Doha Convention Center

The Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Qatar is a new congress centre designed to strengthen the economic importance of the Gulf state in the Middle East. The centre was designed by Helmut Jahn in close collaboration with Werner Sobek, who conceived the cable facade described here. The outstanding feature of the building is an extremely transparent rope façade on the south side.

Minimal Supporting Structure Thanks to Horizontal Prestressing

The facade absorbs wind loads through horizontally running, pre-tensioned stainless steel cables. The cables have a diameter of 28 mm. They span up to 180 m between two vertical, arch-like beams.

An important goal of the planning was to reduce horizontal deformations (and resulting twists in the glass panes) to an absolute minimum, which was a particular challenge in view of the large spans.