SOM058

United Gulf Bank

Design/Completion 1982/1987 Manama, Bahrain United Gulf Bank 98,000 square feet Steel frame

Precast concrete, glass

This 12-story office building located in the Diplomatic Quarter is responsive to the physical, climatological and cultural conditions of its context. The curved facade mediates between the public realm of the Street and the private realm of the bank. A three-story arcade at ground level shields pedestrians from the harsh sun, dust, and noise of the Street, echoing the regional vocabulary of arcades and shaded streets.

Windows are deeply recessed in the exterior wali. Vertical green glass fms, oriented north-south, effectively intercept lower east and west sunlight, evoking the mashrebeeyah, the indigenous latticed sunscreen. Open office areas surround a 10-story atrium, bridged by glass błock terraces that allow daylight to penetrate into all interior spaces. External light is admitted to the atrium through a pattern of narrow slots in the thick north-east wali.

1    View from the east

2    Section through the atrium

3    Level 10 plan

4    Tapestry of United Gulf Bank

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