Corus Building Systems, which offers a wide range of roofing and façade solutions, is currently handling the roofing works on what is expected to be the world’s biggest mall.

The Jebel Ali-based company is installing more than 60,000 sq m of Kalzip roofing for the Dubai Mall, which is taking shape in the vicinity of Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building.
Thanks to the growing demand for quality roofing systems in the Middle East’s booming construction market, Corus Building Systems has installed about 2 million sq m of Kalzip roofing and cladding systems in the region since the company set up its UAE office in 1977, says Michaal Knudsen, regional general manager of Kalzip Systems, Middle East.
The company’s biggest project to date has been the roofing of the air wing hangars of Dubai International Airport in 2004 – which involved a whopping 91,000 sq m of its systems. Other prominent projects include the ski slope of the Mall of the Emirates which was covered in 2005 with 23,200 sq m of Kalzip roofing, the sports hall building of Khalifa Sports City where 62,000 sq m of roofing was installed and the futuristic Nad Al Sheba millennium grandstand (8,000 sq m).
Corus Building Systems manufactures aluminium roof and cladding solutions under the brand name Kalzip, an industrially-prefabricated aluminium standing seam system. The system provides a wide range of roof and façade solutions for public buildings, airports and transport terminals, commercial buildings, stadia, exhibition halls, sports and leisure centres, public utilities, industrial and residential buildings, retail shops and stores, besides refurbishment of any type of buildings.
“This highly sophisticated, lightweight building system is extremely flexible and can be precisely adapted to suit the requirements of a building,” explains a spokesman for the company. “Special clips are used to attach the Kalzip profiles to the structure. These clips are locked into the seam and overlapped by the Kalzip element so that the fixing elements are hidden under the roof. The roof skin is not punctured by any fixing elements and also offers superior thermal and acoustic insulation as it is a complete insulation system”
Kalzip has been used worldwide as a roof and wall cladding system for buildings of all kinds for close to four decades.
The Kalzip Business Unit of Corus Buildings Systems entered the Middle East market in 1977 with a representative office in Dubai. Four years later, the company constructed its first mobile tapered roll former in the region to supply projects in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
Today, its roofing systems have covered various projects not only in the UAE, but also in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and several African countries.
Qatar has used about 200,000 sq m of the Kalzip roofing systems, followed by Saudi Arabia (55,000 sq m), Kuwait and Bahrain (both with 50,000 sq m), Iran (35,000), Oman (22,000) and Lebanon (13,000).
“Aluminium has proved to be a good roofing material and early applications of this metal as a roofing material date back to the end of the 19th century, when the dome of a Roman church, San Gioacchino, was clad with aluminium sheets. Today the roof is still intact after more than a century. The manifold constructive and design features of aluminium have succeeded in the whole field of architecture,” the spokesman says.
Kalzip highly-insulated roofing and wall cladding systems provide excellent protection against weathering for today’s advanced buildings. Additionally, the system is also suited for the refurbishment of old buildings in their original style, its major strengths being its longevity and maintenance-free characteristics.
Elaborating on the product and the various systems offered, he says: “As a mature further development of the workmanlike standing seam roof to an industrially prefabricated, quickly-to-assemble system, Kalzip is specially suited as a roofing for shallow deckings. The proven Kalzip system-kit offers a wide scope for different shapes and excels by its range of accessories coping with each and every requirement such as roof penetrations and skylights, supplementary elements for the ridge, eaves and gable end areas, lighting elements, soakers, form fillers, clamping sections and steps.
Among the systems offered by Corus are:
• Kalzip ProDach-Roof, an all-round-solution offering high quality in design and functional aspects and safety. It is a combination of bead-less Kalzip AF profiled sheets and walkable rockwool Prorock insulating boards resulting in optimised safety and durability. The system includes stainless steel fixing rails and self-tapping stainless steel screws, making the installation easy. The continuous flat bead-less surface of the Kalzip AF profiled sheets produces a seemly and elegant surface and even smaller buildings can be fitted with well-proportioned aluminium roofing.
• Kalzip AluPlusZinc – a symbiosis of two long-time proven timeless materials, aluminium and zinc – comprises zinc-patented aluminium profiled sheets which are based on the Kalzip aluminium standing seam roofing system. The aesthetic appeal of zinc patina opens the way for a whole new area of applications for Kalzip – being especially suited for subtle integration with existing buildings of more traditional construction. In addition, the smooth surface with typical zinc colour variations of the profile makes it ideal for wall cladding and for use on smaller residential projects.