Gulf Construction Online - Apartments don folcra’s facades

Limestone House

Folcra Beach ... well delivered.

Apartments don folcra’s facades

01 April 2010

THE imposing glass and aluminium façade of the Ritz-Carlton/Limestone House hotel and apartments is the workmanship of Folcra Beach, which was awarded the contract in April 2007 for the project.

Under the deal, the UAE-based company was involved with the design, fabrication, supply and installation of aluminium glazing and cladding for the striking development, which is now close to completion.
“We have completed nearly 99 per cent of works,” says Marwan Naaman, general manager of Folcra Beach. “The remaining works are scheduled for completion by the month-end.”
Detailing the works carried out by Folcra Beach under the contract, he says: “We supplied and installed 13,709 sq m of glazed façade from Reynaers, Belgium, and Emirates Glass, Dubai.”
In addition, it has supplied glass for the 10-storey waterfall that cascades down the building.
The company also supplied 11,128 sq m of aluminium composite cladding sourced from Etalbond of Greece, 1,920 sq m louvred windows and doors from Gulf Extrusions’ Abu Dhabi branch and 442 sq m of spider glazing.
All systems required for the project had to have acoustic and airtight properties to meet the requirements of the five-star project, Naaman adds.
Folcra Beach is an aluminium and glazing contractor specialised in the field of design, manufacture and installation of building envelopes and modern architectural facades to meet the architectural intent of its clients.
“We have successfully completed many of the most challenging and technically complicated façade projects in the UAE by utilising our wide technical expertise and by adopting the most modern methods of fabrication, manufacture and installation in the world,” says Naaman.
“Furthermore, due to our recent partnership with Dubai Investments and M’sharie, we are now a part of a team of more than 40 industry-related companies focused on glass processing, aluminium extrusion, stainless steel and steel fabrication and many other sectors, providing us with an invaluable logistical advantage in executing our projects to the requirements of our clients and on schedule,” he adds.
Folcra Beach was set up at the height of the global architectural movement towards structural glazing and curtain-walling, according to Naaman.
He elaborates: “Pioneering masters such as Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with Le Corbusier – stimulated by the design flexibility afforded by technological innovations – laid the foundations of modern architecture, and were instrumental in establishing a building concept based on a functional and organic separation between the load-bearing structure and the outer skin of the façade.
“The freeing of the skin of the building from its traditional role as a load-bearing wall, made it possible to develop the concepts of an opening or large window running the full length and height of each floor, as required by contemporary architecture.
“Folcra Beach was set up at the height of the modern movement and its aim has always been to develop state-of-the-art technology by systematically and consistently incorporating the latest innovations in applied technique into its architectural products in order to provide architects with the right support system, ranging from information, calculations and tests at the design stage, to manufacture and assembly in our factories and subsequent installation on site at the construction stage.
“This philosophy has meant that in order to progress from the techniques and materials used in conventional or first-generation curtain walls, to the more sophisticated ones used in successive generations – such as curtain-walls made of structural silicone, suspended from cables or glass elements, or those incorporating ventilation and air-conditioning – the evolution of technology itself has had to be consolidated by studying the micro-behaviour of the different components. This has involved a wide range of tests in our laboratories, and establishing the macro-behaviour of the curtain-wall as a whole through complex calculations using the finite element aggregation system.”
Folcra Beach has been involved in some of the most important construction projects in the UAE, Middle East and in Europe.
“Over the years, its projects bear testimony to its focus on meeting the challenge of continuous innovation with responsibility. A philosophy of this kind calls for an extraordinary team of engineers and highly-qualified staff and considerable industrial resources, and most importantly the trust and support of our customers,” he concludes.