Bahrain skyscraper wins top award

The Bahrain World Trade Centre (BWTC) has been named the best tall building in the Middle East and Africa region for 2008 by The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).

With only four building awards made annually, the BWTC joins the likes of Renzo Piano’s The New York Times Building, Norman Foster’s 51 Lime Street in London, and Kohn Pedersen Fox’s Shanghai World Financial Centre in the list of winners this year.

Being the world’s first incorporation of large-scale wind turbines makes the BWTC a giant leap forward in the future of carbon critical design and puts Bahrain at the vanguard of pioneering architecture, judges said.

Timothy Johnson, CTBUH Awards Committee chairman, said: “The Bahrain World Trade Centre has achieved an exceptionally high standard of excellence and quality in the realisation of built form.

"Moreover, the environmentally responsible elements incorporated into the building’s construction are helping drive the emergence of new methods to preserve urban quality of life for future generations.”

Designed and engineered by Atkins, the BWTC is the world’s first commercial building to harness wind power for energy with the incorporation of large-scale wind turbines. Three, 29-metre diameter wind turbines will generate up to 15 percent of the two towers’ electrical requirements.

The 2008 Best Tall Building Awards recognise projects that have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment, and that achieve sustainability at the highest and broadest level.

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