Doka formwork has led the way on Lagoon Plaza towers at Qatar’s West Bay – thought to be the world’s tallest ‘zig-zag’ towers – having helped the Qatar-based main contractor Al Seal Trading and Contracting company to ‘top out’ on schedule late last year.

Known locally as the ‘dancing towers’, the twin-tower Lagoon Plaza occupies a prime waterfront site in the Qatar capital. Uniquely designed, each 143-m-high tower will include 34 residential floors for a total of 748 luxurious apartments. The development will also feature a large shopping mall and many leisure facilities including swimming pools, saunas, Jacuzzis, coffee shops and restaurants.
From the launch of the project, the contractor recognised the need for a reliable formwork system for the project’s cores and shear walls – turning to Doka Qatar for approximately 4,000 sq m of formwork. Core walls on both towers have been cast using Doka’s Top 50 large area formwork system with the internal climbing platforms utilising telescopic shaft beams. Covering an 800 sq m area in each tower, the core walls vary in thickness from 250 to 800 mm. Casting the shear walls was achieved once again with Doka Top 50 and 150F climbing brackets for its external walls.
Al Seal achieved a 10-day floor cycle for each tower’s typical levels, casting half of the shear walls and slab at a time plus the core. Each floor also incorporated a steel deck slab system. Featuring a floor height of 3.9 m, the shear and core walls were cast 3.6 m high. The shear walls, which have a thickness varying between 300 mm to 400 mm, cover a total 1,210 sq m in each tower.
“Doka was able to overcome a difficult design feature of the shear walls construction where openings moved by 600 mm on each floor, in one direction for nine floors and reverting in the opposite direction for the next nine, continuing to the top floor. By using different lengths and combinations of Doka panels comprising the Top 50 system and 150F brackets, the contractor was able to meet the design specification,” points out Rodolfo Estrada, a spokesperson for Doka Qatar.
“One of the key reasons for choosing Doka formwork for this prestigious project was the product’s and supplier’s reliability,” says Ziad Jabor, construction manager of Al Seal Trading and Contracting. “The construction industry in Doha is buoyant and we have several projects. In order to complete them on time, we need a supplier such as Doka to support our delivery requirements.”
“Not only do we get our materials on time, we also take advantage of their technical expertise in the field, particularly for sophisticated structures such as the twin towers on the Lagoon Plaza project,” he adds.
MZ & Partners, a leading architectural and engineering consultancy in the region, was the architect and consultant. Work on the project started in February 2006 with a handover scheduled for this year.