Completed in 2023 on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, Atlantis The Royal is a 43-storey hospitality and residential complex designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), with IBI Group as lead architect. Its architecture is organised as a series of stacked and shifted volumes, creating terraces, sky courts and large openings throughout the 500-metre-long structure.
Rather than treating the façade as a continuous sealed envelope, the design uses the separation between the individual volumes as an architectural and environmental strategy. The resulting spaces allow light and air to move through the building, while terraces, landscaping and water provide shading and cooling.
The scale of the building envelope is substantial. Approximately 90,000 m² of glass were incorporated into the project, alongside 24,976 m² of balcony balustrades. The façade package included approximately 40,283 m² of stick curtain wall, together with unitised glazing, sliding doors, fixed and operable windows, aluminium cladding and other envelope elements.
One of the more technically demanding elements was the custom glazing system developed for the project. The ATLAS/Omicron system accommodated exceptionally large openings, with individual leaves reaching up to 3 metres high and 7 metres wide. Glass thicknesses ranged from approximately 30 to 54 mm, depending on the application. 
The façade was also subjected to demanding performance testing. Air permeability and water-tightness tests were conducted at 600 Pa, while wind-resistance testing reached 2,750 Pa, with façade deflection limited to L/175.
Solar control was approached through the architecture as much as through the glass specification. Deeply recessed glazing, cantilevered terraces and GFRC brise-soleil help reduce direct solar exposure, allowing the design to use clear, low-reflectivity glazing rather than relying entirely on heavily tinted glass.
Glass also becomes part of the interior experience. The Deluge features cylindrical glass elevators surrounded by cascading water, while the Firefalls combine reflective glass surfaces, flowing water and programmable fire.
Source: KPF with additional information added by Glass Balkan
