Client
Al Futtaim Group
Floor Area
148,000 m²
Duration
62 months
Status
Completed
Nexus Tower reframes the skyscraper typology for a desert city. Rather than hermetically sealing its interior against the heat, the building's diagrid exoskeleton acts as a secondary climate envelope — channeling prevailing winds through a 4-metre gap between the structural cage and the inner glazed facade. This passive stack effect reduces mechanical cooling loads by 34%, earning the tower the region's first Platinum LEED certification for a structure exceeding 300 metres.
The structural geometry was derived from a computational wind study of 800 site scenarios. The resulting form — a gentle anticlastic curve tapering toward a cantilevered crown — proved both aerodynamically optimal and formally distinctive against Dubai's skyline.

Nexus Tower — Site Photography, 2024
Recognition
Nexus Tower WAF Commercial Skyscraper of the Year 2024
Disciplines
—Architecture
— Structural Design
— Environmental Eng.
— Landscape
ARKTIS
Architecture & Technology Studio
We build structures that stand at the edge of what is technically possible and humanly necessary.
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