The Bahrain World Trade Center (BWTC) has been named the Best Tall Building in the Middle East and Africa for 2008 by the world’s leading body dedicated to the field of tall buildings, The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), at an awards ceremony held last month in Chicago, US.

The 2008 ‘Best Tall Building Awards’ recognises projects that have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment, and that achieve sustainability at the highest and broadest level.
These awards recognise one outstanding tall building from each of four geographical regions: the Americas, Europe, Middle East/Africa, and Asia/Australia. The accolade means the BWTC project will be showcased in the CTBUH ‘Tall Building’ museum in New York. Being the world’s first incorporation of large-scale wind turbines makes the BWTC a giant leap forward in the future of carbon critical design and puts Bahrain at the vanguard of pioneering architecture.
Timothy Johnson, CTBUH Awards committee chairman and design partner with NBBJ comments: “The BWTC has achieved an exceptionally high standard of excellence and quality in the realisation of built form. Moreover, the environmentally responsible elements incorporated into the building’s construction are helping drive the emergence of new methods to preserve urban quality of life for future generations.”
Atkins architect, Shaun Killa, was officially presented with the trophy at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Designed and engineered by Atkins, the BWTC is the world’s first commercial building to harness wind power for energy with the incorporation of large-scale wind turbines. Three, 29-m-diameter wind turbines will generate up to 15 per cent of the two towers’ electrical requirements.