The new campus provides a unique and distinctive learning facility for the United Arab Emirates’ capital city.
Abu Dhabi’s Zayed University represents an impressive addition to Pascall+Watson’s Education portfolio.
The university offers a contemporary learning environment for up to 6,000 students, including lecture theatres, seminar rooms, sports facilities, a library and the largest convention centre in the Middle East. The facilities are arranged as a series of individual structures clustered around a central core.
The location, in the desert on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi City, provided very little context. Consequently, in order to ground the campus and create a sense of place, the central core is framed by an elaborate undulating solar shading device.
While the complex geometry of this central area necessitated it be built in situ, the majority of the twenty-six individual buildings were designed as prefabricated units to dramatically reduce site construction time as well as delivering safety, quality and cost benefits.
