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ThyssenKrupp Elevator Competition / RSVP
Our friends from RSVP Architects just shared with us their proposal for the ThyssenKrupp Elevator competition in Za’abeel Park, Dubai. The tower seems to morph out of the water and into the air, creating a structure that acts as a monument during the day, and an icon during the night.
More images and further project description after the break.
The architects explained, “The overall form evolves out of a seashell or oyster shape that keeps turning towards the sky as if the forces of the water and the wind had collaborated in this architectural metamorphosis, where the vertical element removes a pearl from the oyster and places it high above ground as the precious object to be contemplated and occupied, the end of a journey where one is finally able to contemplate a view of the entire city.”
Programmatically, the building is arranged with conference rooms and a children’s library in the lower sections, and the raised restaurant toward the top. While Dubai is famous for gaining land from the ocean, here the site is flooded to create a park around a lake and an aquarium that is part of the main project circulation.
The 170m twisting tower is supported by a diagonal steel mesh. Due to its form, the tower is viewed differently depending upon the viewers’ perspective. During the day, the sky becomes an integral part of the facade, while at night, it is illuminated like an “impressive and dynamic lighthouse” representing Dubai’s momentum and aspirations. The panoramic elevator becomes the key element in the procession upward where the sky is constantly providing the backdrop and the wind can easily flow through the structure.
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11 comments »
The main purpose is an elevator?
A waste of money.
there’s conference rooms, a library and restaurant. i guess that kinda justifies it.
Yawn.
This is like 80’s hair band design silliness…just too much Aqua-Net form-making. I see no rigor, let alone a sense of scale, proportion, or detail. I am looking forward to the day when the architectural equivalent of Kurt Cobain storms in and clears the stage of this parametric spandex pants dreck.
This isn’t Iron Maiden, it’s more like Winger.
["a structure that acts as a monument during the day, and an icon during the night."]
Wow.
A sentence that sums up so simply the one-dimensional nature of this brainless design.
The only thing seemingly less articulate than this architectural response seems to be the attempted poetic intentions of the designers.
“where the vertical element removes a pearl from the oyster and places it high above ground as the precious object to be contemplated and occupied”
laugh a minute…
At least the fact that this and the majority of other offensive ‘inhabitable’ icons are being built in Dubai means they can all be avoid at the same time.
these kind of buildings are just becoming dumb…
I agree with Abe Froman comments; there is large lack of rigor in this project. You can see this especially in that most of the boards show the same things and the interior shots don’t have a sense of scale. By far there where a lot better entries in this competition. Actually due to the criteria of the judges this could have been one of the disappointing wining entries.
80’s hair band?!? Hahaha classic!
I have only been checking out Arch Daily for a few weeks now and it amazes me how almost all the comments are critical (not in a good way)Would like to see what you’all are creating that surpasses everything I have seen so far on this fabulous website. Couldn’t take any of you seriously…Are you soooo talented that you can afford to be so scathingly derisive of everyone elses work?
waste of money, decoration seems to advance again in a new form from 1900s, it’s good to know how to celebrate without waste and I will work on that in my designs, how else could it be?, shape, look?..
another photoshop dream…
architects are undermining there own reason of existance by entering projects like this. Ordenance and disposition? Parametric nonsense!
@janine: Wish i could send in some of my humble designs which are actually being build. This is the reason of architecture: to create something real, realistic, materialistic, functional and responsable. Many things on archdaily have that, but projects like photoshop-elevator-buildings just can’t cope with the first reason of architecture: shelter for people.
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