‘Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is a fantastic and unique building which was perfect for the CIAT Award’ enthuses Neil Kee ACIAT, a graduate Architectural Technologist who was a pivotal member of the team on the project. ‘I am over the moon and extremely excited; winning this Award is good for Benoy, good for Ferrari World and good for CIAT.’

Ferrari World is the world’s largest indoor theme park which houses amusement rides and entertainment which celebrates the world famous sports car manufacturer. The amusements include the Formula Rossa ride which boosts a top speed of 240km/h which it can reach within 4.9 seconds, making it the fastest ride on the planet. 

It’s not only the rides that are impressive; the sheer scale of the building has to be seen to be believed. The space frame roof (again, the largest ever constructed) is clad in the internationally recognisable Ferrari red and silver and if stood on its end, would be the largest man made structure in the world at over 300 floors tall. To put that in perspective, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa at 828m high only has 168 floors! 

The Ferrari World location is equally impressive, Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Construction has been on-going on the island since 2007 and it now has a world class portfolio of completed projects; Yas Marina Formula 1 Circuit, seven hotels including the Yas Marina Hotel, island wide infrastructure including underwater tunnel links to the neighbouring Raha Beach development, Yas Links (the region’s first  golf course), Yas Retail and Ferrari World.  

The majority of the projects were all delivered ahead of the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November 2009, which for such a large construction programme is extremely impressive.

‘The perimeter of the building is approximately 1km, so we had to think very carefully about our detailing and material choices’ recalls Neil. ‘My favourite part of the project is the double curve eaves detail which takes its language from the Ferrari 250GT. The detail itself was very simple, and the uninterrupted form of the ‘sweep’ is characteristically deeply rooted within Ferrari culture.’  

The main internal space sits under the ‘central shield’ structure. The central space consists of three main floor levels; Undercroft (parking, service etc), Plaza (attractions) and Mezzanine (attractions). The plaza floor hosts the majority of the attractions with the major rides being located within stand-alone reinforced concrete ‘boxes’. 

Creating such a prestigious structure in a different country was a challenge in itself. ‘We worked with various construction regulations and diverse cultural standards which sometimes made a solution difficult to reach. We had to focus very hard on the job in task in order to maintain quality at every level’ continues Neil. ‘The space frame structure is extremely complicated with over 170,000 steel members and the team had to consider every detail before allowing construction to commence to ensure the concept would be delivered’. 

The main shield roof (Ferrari red area) is constructed using a simple aluminium standing seam method of construction. However, due to the complicated logistics of the construction site, a bespoke insitu standing seam rolling machine was commissioned and used. This gave the builders the capability to role one sheet of aluminium to a length of 80m. The standing seam build up is supported by the top nodes of the space frame roof and has a u-value of 0.18w/m2k.  

The space frame roof is supported via two rows of concentric column grids with the clear spans totalling up to 60m. The spaceframe ‘beams’ are designed using a traditional Arabic 12-star pattern and lead your eye towards the self supporting spaceframe central funnel.  

The roof structure is completely independent of the central ‘funnel’ and the external ‘triform’ areas. This separation had to occur because the movement in the aluminium and steel structure is vast, due to the heat loads it is constantly under. ‘I remember walking on that roof during the construction period at the height of summer and I am sure it was getting close to 65 degrees!’ jokes Neil. 

‘The Benoy team recognised that a building with such huge volume and climatic location would be difficult, if not impossible to design to a carbon neutral standard’ Neil says, ‘however, we ensured that from the outset passive and active sustainable design methods were incorporated into the concept.’

Neil continues, ‘we designed with high levels of thermal insulation in all locations to reduce heat gain. Passive solar shading ‘ribs’ were incorporated into the façade design; the façade was then inclined to reduce direct solar gains. Rainwater and grey water collection services have been installed and ENVAC waste collection and recycling has also been incorporated. Sustainability was always going to be an issue with this project but we identified this from the outset so that we could minimise the building’s impact on the environment.’ 

Neil proudly exclaims that Ferrari World Abu Dhabi ‘exceeded Aldar’s (the client) expectations and I am astounded at how closely the finished building resembles the very first concept sketches!’ ‘This project was perfect for me because I love learning how things go together and incorporating  new construction technologies’ continues Neil ‘this whole project was full of technical inputs and maintaining the balance between the technicality of the construction and the elegant curves of Ferrari which was the key to the success of Ferrari World.’  

To the northwest, northeast and southern extremities of the Ferrari experience exists three individual roof structures know as tri-forms. Within the northern tri-forms there are two world class roller coasters. The Fiorano GT challenge ride with is a dual track coaster which allows the users to race each other and then the mighty Formula Rossa which is the fastest roller coast in the world. The southern triform sits directly behind the F1 main hairpin and is a world-class music gig area, ‘one of the non-construction highlights of the project was when I heard Kings of Leon warming up before the F1 race last year; it was quality!’ 

Neil is currently working on his POP Record and aims to become a Chartered Architectural Technologist soon. He has recently been relocated to the Hong Kong office of Benoy where he is currently working on a mixed use developments in Vietnam, South Korea and China. 

I shall leave the final words to Neil. ‘It has been a great two years working on this project and we are delighted to receive international recognition for all of our efforts. The CIAT Award for Technical Excellence is something I have always strived towards and I am personally “chuffed to bits” to have worked on a project that it has been awarded to. ‘