Stratavault provides green surrounds for innovative Butterfly Building in Dubai
The Butterfly Building, owned by TECOM Investments, is an exciting innovation in office developments. Consisting of two interconnected office buildings located in the heart of the Dubai Media City and Dubai Internet City, this newly-completed development offers 255,000 square feet of world-class facilities and infrastructure, tailored office space, and a spacious outdoor landscape, designed by Verdaus Landscape Architects and enhanced by Citygreen’s Stratavault.
James Palmer, Sales Manager Landscape at W T Burden, said, “The project is a commercial office building located in the heart of new Dubai in the knowledge village and internet city community. With limited green landscaping on the project, our objective was to create an area of shade and give the concrete and glass structure integration into the surroundings.
“The main challenge on the project was to create space for tree root growth between the concrete slab below and the hard landscape above. The hardscape above also needed to be adequately supported to prevent compaction, movement, and disruption to the paving finish whilst also providing enough un-compacted soil volume for the trees to be able to grow and reach maturity.
“Citygreen’s Stratavault was used to overcome all the issues, providing 10 cubic metres of soil volume for each of the 13 Delonix trees and enough support for the hardscape. Stratavault was a proven method for this situation and with onsite assistance from myself, the contractor – Orient Irrigation Services LLC – was able to create the tree pits very quickly and with confidence. Citygreen also offered close support throughout the project.
“Whilst the project is still very new, the trees are growing as we would expect with the correct volume of un-compacted soil. Once the trees are established and mature they will give a real function to the external hardscape area where people can enjoy the shade whilst taking calls or having a break.”
Laith Wark, Founding Partner of Verdaus Landscape Architects, said, “We feel confident working with Citygreen who have long-term experience in providing products for urban tree planting. When working in regions largely unfamiliar with these urban tree planting systems, back up from experienced people is essential. We design landscapes in cities with one of the hottest climates in the world, with summer temperatures touching on 50 degrees C. We see large urban trees as extremely valuable towards creating more comfortable micro-climates and extending the period where being outdoors is comfortable. There has been a surge in public realm projects with outdoor dining and recreational spaces. It is easy to understand how large urban trees creating comfortable micro-climates will translate to higher revenue for these venues.”