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In Progress: Capital Gate by RMJM, Most leaning building in the world
Capital Gate, the iconic leaning building in Abu Dhabi, reached halfway point. The building, designed by international architects RMJM, will lean 18 degrees westward, 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
To make this possible, the central core of the building slants in the opposite direction to the lean of the structure, and it straightening as it grows. It sits on top of a 7-foot-deep concrete base with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel exoskeleton known as the diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 100 feet underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building.
A gigantic internal atrium, including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground, has been constructed on the 17th and 18th floors, the halfway point of the 35-story, 525-foot tall tower.
Capital Gate will house Abu Dhabi’s first Hyatt hotel – Hyatt at Capital Centre, a presidential-style luxury, 5-star hotel and will provide 200 hotel rooms for Abu Dhabi and will serve ADNEC’s (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company) visitors and exhibitors as well as international business and leisure travelers.
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47 comments »
I feel sorry for most critics on this website, it its obvious that the “Anything goes Era” already begun. Architecture has lost one of its basic principle for good, the infamous Forms Follows Function has become a choice for designing not THE choice of designing. Not that am against “FFF” but it certainly fail in containing and restraining architecture as intended. Architecture has always looked for the way to transcend its own history. Contemporary architecture it’s not the exception.
@ 16:08:78
one clearly stated ‘function’ of this building, is to out-lean the tower in piza…this form, s following that function.
I dont se “FFF” as the fundamental principle in architecutre, but does it make any sense to design a form that defies the law of gravity and the forces of the environtment that surrounds it only to have an elaborate hidden structural system that supports it?
Im shure it is possible to make a 500m cantilever but would that make a good design project in it self?
Why cant the world just get ower the desire to built super structures and start focusing on a sustainable future where we use minimal resources and do not work against the natural forces of our site.
да…
freaky arabians
Why to design simple if we can complicate? Why to apply common sense if there are other options? This is $Abu Dhabi$… may be this is the problem? The FFF is too simple for some “advanced” human minds.
its nice
it attempts to be an icon and i believe that it succeeds
the comment by “fico” is the best ever. In the land of copies, I never seem to find originality.
From the looks of the section on archgo, I do not feel that this building is “leaning” at all, let alone in the same context as Pisa. Plus, the buildings around The Tower at Pisa are much more significant than anything near this “leaning” tower.
I dont think that it is this “advanced human mind”, satirical or otherwise, but more that many of these cultures, China and India included, are increasing their middle classes at such alarming rates and as such these people want to consume; and this type of structure is a product. From a consumers point of view, I can analyze the effects of this consumption, but I cannot criticize for their progress due explicitly to our history. In nations where such large classes lived in “minimalist” environments for centuries, how can you blame them for change and perceived technological progress?
Alot of people criticized the work of modernist architects, but what period has become more influential to current ideals?
Will this become the same?
FYI… The whole “FFF” is the most prominent design principle for a good reason. Architects are designing a building for people to interact in. It also has to interact well with the environment. Saying that you don’t see “FFF” as a fundamental principle in design is disturbing!
I personaly have nothing against the building, but I’m thinking that a lot you guys should go back to Design I… If thats not where you already are.
Ryan, you are so incredibly and horrendously blinded to reality and knowledge, its a joke.
Arabs have been living in minimalist environments? Do you have any idea of what you’re talking about? The most intricate, geometrical and mathematicaly derived (paratmeric?) designs were the ones the arabs did, and they started the whole thing.
They have been living in incredibly exquisite environments for quite some time. I have experienced these countries and spaces first hand.
This whole dogma of going with these starchitect form/style/design is not for following any tradition or context nor in any way rebelling against their past.
Arabs are incredibly egoistic and have supreme pride, this competition amongst themselves is whats leading to this sort of architecture – who spends more, who builds the biggest, who builds the whatever-”est” is more supreme.
hence you see the tallest, smallest, biggest, longest, farthest, brightest, most leaning etc etc buildings in dubai and around.
“Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
I guess Wright didn’t mean any form.
Akin to Nimrod’s kingdom … don’t suppose there is an Arabic version? Naah silly me.
the construction photo is a thousand times more intersting than the proposed final product. Perhaps it would be more intersting if it was not encased in a glass shell.
Maybee it will lean so much it will eventually fall and will be gratefull…goodbye dubai
This is architecture that money can achieve, arabs=money, and lets be honest one of the things that define architecture is money.
Very masculine and verile.
It succeeds at being an icon? Seriously?
This is Not going to be an icon like Piza, The Berlin TV tower, Eifel Tower, Empire State Building, Sears Tower, etc.
I bet this is the last time you will see this building. Maybe once more when it is completed.
It is absurd. I mean they had to do so many gymnastics and jump through so many burning hoops just to make the tower lean. They should have just built a straight tower and spent all that extra money on sustainable features – ground source heating and cooling, solar panels, rain water collection, or at least planted trees to offset all the carbon emissions.
Seriously this shit makes me mad. More people should have the moral conviction of Howard Roark and blow up some of these monstrosities.
“Most leaning building in the world”
more wankery.. pointless building.
me alegro que alguien escriba en español no siempre en ingles ingles… me encanta este edificio
Como dice “The chavacano” “esta es arquitectura que el dinero puede lograr”. Ya es hora que nos comencemos a dar cuenta que la arquitectura es una consecuencia y no una causa. Es una consecuencia de la actividad humana en el planeta, y es esta la que está definida en parte por el “dinero”.
Like “the chavacano” says, this is architecture that money can achieve. It´s time that we start realizing that architecture is a consecuence, not a cause. Its a concecuence of human activity on the planet, and this activity is the one that is defined by “money”
This is not the world most leaning building, it might be the most skewed building, but it is not leaning, not one little bit! There is a big difference between lean and skew!
Interesting, but pointless. The building isn’t leaning at all, as others have pointed out. It APPEARS to be leaning because of the way the outer skin has been designed.
Comparing it to the Tower of Pisa is inappropriate as the Tower has sunken into it’s foundations and is really leaning. Believe me, I’ve been on the top and it’s feels extremely wierd!
Every day I see examples of architecture like this – architecture that is designed SOLELY to show off the “talent” of the architect and not to actually follow a specific function, not to fit into it’s surroundings but clearly designed purely to gain attention and show off in some way – usually to win awards for the architect concerned.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are playgrounds for this type of architecture as there seems to be more money than taste over there, even now.
Let’s get back to some truth in architecture.
Let’s all live in dull soul-less boxes forever and whilst we’re about it, bricks are all perfectly usable so lets stick to them, and now we have electric who needs windows to light rooms….
Why not build something that looks different to the typical? Why should outdated and formulaic precepts like Form follows function, which to my mind never really worked as a maxim dictate the future, where 360 degrees of possibility are an achievable dream!
It is as hideous as any other building in Dubai!
The final result in Abu Dhabi will be an Architectural Disney World.
“Here we can hear all around us in the crowd incredulous passer-by expressing their great astonishment by a “wow it leans!” exclamation. FLW, Abu Dhabi for CNN International”
Mmmmh by the way, isn’t Montreal olympic stadium tower leaning much more?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Stadium_(Montreal)#Facts_and_figures
the severe moralizing coming across in the comments on this article sickens me.
FFF is just one, narrow, way in which to approach architecture (though not necessarily incorrect or bad). This building obviously doesn’t ascribe to FFF (nor does any other sky scraper – unless defining function not programatically but structurally). Nor does is ascribe to FLW’s view of form and function as one ( the program and the form are not correlated or codependent, the building is and the program is, they are not the same). This building is about creating shape and about it’s lean, and about trying to make that graceful. Personally, I would have preferred a structure that expresses its lean more (exposing and recognizing the structure that allows it to accomplish its goal), but the architect decided to take a more Baroque direction than modernist direction. I think this is a building that will need to be seen in person to gage whether the lean is significant, or if it is merely a feature of another tall skyscraper.
AS an ex RMJM person it saddens me to see the direction the firm is now taking, form for form’s sake does not represent the RMJM I used to know.
contract,furnitue
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