The world's first turning "Timepiece" building, 55ºTime Dubai™, is to break ground in the City of Arabia this year.

Having achieved Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA)Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) approvals and established an HSBC Escrow account (in keeping with Dubai real estate law), the official launch of the tower is scheduled for January 2009, price to start at 7000Aed /sqft,

55? Time Dubai™ will be the first fully rotating building built on earth and one of 24 planned for major cities in each of the world's time zones by property development company Dubai Property Ring Ltd.

General Manager - Projects, Sunil Chawla says Dubai-based Kulkarni Project Management Consultancy have been appointed as Project Managers, with P&T Architects as the structure and construction team. "Contractors have been short listed to begin the process of building the unique structure in the cooler season," says Chawla.

Combining sophisticated design (including 14m wide panoramic windows) with advanced, solar-powered rotation technology, 55ºTime Dubai™ has already won the CNBC Arabia Best High Rise architecture award for the design by British architect Glenn Howells, who designed the apartments in a timeless style and space in an attempt to ensure they are an asset that will appreciate, rather than age, over time. Driven by solar power, the whole structure will rotate at just one centimetre (0.4 inches) per minute (or 51.43º in 24 hours), imperceptible to occupants, leaving them to enjoy a panoramic 360º view over the course of a week, the movement is as precise as a timepiece.

Gautaum Kulkarni of Kulkarni Project Management Consultancy says this is much more significant than the rotating floor technology, or restaurant platform technology, seen in the past.

A patented technology which supersedes any other rotational technology seen in the past: "Moving the whole building as one piece is an engineering feat in itself and combining this with the environmentally-friendly, solar-powered drive makes this a structure for the new millennium and beyond," he says.

World-renowned rotation specialist Nick Cooper of Bennett's Associates is the project patron and developer of the internationally patented rotation concepts that will turn the building. Recognised for his work on such projects as the sub-sea drilling equipment for the Channel Tunnel, Glasgow's turning bridge (the Falkirk Wheel) and, most recently, his air-wing on the world's largest passenger aircraft the luxury A380 Airbus, Cooper says 55ºTimeDubai™ posed new challenges."We had to design a machine that was energy efficient, with precision engineering in mind, but also make sure that it would be serviceable to move the building for the life of the superstructure," he says."The movement of the machine is to complement the tower's elegant look, with everything designed to balance and mathematically fit. The patented mechanism is also adaptable to carry taller buildings in line with other Timepiece projects being designed globally."

Dubai Property Ring Managing Director, Tav Singh, says planning of 55ºTimeDubai™ has been underway since late 2004 and an initial public announcement under the working title of "Time Residences" was made in November 2006. However, the buildings will now officially be named under the 360?TimeWorld™ brand according to their longitudinal position (reflecting the importance of longitude in calculating universal time)."For example, future buildings will be named as 0?TimeLondon, 2?TimeParis and 77?TimeDelhi and each will be designed specifically to suit its city's skyline," Singh says. The vision is for all of these buildings to move around the earth in complete synchronisation, creating a global Timepiece ring that links international minds, elevating consciousness in the physical realm.

Dubbed "the most expensive timepiece in the world", 55ºTime Dubai™ is an architectural icon that will change the city skylines as each day passes. "It's no longer about just living in the city, it's now about living with the whole city in a moving masterpiece that enables you to experience a new sunrise, a new day, a new dusk and a new night every 24 hours," says Singh.

Location, views and space, have long been the parameters for determining the value of property. These Timepiece buildings enable people to maximise those qualities to enjoy a complete living experience in a building that reflects the growing importance of leisure time.

The 360°TimeWorld roll-out programme in other cities is already in its planning stages, as turning Timepiece buildings become a reality in Dubai.

An international development company is behind 24 luxury, eco-powered, precision-engineered and fully rotating "Timepiece" towers, to be constructed in major cities around the globe.

The company is the initiative of a business network of investors. 360ºTimeWorld director Mr Tav Singh is the main co-ordinator for the Timepiece tower construction projects with locally-based development and construction companies in each city, beginning with 55ºTimeDubai™, which is due for structural completion in 2010.

Nick Cooper, Managing Director of Bennett Associates is the rotation expert and patron of 360? TimeWorld™. The patented rotation technology is central to the Timepiece tower concept.

-Ends-

About 55ºTimeDubai™
55ºTimeDubai™ is the first of 24 luxury, fully rotating Timepiece towers to be constructed in major cities around the globe. The residential tower is precision-engineered to rotate precisely 360º every seven days.

The signature Timepiece towers will enable onlookers to tell the time as external building markers line up with landscape markings. Due for structural completion in 2011, the revolutionary 55ºTimeDubai™ is being built under license by Dubai Property Ring Ltd issued by 360º TimeWorld™.

Dubai-based James Abbot of P&T construction Architects and project managers Gautam Kulkarni of KPMC are the key construction contacts for the construction management 55ºTimeDubai™.

For more information please contact:
Phone: +971 4 3688450,
Mobile: +971 50 1602832
email nancy@lemonadz.com

© Press Release 2008

 

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