18th Edition – Zak World of Façades UAE

After the huge success of the 2015 Inaugural season, Zak World of Façades Middle East was back in Dubai for its second season, making it the biggest congregation of the façade market experts in the UAE. The third edition of the Zak World of Facades Middle East took place on the 14th March 2016 at The Oberoi Hotel in Dubai. The event had gathered 300+ attendees comprising some of the top architects, consultants, façade contractors, developers and representatives from the Dubai Municipality. The single day event had featured 30 speakers and panelists.

The event was convened by Alex Dantziguian from Technoform. The first session opening speech was delivered by Micha Pawelka from Priedemann who spoke about the need of having a specialist façade consultant on a project and the benefits of of having them. This was followed by the morning keynote delivered by Janus Rostock from Atkins who spoke about designing façades keeping pedestrian comfort in mind and the case study of the Dubai Opera House district. Monish Aidasani from Jotun then presented on the era and evolution of powder coatings in the Middle East and the session end with a networking break.

The second session featured a presentation by Lucio Blandini from Werner Sobek on minimalistic façade design and futuristic façade concepts. This was followed by a presentation by Karim Maalouli of Emirates Glass speaking on the limitations and challenges in glass processing in the Middle East. The special keynote for the day was delivered by Raj Patel from KEO who spoke on the case studies of few of the region’s largest projects namely the Kuwait Investment Authority Building, Qatar Petroleum District and the Paramount Towers. The session ended with a panel discussion on fire safety in façades which discussed the proposed new fire code by the Dubai Civil Defense which raked up a lot of interesting questions from the audience which were taken keenly by the panelists.

The third session post lunch kicked off with a presentation by Abdulmajid Karanouh from Ramboll speaking on context inspired design innovation with case studies of the North Souks project in Beirut by Zaha Hadid and thier other key projects in the region. This was followed by an exclusive session on façade acoustics which first feature a presentation by Bernhard Koll from Kuraray who spoke about acoustic sound dampening through PVB interlayers and then a presentation by Mike Carrick from Siderise on acoustic inserts for cavity barriers and mullions. This session ended with a panel discussion on acoustics in façade focusing on the new Dubai Municipality regulation on acoustics by members of the Middle East Acoustic Society (MEAS) and the session end with another networking break.

The final session for the day started by a presentation on coating warranties and standards by Yannis Angelis from Elval Colour followed by a presentation on innovative fixing systems by Paul Tsalokhin from Hilti and the conference ended by a very interesting and engaging panel discussion on understanding façade process management with expert views from a façade consultant, architect and façade contractor.

The third edition of the Zak World of Facades Middle East in Dubai was stupendous success and was highly appreciated for its content, key decision makers who attended the event, ambience, networking break-out sessions and more importantly imparting the knowledge about the latest innovations in façades and upcoming fire safety codes in the UAE.