D1, Residential skyscraper in Culture Village, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
D1 is a 284-metre residential skyscraper of 80 floors in Culture Village, Jaddaf Waterfront, Dubai. Its pale grey-blue glass curtain wall forms a dense grid of rectangular panes, with a vertical seam running up the centre-front and a diagonal line cutting across the cladding near the upper third. The tower holds 526 apartments, from studios to six-bedroom penthouses on the highest floors.
D1 was developed by Enshaa, which had bought the project from Emirates Sunland Group, as a joint venture of Dubai Properties Group and Emirates Sunland Group, with Holford Associates providing the architectural framework. Construction started in 2007 and the tower was ready for handover in 2015. The original design included a spire that would have raised the total height to 350 metres, but it was not built; the completed structure stands 284 metres tall.
The timber canopy around the base takes its form from the dhow trading boats once built on this site. Designed by Innovarchi under Ken McBryde and Stephanie Smith, it creates a shaded threshold between the air-conditioned interior and the hot exterior, and mediates between the scale of the nearby freeway, the precinct and the pedestrian.
D1 stands beside the Palazzo Versace Dubai on the Jaddaf Waterfront in Culture Village, so it is reached on foot from the neighbouring hotel and waterfront promenade. The tower is residential, with 526 apartments, and its lobby and upper floors are not open to sightseers. The best views of the curved glass curtain wall are from the street and the waterfront below.
D1 is the sister tower of Q1 in Gold Coast, Australia, and the two are often compared: Q1 reaches 275 m at roof level with a spire to 323 m, while D1 has a taller roof at 284 m but no spire, though its original design included one that would have brought it to 350 m.
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