By Nour Tohme, Beirut, Lebanon, 961-1-973333, tohmen@pbsarl.com or tohmen@pbworld.com

PB’s entry in the tender competition to design the Qatar Broadcasting Services Complex embodied the State of Qatar’s expectations of a landmark facility—one that highlighted the pioneering spirit through its performance as a broadcasting center and its distinction as a design work. Our architectural concept was aimed at:

• Reflecting communication development, which has overcome social, political, and technical borders and ultimately has no limits, and a visionary expression of future communication technologies
• Reconciling high performance requirements, high architectural aspirations and robust use during the life of the building
• Representing the communication process and its unique outcome, whereby the image that comes across TV screens is a serene reflection of a complex working process involving humans and technology.

Our design was based on separate functional building blocks designed to give the appearance of unity and to function as a whole. The complex comprises more than 143 000 m2 (1.5 million square feet).

The Scheme and Geometry

The scheme and the geometry were based on a series of grids with rectangular or circular shapes creating the dissociated blocks. These blocks were aligned according to vectors based on the angle of the two main intersecting roads delineating the site and opening up towards Doha Bay, which can be seen from the headquarters building. The dissociated blocks were grouped under similar roofs extending down to the floor in a curved structure, thus creating a visual harmony with the vertical curved screens of the headquarters building.

In the design we used a flexible armature, which has an organic shape in contrast to the linear rectangular blocks. On one side of the building a curved roof interacts with the rectangular volumes by completing it and creating interesting green open spaces; on the other side, the shell embraces the volumes of the multiple studios, creating naturally lit circulation spaces (Figure 1).

Building Components

The building blocks were grouped into a single complex radiating from the atrium, and topped by the headquarters building. The h eadquarters building is 15 storeys tall and the other build ings vary from 1 to 3 storeys, following the slope of the curved metal shell.

Figure 1: Architectural concept showing:(left) curved shell of the lower building and openness of taller headquarters building which is shaped like the prows of a dhow boat; and (right) how curves shapes interact with rectangular volumes.

The Atrium. The main circulation hall is the 10-m (33-foot) -high atrium, which is the crossing point between vertical and horizontal circulation. The atrium is the meeting point for communal activities, an extension to the main cafeteria and an area for exhibition. It features an indoor garden interacting with outdoor landscaped gardens. The transparency between the atrium and the other building blocks allows the public to view the key activities (master control room, newsroom and the sports news and studio). Security is ensured through various controlled points, with each block having its own.

The Headquarters Building. This is the vertical landmark of the complex. Its shape is like the prows of a dhow boat pointing out to the sky, with two wings linked by a vertical atrium allocated for circulation. The building has interior flexible partitions that can be adjusted according to functional needs, and it has a very light skin to emphasize its dramatic position overlooking Doha Bay.

The News Center. The heart of daily communication, the newsroom and the auxiliary offices are situated in an open space and service the TV and radio news studios. The volume of the shell creates an internal microclimate garden overlooked by the open spaces and the internal circulation. The greenery fence acts as a screen between the harsh outdoor space and the working areas.

The Radio and TV Studios. These studios include the radio center, sports TV channel, and the TV center. Producing images and sounds on TV screens or sounds on radios is a multi-phase process that requires various types of functions and separate spaces that work independently but are, in fact, intertwined. A series of offices, edit and graphics rooms and technical spaces complement the studios and the control rooms.

The Multipurpose Hall. This building is accessible directly from the visitor’s parking through an internal street that separates it from the news center. A cafeteria, which could be transformed into a reception area, opens directly to the external space. The multipurpose hall has also a VIP lounge and balcony overlooking the hall.

The Out-Broadcasting and Maintenance Center. The out-broadcasting center houses six to seven out-broadcasting TV vans and four smaller radio vans. The maintenance center wor kshops are used mainly to service the studios and the out broadcasting vehicles. These areas are located along the service road running along the back of the studios. The maintenance space is in the basement and is easily accessible through the vertical service lifts.

Parking. The two-level, 950-space parking area is located in the back of the site. An opening through the slab is designed as a continuation to landscaped water features. The parking area has two main entrances and exits. Employees walk up the staircases or use the lifts and travel through a cooled glass tunnel overlooking the garden and leading to the atrium.

External Finishes and Materials

Steel and Glass. Steel offered new structural possibilities and enabled us to create the rhythmic, curved lines of the complex. The exposed steel structure with exposed, rounded air-conditioning ducts running under the metal cover were effective constructional images if not entirely structurally honest (in some places we added steel to keep the required architectural rhythm).

Nowadays, glass is the complementary material of steel, with steel acting as the skeleton and glass as the skin. Glass can be very flexible and could be shaped and cut in accordance to the geometry of our design. It reflects, attracts, changes colors and adapts to the harsh environment. If used vertically it can even be a structural element. Its features and variety pushed us to choose it as the perfect skin to much of the building.

Stone and Aluminum. We prop osed two materi als to cover the different blocks internally and externally—stone cladding for the lower buildings and aluminum cladding for the headquarters building. Both materials will be seen in the atrium and in the main circulation ways running between the blocks. The shell creates these internal roads, and the blocks were conceived to create the effect of internal street facades. The stone we chose has the color of the desert with some grey pigment added to it. It is extracted from the rocky mountains of Jordan and has a natural rough texture. For contrast, the aluminum cladding would give a smooth texture to the headquarters building and would match well with the glass layers of the facades.

Technical Aspects

Digital broadcasting centers are complex and sophisticated facilities that require specific provisions in terms of electrical power, lighting, acoustics, air conditioning and infrastructure. Some of the solutions we incorporated to specific challenges included the following:

• Electricity. We anticipated the broadcasting stations would function 24 hours a day year round with few interruptions if any, so we designed a no-fail power supply with a back up system that will perform in the event of equipment failure or during maintenance. In addition to being redundant, it incorporates a method of removing any disturbances, such as surges, spikes, or other interferences.
• Acoustics. Box in the box, also known as room within a room, was used for the studios and control rooms to achieve the required sound transmission rating.
• Air conditioning. We specified a system that uses chilled beams or induction supply air beams located in the radio studios and control rooms in lieu of the normal fan coil. The main advantage of the chilled beam is that it is very quiet. The induced air enters the beam from the room and is discharged through slots back into the room, so the air does not enter the ceiling void and we do not need to connect to the external room space. In the equipment rooms we used plenum floor systems. The main consideration in a building of this type is access for cables.
• Service tunnel. We designed a service tunnel to link the technical cabling circuit from the central technical area to the different apparatus rooms and the main communication room, and to isolate the circuit from the other ones. In most technical areas we used raised floors to provide a maximum flexibility for future technical development. The rooms through which the transmission flow occurs are located as close as possible (on top of each other) to reduce the distance and length of the cables.
• Drainage. Rainfall in Doha is very rare, occurring only 2-3 hours two to three days a year; but is very intense, with about 70 mm to 80 mm (2.75 inches to 3.25 inches) falling in a very short period. When it rains, it floods because of this intensity and because the soil is very dry. The storm water system had to be designed accordingly. Working with the Qatar drainage department, our solution was to have soaker trenches around the site to collect the storm water from roofs and landscaped areas. We also provided two in ground water tanks connected to the local main water system to supply the building and fire protection system. Our design allowed for connections to the main storm system when it is provided by the government in the future.

Lessons Learned and Observations

All PB staff who worked on this project learned about a new technology—broadcasting. We learned about detailed coordination, with the teams being spread in four countries. We learned that the client and the procurement system can influence our detail design presentation and specifications, and we learned to design for flexibility and new technologies.

It is very difficult to work and coordinate design development between teams located in different countries with different working days, particularly when working on a very tight time schedule. The client’s system for submissions was that all disciplines had to submit their designs at the same time. With a project of this size, time for coordination was not enough. We tried our best to meet before each submission, but due to distance and time, doing so was almost impossible. In fact, I recommend the architectural design be developed before other designs, and then time be allocated to coordinate and prepare the design criteria of the structure and the electro-mechanical designs. On this project we had to adapt the structure and the shaft locations as well as the room locations to suit the needs of the broadcasting technology.

With this suggested approach, time needs to be allocated also to prepare the documents to be submitted, and to coordinate and check them again before submitting. Another way would be to exchange more documents via the Intranet, highlight the areas of concern, and meet to finalize the documents. Often we have very tight time schedule, and we must be willing to work under these conditions if we are to win such a job.¹

Conclusion