Thermal Comfort in Open-Air Shopping Malls: Combined Use of Retractable Shading and Air Conditioning Systems in Qatar West Walk Mall...
12.09.2024
Thermal Comfort in Open-Air Shopping Malls:
Combined Use of Retractable Shading and Air Conditioning Systems in Qatar West Walk Mall...
Combined Use of Retractable Shading and Air Conditioning Systems in Qatar West Walk Mall...
Although sunny days and spending time outdoors are enjoyable, rising temperatures often bring with them a sweltering atmosphere.
While the negative effects of global warming due to climate change continue to be discussed all over the world, experts say that hotter days await us in the coming years. While the situation is like this in Turkey, we cannot even think of Qatar, a Middle Eastern country with a hot desert climate...
In Qatar, especially in the summer months, temperatures exceeding 40 degrees during the day become hard to bear when combined with humidity. In Qatar, where the perceived temperature is very high, locals and tourists prefer to stay away from the open air and prefer indoor spaces such as malls for food, shopping and entertainment. So, is it not possible to benefit from the open air?
There are also shopping malls with walking paths in Qatar that aim to provide their customers with more benefit from the open air. These shopping malls, which create cold or climate-controlled streets for their customers with outdoor air conditioners, offer thermal comfort to their customers and also extend their shopping hours.
Reducing High Operating Costs in Open-Air Shopping Malls
Commercial establishments such as hotels, cafes, restaurants, and shopping malls
, especially those that provide services to tourism, are valuable building blocks for a country's economy. While these facilities contribute to the country's economy, they also face high energy costs for actions such as lighting, heating, and cooling.In order to reduce costs and provide more thermal comfort in open area shopping malls, air conditioning professionals recommend using air conditioning systems together with shading systems.
Shading systems integrated into open area shopping malls block sunlight and prevent direct solar heat from entering the area. The combined use of these two systems provides a more balanced and comfortable temperature, while reducing the energy load of air conditioners and reducing operating costs.
Qatar West Walk Shopping Mall / Cable Supported-Retractable-Folding-Fabric Roof System Project:
A Joint Venture of Tensaflex & LDC Lighting Design Company
Qatar West Walk Shopping Mall is a multi-dimensional destination established in the Al Wahab region of Qatar, offering a contemporary lifestyle for business people and leisure visitors with its luxury apartments, offices, restaurants, cinema, shopping and entertainment opportunities.
Qatar West Walk Shopping Centre, which draws attention with its open spaces and long walking paths, plans to offer its customers a comfortable and enjoyable shopping experience without being overwhelmed by the extreme heat. The company that will air-condition the open areas of the shopping centre has suggested that supporting the air-conditioning system with a shading system will increase thermal comfort.
Our company Tensaflex, which offers solutions in the field of retractable roofs and kinetic facades, started negotiations with the shopping mall management with the reference of LDC - Lighting Design company. After the development of the appropriate project solution, we created 3D animations showing the working principle of the system and presented them to our customer.
The cable-supported, retractable shading system project, which includes an optimum budget proposal; a system consisting of a total of 35 modules, 4 m wide, 36 m and 57 m long. The project, which will be installed from building to building, will cover a total of 7,000 m2 of open space. Stainless steel ropes and fire and glow resistant PVC, B1 class fabrics were preferred for a long-lasting structure in the project.
Retractable Shading Systems: An Alternative Instead of Stationary Shading Systems
Qatar West Walk Shopping Mall project was implemented with retractable shading systems, which are an innovative alternative to stationary shading systems. reason for choosing a retractable shading system instead of stationary systems in the project was to provide shading with its closed form during the day and to preserve the open-air concept of the shopping mall with its open form at night.
The second reason for choosing a retractable system was the wind speed in the region. The shading system should be built in a way that would not disrupt the aesthetic appearance of the buildings. For this reason, it was suggested that the system be connected to the facades of the buildings, but as a result of the static analyses, if the wind speed in the region exceeded 40 km/h, the stationary systems could create serious forces on the buildings through the connection points and the buildings could not carry these loads.
The wind sensors in the cable-supported, retractable shading system will ensure that the system is automatically folded and collected at wind speeds of up to 40 km/h, and thus the maximum load that the buildings can carry will not be exceeded.
Considering the sensitivities of the project, retractable module mock-up with exact scale, was made before production in order to see all the details in the system. After the approval for the mock-up, the production phase for the entire system was started. The system was produced in Tensaflex's factory in Tekirdag/Malkara. The project was completed in 8 months, including system production and assembly.
System Assembly in a 24/7 Working Shopping Mall...
7,000 m2 area was covered in the project consisting of 35 modules of 36 m and 57 m length. During the project, approximately 10 local and foreign suppliers were worked with for material supply.
The parts of the products manufactured at the Tensaflex Factory were assembled in a workshop in the Lusail Region of Qatar. The parts were assembled and transported to the shopping mall using 500-ton cranes installed outside the shopping mall.
The systems were assembled by a team of 60 people from LDC - Lighting Design Company, Asset and Agora. The steel assembly, stainless steel carrier rope assembly, mechanical and engine assembly of the project, which was led by LDC, was completed under the supervision of Tensaflex.
West Walk Shopping Mall is a shopping mall that is open day and night. The fact that no business in the shopping mall stopped their operations during the operations, the shopping mall was visited actively, the environment was not a construction site and the need to keep the sound during the installation to a minimum due to the residences in the shopping mall were the conditions that made the installation process difficult. In the project where high work safety measures were taken, the process was completed without any problems.
Open-Air Shopping Mall Concept, Thermal Comfort, High Customer Satisfaction...
The extra benefits offered by a retractable shading system to the customer are always available.
With a retractable shading system, you always have the opportunity to be protected from the sunandsee the sky. With the retractable roof system, the sky experience will be under your control whenever youwant and as much as you want. If you wish, completely automated systems can also be installed.In the Qatar West Walk Shopping Mall Project, the sun and wind sensors used to elimate human control and works completely with automation. In this retractable shading system that automatically adjusts itself according to the weather conditions, customers comfortably complete their shopping without being aware of any air conditioning system around. In addition, thanks to the fact that the system engines can be connected to the BMS (Building Management System) through automation, any malfunction that may occur can be sent as a warning to the shopping mall management.
With this system, Qatar West Walk Mall has maintained its open-air shopping mall concept while providing thermal comfort to its customers, raising customer satisfaction to higher levels. Another benefit our customer has gained after the project is being able to perform light shows on the fabric roof in the evenings.
Cable-Supported, Folding Shading Systems Adaptable to All Scales
Cable-supported, folding shading systems used in the Qatar West Walk AVM Project are retractable systems that meet the shading needs of facilities and areas with wide openings such as shopping malls, concert and event areas, pool covering and walking street covering. Cable-supported systems, which are generally used in retractable roof and shading systems and are an efficient and effective method, can also be scaled for small areas such as residences etc. upon request.
