16th Edition – Zak World of Façades Qatar

After the huge success of the inaugural Zak World of Façades Middle East earlier this year in Dubai, the second edition in the conference series took place on the 27th October 2015 at The Marriott Marquis in Doha, Qatar. The event had gathered 241 attendees comprising some of the region’s leading architects, façade consultants, glass processors, fire & life safety consultants, façade contractors, developers, PMC’s and representatives from the Qatar Civil Defence and ASHGHAL. The single day event had featured 27 speakers and panelists spread over four engaging sessions.

The opening keynote for the day was delivered by Lars Anders from Priedemann “The Future of Façade Consultancy / Engineering” which set the tone for the conference for the rest of the day; this was followed by other interesting case studies and technical presentations from some of the top consultants on diversified topics. The first half of the day ended with an interactive panel discussion on “Energy Codes, Ratings and Guidelines for Façades” in Qatar.

The afternoon session kicked off with the keynote presentation from Harald Halvorsen from Arabian Profiles, giving insights on GRC & GRP usage in the building envelope with a case study on the iconic Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan and also from some of the iconic projects in the region. The afternoon session came to an end with some interesting and very involved discussion on “Fire Safety in Façades” which featured official representation from the Qatar Civil Defence. The main focus of discussion on this panel was understanding the right choice of material for façades and the current regulations in Qatar and how to improve them.

The last session featured more presentations from our partners and consultants and the conference concluded with an interesting panel discussion on “Understanding Façade Process Management (FPM)”. The second edition of the Zak World of Façades Middle East Doha edition was well received for its content, level of attendees, ambience, networking break-out sessions and more importantly imparting the knowledge of designing aesthetic and fire safe façades in the state of Qatar.