Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower in Dubai / L-A-V-A

Oct 2008

By David Basulto — Filed under: Housing ,Skyscrapers

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LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) unveiled the design of the Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower in Dubai, the first project of a series of branded towers, a new concept by PNYG:COMPANY, a company focused on branding. I´ve heard about branded towers such at the Porsche Towers by OMA, but it´s the first time i hear about a building branded after a Formula 1 champion.

LAVA is a practice formed a year ago by associate architects of the Mercedes Benz Museum and the Watercube, who decided to start their new practice focused on new technologies and innovation.

According to the architects, the design of the 59 storey luxury tower is abstracted from the geometric laws of snowflakes and Formula 1 aerodynamics, in order to obtain an effficient/minimal structure, maximum views and optimal light and air distribution.

Something that took my attention were the first levels of the tower. Since the tower wides on the base, which emerges from the water, the lower level has been reinterpreted as a series of wharf apartments, terraced similar to a cruise ship deck.

The building features an iconic silhouette and a facade characterised by vertical slots with private balconies. A series of reflective fins generates a vertical dynamic and gives the building a constantly changing appearance. The fins track the sun, control the solar shading and dissolve the rationality of the plan into a continuously evolving building volume. The facade’s continuous surface enables curvature with a lot of repetition and the potential for standardisation in the building process. State-of-the-art engineering and innovative materials will be used to achieve a fully sustainable performance.

The Tower Ground Breaking will be at the beginning of 2009, with a completion date around June 2011.

Client: Vedera Capital | Marasi
Concept: PNYG:COMPANY, Dubai
Architecture: LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), Stuttgart | Sydney with Wenzel+Wenzel, Abu Dhabi

About David Basulto: Graduate Architect. Co Founder and Executive Editor of ArchDaily.com. Architecture geek.

Cite:
Basulto , David . "Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower in Dubai / L-A-V-A" 07 Oct 2008. ArchDaily. Accessed 04 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/7240>

Comments (31)
Tweets (4)
Links to this entry (8)

Hunter Hoffmann says:

Very nice. I hope Dubai doesnt grow too quick for its own good. A beautiful building.

# October 7, 2008 at 21:06

m ss ng v w l says:

Just wondering what a snowflake has to do with a formula 1 driver. Seems like a little post-design justification to suit the ‘branding’ may have taken place..

Perhaps philip johnson was right about architects being prostitutes..

# October 8, 2008 at 04:28

Zaki says:

hehehee- good one :)

# August 10, 2009 at 06:58

ck. says:

the building design isnt too bad.
however the notion of ‘branding’ building is absolutely rubbish.

when will dubai stop with all these non-sense and just keep to good architecture?

# October 8, 2008 at 12:11

Cláudio Dória says:

Money overcomes Architecture…

# December 27, 2011 at 10:25

the design is rather good.

however the notion of ‘branding’ building is absolutely rubbish.

# October 8, 2008 at 12:14

mf says:

when do we actually learn to stop confusing pretty renderings with architecture. the design is average at most. if it hadn’t slapped “michael schumacher” on its fassade it probably wouldn’t generate that much fuss, because if you look at recent designs of highrise buildings you recognize the forms.

also as posted already above (by someone else), i also have no idea what snowflakes have to do with a formula one driver, with this particular design or with a country, that knows snow only from the tv.

but what annoys me the most about this project is this marketing speech/attitude/approach to architecture of the project and/or the involved architects (have a look at their websites). also if you look closely, then you can see that LAVA and PYNG:BLA are in fact the same people. i mean both ,tobias walliser and chris bosse, were project architects/team leaders for two of the most interesting projects nowadays, but this is just a little too much:

from the website of lava:
“at the vanguard of a nonconformist and inventive new generation in architecture, LAVA bridges the gap between the dream and the real world. it has been formed by some of the most experienced and forward thinking arcchitects from around the globe”

from the website of pyng:
“PNYG:COMPANY represents brave, innovative thinking; the kind that transforms society, economies and companies, bringing about progress wherever it is implemented.”
and a lot more about luxury real estate development.

no further comments.

UPDATE: this morning when i looked at the pnyg site, they had a menue point with architecture and the same two adresses as on LAVAs site, but the menue point has been remeved since then. i really have no idea why.

# October 8, 2008 at 15:59

Me says:

WHY!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

All parties involved should be ashamed of themselves for thinking the public is dumb enough to buy into this. Oh wait, we are. The world is over!!!

# October 8, 2008 at 16:05

Eddie says:

Architects ARE prostitutes…

# October 8, 2008 at 17:53

you says:

You’s your daddy ???

# October 8, 2008 at 20:15

who’s your daddy ?

# October 8, 2008 at 20:16

DiggityDaw says:

what about aerial photo? so that we can see from the top but thanks for providing this awesome job anyway.

# October 8, 2008 at 20:27

Manick says:

nice

# October 9, 2008 at 00:44

ArchThai says:

I don’t think it’s a good idea to start branding the tower with Schumy… and I could not see any relevant linking btwn the tower and Schumy and F1

# October 9, 2008 at 02:20

mir says:

i am in dubai..
i know these guys will build it, well something atleast…
but by the time they are done wit it, so many corners would have been cut, it will be crap anyways…
such is the destiny of all thinngs in dubai

# October 9, 2008 at 03:29

Tom in London says:

Just another pathetic shapie.

# October 9, 2008 at 05:20

Comitant says:

LAVA is actually formerly LOLa (local office of lobotomized architects).

# October 9, 2008 at 11:40

crap. says:

i dont like it.
design wise, just another high rise.
marketing branding wise, horrific.

dubai need to stop with all these non sense.

# October 11, 2008 at 05:53

Alex says:

from http://www.l-a-v-a.net
————————————————————
LAVA Asia Pacific
Michael Schumacher Tower, Abu Dhabi, completion 2011
————————————————————

This is not Dubai tower – Abu Dhabi is full of cash, much more then Dubai, and future belong to it … you’ll see :-)

# January 25, 2009 at 17:21

Z-lot says:

“Lava” must be short for “Lavatory”. The press statement is nothing short of sickening I’m afraid, a product of sensationalistic marketing and cotton-candy PR. You cannot, I repeat, cannot wrap an idea as this one into a project of nicely-sounding words, hoping that 200 buyers will get lured into the trap. This is not a toy for children, big or small.

# February 17, 2009 at 13:52

Kevin O'NEILL says:

Laughable.

# February 17, 2009 at 15:59

Dr. Dot says:

There are those that hope that Dubai doesn’t grow too fast for its own good.

I’m afraid it has probably already happened. An economy with a single driving element, in this case oil, is a shaky economy indeed, especially with the price of crude in constant flux. There are countless examples of this on the world’s geo-economic landscape, from the factories of Siberia to the oil boom towns of Texas and California USA to the manufacturing plants of out-moded and obsolete items the world over.

# February 19, 2009 at 13:27

Dubai Travel says:

Well done, nice post, comprehensive and well written. Thanks :)

# February 24, 2009 at 16:52

hakachata says:

Why wouldn’t they just make it penis-shaped?

# February 26, 2009 at 17:59

Bill says:

I actually like the design, it seems to flow,and kind of resembles several of those FIA trophies that this Schumacher guy has. I hear he actually has quite a few of them. So what’s the big fuss. Let them market the Tower however they ant. Lots of vain people like to be associated with winners. It sells, and frankly, that’s their job, to sell office space. I’d stop in to check it out the next time I’m in Dubai, after it’s actually finished…of course.

# March 18, 2009 at 01:45

Mortimer says:

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I hate architects now.

Almost totally.

Nearly categorically.

And I nearly was one.

# March 19, 2009 at 00:18

Student of Architecture says:

Is this what architecture has been reduced too? Even though Michael Schumacer is a world legend, I believe that to “theme” a building accordingly is a joke and smack in the face of what architecture is and what it should respond to.
And regarding the form, any 1st year monkey can draw this “objet d’Art” in less than two hours on a program as simple as SketchUp.

L-A-V-A should review what architecture is about. Its a social condition, not a fashion parade.

# August 18, 2009 at 05:18

Ouch ... says:

The yaughts will be stored in a container system under the building, to give you an idea of how ridiculous the prices are, a yaught birth ranges from 500K to 1Mil. You can imagine what the apartments are going for.

# November 29, 2009 at 23:15

Buy Condo Bangkok says: