“Note: While great efforts have been taken to provide accurate and complete information on the pages of CPEP, please be aware that the information contained herewith is considered a work‐in‐progress for this thesis project. Modifications and changes related to the original building designs and construction methodologies for this senior thesis project are solely the interpretation of Hamad Alrahmani. Changes and discrepancies in no way imply that the original design contained errors or was flawed. Differing assumptions, code references, requirements, and methodologies have been incorporated into this thesis project; therefore, investigation results may vary from the original design.”
Buildings Statistics:
Project Team:
A/E: AJ Design
G/C: Ali Moosa & Sons Contracting
HVAC: AMS Contracting-MEP Division
Super-Structure Designer: Freysinnet
Landscaping Works: Lea
The Project:
History: The Site was previously occupied
by Ajman Traffic Department, and this is
where the name comes from, since Murur
means Traffic.
Size: 2,300,000 Square Feet
Delivery: Design-Bid-Build
Cost: 600 million AED = 164.4 million USD
The Buildings:
The project has a shopping mall and 2 towers
The residential tower is 20 floors + penthouse
The office tower is 26 floors
The shopping mall is 3 floors
Total parking spaces are 1,357 spaces
3 Basement Parking + 2 upper level parking
Architecture:
Murur Mixed-use Complex is being built in a very modern country. The United Arab Emirates is a very young country and has started building skyscrapers very late. Almost all of the buildings in the United Arab Emirates have a modern style, and the most modern style around the world nowadays is glass curtain walls.
The exterior of the buildings will be beige stone cladding and blue mirrored glass curtain wall. The stone cladding is artificial stones, to maintain best quality and desired color.
The Project has 3 levels of underground parking. The first three levels above the ground are the shopping mall. The shopping mall like most of the malls in the United Arab Emirates have high-end finishes including marble for flooring, architectural columns, and decorated ceilings.
Two additional parking levels are on top of the shopping mall. The residential and office towers are located on top of the mall and parking levels. The residential tower is 20 floors with 2 floors on penthouse on top. The office tower is the highest stucture of the project with 26 floors.
Coding and Historical requirements:
The British Standards are practiced on the Murur Complex project, and usually most of the porjects in the United Arab Emirates practice the british codes. Examples of the codes used on the project are:
BS 8110 and ASI 318 for concrete design,
BS 5950 for steel design, and BS 4466-1989 for bar bending schedule.
The project is not located in a historical district and there are no historical requirements applicable on the project.
Roofing
The roof of the Murur Mixed-use Complex is a concrete slab that is topped by several layers of coatings and membrane. The roof is sloped by 1/100 slope. The finish surface of the roof is a 400mm x 400mm white aggregate concrete tiles. The figure below shows the typical roofing detail in the project.
Typical Roofing detail
The Systems:
Structural System:
The whole structure of the Murur Complex project is reinforced concrete. Different grades of concrete were used which are between 40Mpa to 70Mpa in concrete strength depending upon the design of structural element.
Substructure consists of friction pile foundation over which 2000mm (2m) thick R.C.C raft foundation to support the whole super structure. RCC is roller compacted concrete; it is a special blend of concrete that has the same ingredients as the conventional concrete but with different ratios. RCC is usually used in building water Dams and for the same reason they are used in this project in both the retaining walls, and the several water tanks in the project.
Mechanical System:
The HVAC system in the project is a central Air-Conditioning system where chilled water comes from the Federal Electricity and Water Authority’s distilled cooling plant. The heat exchanger room which is located on the podium deck from where the chilled water is circulated to the mall and to both residential and office towers. All of the HVAC equipment and all chilled water and fire fighting pump room is located on podium deck level.
There is also a fire fighting system on the project. The water tank for the fire fighting system is located in basement.
Electrical System:
Power will be delivered to the site by FEWA (Federal Electricity and Water Authority) at 240/415V, 3 phase, 4 wires, 50 Hz.
The transformers on the project are oil immersed MV/LV distribution transformers, of 2000 kVA. The transformers on this project will be provided by the client and so it will not be in the General Contactor’s scope of work.
The backup power generator is an Engine Generator of 1000 kVA capacity. It works on an Automatic Transfer Switch system which connects the standby generator to the buildings electrical system once the power is cut off from FEWA.
Cast in Place Concrete:
To support the side soil in the basement, the reinforced cement concrete shoring piles were used as well an R.C.C retaining wall.
All the underground parking floor slabs are conventional flat slab with drop at the columns. The structural slabs above ground floor are post tensioned.
Masonry Work:
Different sizes of masonry walls were used depending on the need at each area. All the interior walls are masonry walls, which is typical in the United Arab Emirates. The four sizes of walls are 100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm, and 250 mm thick walls. The type of blocks used was Lightweight Thermal Insulating Clay Blocks.
Curtain Wall:
White powder coated aluminum curtain wall frames, glazed panel system is used. The fixed double glazed aluminum curtain wall panel system consists of 6mm thick clear tempered glazing panel as an inner panel, a 12mm air gap is between the two panels, and 6mm thick High performance tinted tempered glazing panel is used as an outside panel.
Support of Excavation:
Since water level is only about 6 feet under the ground level, the contractor carried out the dewatering for around one and half years. R.C.C shoring piles were used in order to protect the side earth from falling during the foundation work.
Engineering Support Systems:
Fire Protection:
Any area that has material which may create a fire is considered as a fire zone. Those zones will be treated with fire protection materials to protect the surrounding area from from damages in case of a fire. Depending on the location, the materials used are either 1-hour, 2-hour, or 3-hour fire rated.
Fire alarms are used to warn the tennants from possible fires. A fire sprinklers system is used to stop any fire in its starting stage before the fire department gets to the location.
Transprotation:
Escalators in general are classified based on angles and widths. There are 2 different angles of escalators, 30 degrees or 35 degrees inclination. There are also 2 different widths of the escalators, 90 cm or 1 m. The escalators used in the shopping mall of the Murur project are the 1 meter wide, 30 degrees inclanation angle which are the safest and most comfortable for people to use.
On the other hand, elevators are classified based on its speeds and machine rooms. In the Murur Mixed-use Complex, the elevators for the office tower are high speed elevator with 3m/sec speed with machine rooms. While for the residential tower the speed is 2.5m/sec with machine rooms. In the shopping mall, the elevators are called panoramic lifts, which are machine-room less lifts.
Telecommunications:
The project will have an audio and video intercom system. All the telecommunications will be provided by Etisalat which is the major telecommunication company in the United Arab Emirates. All the wiring and telephone rooms' installation and termination will be done by a specialty contractor.
nd finishes including marble for flooring, architectural columns, and decorated ceilings.
