TEKLA’s advanced technology has helped build a ‘gravity-defying’ tower in Abu Dhabi that has four times the inclination of Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa, the company said.

The Finland-based software company said Tekla Structures BIM (building information modelling) software has been used to design Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company’s (Adnec) 35-storey and 160-m-high leaning tower in the UAE capital, due for completion next year.
Engineers have created an 18-degree westward lean – using diagrid structures that are aligned geometrically using the software.
Tekla Structures software has been used to model some of the world’s most recent iconic buildings. It allows for gravity-defying architectural designs to be created using three-dimensional modelling. Three-dimensional coordinates for each diagrid component are calculated using the software that ensures seamless integration and assembly of the frame and supporting beams.
“Tekla solutions help craft even the most complicated designs and Capital Gate is yet another example of Tekla’s ability to help design and model iconic marvels,” said Tahir Sharif, managing director, Tekla Middle East.
Other iconic structures around the world that have used diagrid and Tekla technology include Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium, the Hearst Tower in New York, Abu Dhabi’s Aldar headquarters and the Swiss Re (Gherkin) building in London.
Tekla Structures provides an accurate, dynamic, and data-rich 3D environment that can be shared by contractors, structural engineers, steel detailers and fabricators as well as concrete detailers and manufacturers, said Sharif.
 The Capital Gate tower reached its final height in October this year, when it was topped out at 160 m.
Designed by global architects RMJM, the tower forms the focal point of the Capital Centre development, a Dh8-billion ($2.18 billion) business and residential micro city being constructed around Adnec’s exhibition centre.
Capital Gate will house Abu Dhabi's first Hyatt hotel – Hyatt at Capital Centre, a presidential-style luxury five-star hotel, which will provide 189 hotel rooms for visitors and exhibitors at Adnec, as well as international business and leisure travellers.
Level 18 of the tower will feature a cantilevered tea lounge, which projects out over the eastern portion of the facade, on top of which will be an open sun terrace and pool with a sweeping view of Abu Dhabi and the Gulf.
Due to its unique shape, Capital Gate is being constructed on top of a concrete raft with a dense mesh of reinforced steel.
The tower’s complex steel diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 30 m underground to accommodate gravitational, wind and seismic pressures.