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Al Rostamini Headquarters / MAD
Architects: MAD
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Director in Charge: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun
Site Area: 4,392 sqm
Constructed Area: 50,000 sqm
Program: Office Headquarters
Client: Al Rostamini Group Ltd
Images: MAD
The site for the Al Rostamini group headquarters is a long waterfront within the central business area of Dubai. Rather than creating a traditional big office block on this site, and severing the water from the public, we wanted to build something above it.
Our concept is a thin slab, which hovers above the waterfront. This gives every office a view over the water, and frees up the ground level, allowing the public direct access to enjoy the waterfront.
The slab is lifted by nine diagonal tubes, voids within the structure. These tubes pierce the rear of the building, with four traveling through to appear as holes on the building’s front façade. The tubes travel through floors in different locations, creating a variety of different sized, undulating spaces within the building. These spaces correspond to the diverse uses of a headquarters office building.
The tubes also act as the method of circulation within the building: individual tubes transport the user to different floors. A lush forest is planted where these supporting tubes touch the floor. Thus a soft landscape of trees gives way to the hard landscape of the waterfront, and the reflective landscape of the water itself.
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- section 02
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- section 01
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- interior diagram
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- site plan
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64 comments »
nice project. I have a comment though concerning the image (and with that a lot of images I see from other dubai-projects). It is untrue to show public spaces full of Arabs, or Arabs directing on foot towards buildings. The Arabs in Dubai don’t walk, they just leave the mercedes to ender the building. I am not blaming them, due to the high temperature it is not possible to stand a minute outdoors. Let’s be accurate though.
I like it when crazy-fuck ideas like tubes and doublecurved stuff, merge with totally normal typologies.
I really like it. It is not boring in any sense. It’s not for the swiss this one, it’s moving on.
its a mac
I’m sure the people at Arup are drooling all over this thing.
WTF ?!?
What a good thing Dubai is in the Desert, with a bit of luck, we will just lose them in a sand storm…
Dubai = Las Vegas 2.0 ???
Who will be the next Venturi???
BAD KARMA. or MAD KARMA? why to go against the nature?
love the concept.
Great structures…..!!!
This is Tomorrow….!!!!
Ornette Coleman
simply ilarious
It’s not so left field that I don’t like it, but it sure would be interesting to see IF this is possible. I’m a little thrown off by the tubes though. Seems like the design would much cleaner without them because of the sleekness and the thin attributes of the building. Would have like to see a much cleaner structural pattern/design for that floating effect. Other than that, I really like this project.
that is all.
Cole, If that’s tomorrow, lets just die now… I think it is yesterday, just like so many of this recent architecture, it doesn’t treat any of the aspirations and issues of our society, it just abuses the technical possibilities to push forward the ‘60 and ‘70 futuristic designs, but without their most interesting component: the utopian vision.
This mad capitalistic orgy of material looks straight out of a 1970s Sci-Fi comic-book on life in the year 2000, …but less good.
DO IT.
Fino, you would like it without the tubes? just kind of have the building hover in mid air? Yeah that is possible.
Because I love my comic books, books on Star Wars, Aliens, and a good dose of sci-fi action … and wishing they can all be rea … I love those renderings especially Section 01.
If this is going to be a reality, then challenging “dose of reality” questions will need to be asked. No doubt MAD is fully competent and their client are willing to realise such an ambition, there has to be good grounding for this approach to building. No one (unless there IS “someone” in Area 51) has escaped the laws of Newton yet. DMJB’s “London Eye” proves that structures like these are not beyond consideration.
So, just the simple ones then: you say “frees up the ground level, allowing the public direct access to enjoy the waterfront” … do you mean shifting the supports to the side? Although I can see the “stylish softening” … isn’t it equally obtrusive? The more acutely angled “vein” structures joining the “structural plate” of the building seems troublesome. They’re not really circulation, more elaborate lifts/escalators entrances case within the structural elements which only deposit people at specific points. Whilst the diagrammatic distribution of support for a horizontal mass is relatively easy to understand, can it be as easily applied to the same mass vertically without a complete reconfiguration of the supports?
I hope this isn’t the fancy version of the “Crane rooms” (I’m still laughing) …. and I truly hope this will become a reality. The Kingdom of UAE awaits those that succeed … or something like that.
Concept of something strong holding up a normal building with arranged like that, think its lala, ok. But my question is, why do they have to “show off” by making them tubes and make this “see through” effect in the middle of the tube, like they’re saying “Look, it’s ALSO hollow on the inside!!!”. Seems like in Dubai that the first thing they want to pop up in our head is “Wow, is that really possible?”, instead of “Wow, this is beautiful”
I’m I missing something or are there no stairs or elevators ? I guess it’s just more MADturbation. Nice drawings though.
Concept is nice and the section is beautiful. The beauty of this project is it attempts to be not much more than a floating box, and a structure to support it. Kind of like Mediatheque in that sense.
Oddly it is the purity and simplicy of the dumb, boxy tower that makes this scheme work. A complex, articulated box would just dilute the whole thing. Reminds me of Rem’s essay on Bigness – this project wouldn’t be that interesting if the scale weren’t so large.
I’d only say the structure seems overly fussy, seems an attempt to amplify the tension between it and the box. Dumbing down the structure slightly would paradoxically make this project more interesting and convicing.
Nice work though.
@dustin
I said to re-evaluate another structural system for it to appear to be “floating”. Thought I was pretty clear about that.
that is all.
Why?……….. aaaah… got it!… it’s in Dubai… that’s alright then…
yes people, dubai is the architects playground, let them play… cmon have fun!
its beautiful but again its impractical, how can the whole building sustain when its major poles which are holding them are HOLLOW!? WHAT THE!? I dont know man, seriously these architects have to consider its practicality as well ,not mere beauty. Maybe most of the cost of the building were spent for engineering lol. The engineers gets the credit for building this, not the MAD architects.lol
I do like what those tubes do on the inside of the building, but it’s all aesthetics and no practical considerations as far as I can tell.
When this thing is built and falls over, could this become the magnificent tombstone to Starchitecture?
funky building … all about the funk!
These Dubai projects make me mad.
Unrealistically , absurd structure, but impressive.
why make it so damn hard when simple pilotis will do???
Bo Lucky, you’ve really nailed it this time !
Maybe just like Las Vegas was allowed to concentrate vice, we could give Dubai some sort of “licence to kill any common sense” thus legalising thus growing trend for architectural insanity, hoping to limit the spread of the pandemic. ;-)
But seriously, apart from the fact that no one was stupid enough to do it before, where is the interest?
[I guess you could also ask that to Ken Edwards, current World Record holder for the biggest-number-of-cockroaches-eaten-in-one-minute, ...36 for those who needed to know ;-) ]
I mean seriously, do you find this beautiful? It is supposed to be about a light and floating element, but its NOT, look at the damn thing, it looks like a collapsed tree after a storm, it’s obese with excessive material. It looks wonky and stressed, like a fruit-tree about to snap under the weight of too many apples…
I think of it as some sort of cancerous tumour, growing out of the pure volume of what could otherwise be a very beautiful building, sucking up all its energy, developing its tentacle-like roots, gradually strangling the building, and letting it die in architectural agony.
…OK I guess I’m getting “a bit” carried away here, but I can’t help asking myself whether the fact that we CAN do it is a good enough reason to WANT to de it…
Afterthought: Do you think they could recycle the shape for a new IMac design???
id love to hang out in this building. maybe im strange but normal buildings suck…
it’s alright..more could be done
like it but…
what about having a 4-floor basement parking just near to the lake ??
it is a costly project but this could duble the cost by the time they waste a big area for only the tubes.
This morning I ate natto with rice for breakfast, looks similar but much cheaper… nah just kidding…
but, why if they design something like that… why don’t just leave it suspended over the water… I mean if they got the money, and so near from the water. The building is suspended just near but not over; they are not allowed to build over the street right? so then what? let the water comming in under the street?
Come on, I don’t want to have a feeling of “much more could be done” if they are actually trying to build something like this…
If they want too mess it up, do it for real, so much structural effort only to “almost” do something…
i like how dubai is almost like a testing ground somewhat testing and pushing the limits of buildings with their surfeit of funds. other than that theres nothing impressive about arch in dubai
A day will come when Dubai will stop being the leader in architectural innovation, and when that day comes it will turn into a building graveyard. This is not a timeless city. In 50 years the majority of the buildings in Dubai, like this one, will be outdated and mocked. This generation needs more buildings that will be interesting and beautiful today and for our grandchildren as well, the way it is going though, I believe our grandchildren will open up their history books and laugh.
The problem with this project is not that it’s ugly, but that it creates a problem where there shouldn’t have to be any. Please, pull the blindfold over our eyes with excessively expensive structure (which by the way is neither inviting nor ultimately that “light”). Corbusier would have done this with pilotis–conventional, sure, but much airier and cheaper, and far more effective than this sci-fi diagram.
The sad thing is, this is the kind of flash that passes as “daring” these days. I can’t wait for an architect to actually take Dubai seriously.
Really, “impressive” could be if it was build, renders have endless posibilities, i will love to see how this structure will be solve by the engineers.
DUSTIN, have you been to Dubai? There is NO architectural invention! Just lame copies of american skyscrabers or uk high/dead!tech (Burj Dubai is the best though it is not detailed proporly)
Dubai is the city for people who does’nt know any better..
Yeah Bo Lucky and Frederick, beautiful comments:)
It seems they try to carry thier concept (concept buzz alert) through in the least possible way, wich in some level of some reality suits Dubai just perfect.
I liked it better when the chinese was just copying stuff:)
Oh did I mention just how much I fucking loathe Dubai?
:)
yo homey, its Al Rostamani Group, not Rostamini.
НУ ЧЕ нармальный такой дом, МНЕ ннравится.
Call me when it is built.
Tim – what’s your phone number – lol
Dubai isn’t real. It’s all renderings. Seriously this is such horse shit.
If there is a fire and that core shown in the section is cut off, how you get out?
the idea is interesting, SHOULD be developed more, but I cannot stand the wierd opennings in the tube, and the arbitary form and placement of the tubes, moreover, the elevation of the building, see if the building was to stand using these tubes, don’t you think that these areas where the tubes are openned up are REALLLYY weak points where these tubes will likely collapse? and, I am really sick of outerspace architecture that takes nothing into consideration but crazy and insane ideas…
i see a mile long tubes in the ground just to handle the load of the cantilever… i guess they can always drill for oil and just use the same hole?
that is just cool idea … perfect …
what is architecture???????
what is architecture???????
do you know what books are????????
como se coportara ese edificio al sismo…..tiene q tener un buen calculo,no se esos tubos estan como tallos.tendria q analizar bien ese proyecto es muy interesante…
sad about that,
agree with Frederick, die now.
if this is the furture architecture , I dont know how to face it.
cool
Nice images,
Stupid idea.
where is the function in the form. Is it designed just to show that it was hard to design? Something different to be different? Its difinately unique, I think the organic shapes would serve better in an environment with hills or mountains.
the tubes could be used as slider so the arabs could have some fun.
Just imagine that while you are at work, to take the bus you go down a giant slider, that woulded be so nice.
the coment about Venturi was everything one can say.
let’s not blame everything on architecture
Maybe I’m missing something, but are those giant pedestrian shadows hanging out just beneath the building on the first rendering?
Frederick, no personal problem, but..
im seeek about people like u,
whiy we dont just stop do new things, take off the dust to the vitruvius book, and make agan classic architecture?
What hell is that?
Unrealistically , expensive structure, mixt of straws and emmental cheese?.
Just impressive, but no sense.
I was under the impression the company was called Al Rostamani and not Rostamini….love the building just hope they get the company name right when they come to that…
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