Browsing: Dubai

Graft Lab’s latest addition to Dubai, entitled Vertical Village, is a cluster of mix-use buildings that emphasize reducing solar gain and maximizing solar production.  The buildings are self-shaded on the northern side and on the east-west axis to reduce long-angle sun penetration.   Solar collectors on the south end automatically pivot to maximize solar-energy aggregation.   The multi-use building, which is expected to earn a LEED Gold Certificate, offers an appealing aesthetic which will easily make its mark 0n Dubai’s dynamic skyline.  The “futuristic” angular forms create a shared central space with large pools, while the compositional assemblage of the individual buildings form a cohesive whole.

More images after the break. read more »

Burj Dubai, © Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP, Rendering by Crystal CG

Curious about how the lobby for the world´s tallest building will look like? SOM shared with us some renderings of their design.

The building was designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, who also designed the interiors for all the lobbies, public and common spaces for the tower. The design team is lead by Ms. Nada Andric (Associate Director with SOM) and reinterprets the region’s heritage in a contemporary way.

The materials used include glass, stainless steel, polished dark stones, Silver Travertine flooring, Venetian stucco walls, handmade rugs, and stone flooring. Commissioned local and international fine art pieces will be used to decorate these spaces.

I can´t wait to see actual images of this building completed, and see how both the structure and these interiors are materialized. The Burj Dubai is expected to be completed by December, 2009.

You can see some photos during the construction on our previous article.

More images after the break:

read more »

Maybe no other place on Earth has made more notice over the last few years than Dubai. From tall buildings to a houseboat, you can find all sort of architecture in this fantastic city. Enjoy our last Round Up of the week!

Jumeirah Gardens / SOM & Adrian Smith
It seems no one told Dubai about the financial crisis, as new projects keep being unveiled. This time, our green friends over Inhabitat tipped us on a mega development, owned by Maraas Holding: The Jumeirah Gardens. The master plan for this project was designed by SOM Chicago, and consists of a mixed-use development that incorporates low, medium, and high-density zones for business, residences (read more…)

Anara Tower by Atkins Design Studio
Well, here we have another skyscrapper in Dubai, this time in the shape of a giant wind turbine. When I saw this, i thought it had this turbine to generate eolic energy, but actually it’s a structure that holds a panoramic restaurant in the glass capsule at the top of the building, as you can see on the further images. The 2,15 feet (655m) tall tower includes a mixed use developement (read more…)

Houseboat / X-Architects
The fundamental structure of the floating home is created from two catamaran beams (for stability), stainless steel and glass. The layout of the structure, which is 20 meters by 6.7 meters, includes an upper deck containing a concealed kitchen, living room and an informal dining area. The Lower deck houses the bedrooms, bathroom and steering cabin. It also features a terrace (read more…)

The Origami / Kann Finch
This proposition reconsiders the stereotypical residential tower, in pursuit of a unique structuring of a new language, that the vertical organization of apartment living might allow. The formal constraints that the site demands are eroded to realize a rich expression of three dimensional image, surface and livability. The fundamental elements of the colonnaded street edges (read more…)

Al Rostamini Headquarters / 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 (read more…)

Canadian-based ACDF Architects have designed an International Financial Center for Dubai (DIFC).  The DIFC draws inspiration from geographical and geological properties to create a structure that becomes a natural extension of the site.  ACDF Architects work to link the architecture with the region to “give the impression that the building takes root from these natural components instead of simply being an imposing object on the DIFC properties.”

More about the project after the break. read more »

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. read more »

Our friends from Argentina B4FS Arquitectos shared with us their proposal for the ThyssenKrupp Elevator Competition in Dubai. With Mirage, B4FS Arquitectos obtained the third prize in the competition.

Architect’s description and more images after the break. read more »

Our friends from ICE (ideas for contemporary environments), an office featured on our first AD Futures, shared with us their proposal for the ThyssenKrupp Elevator Architecture Award in Dubai. Along with the project, there’s a postscript Ulrich Kirchhoff from ICE sent us which in his words “is way more important than the project itself”.

Postscript

With the recent negative feedback on some websites about the winning entry and the initiative of Bustler to publish all non-winners, we have shockingly realized, that we have not been the only ones, who have been Dubai-tized. Even as we started the project, the boundaries of cynicism, architectural integrity and the potential of just doing anything have been extremely blurred by the word alone – Dubai. Given those parameters, we went down a road, which lies on the verge of our own office integrity and agenda and the insanity of an architect’s wet dream. Not that we want to start a discussion about ethics in architecture, but it seems that all of us are responsible for the direction architecture took. Please find here our last project in that direction.

Architect’s description and more images, after the break. read more »

Our friends from XTEN Architecture shared with us their entry to the ThyssenKrupp elevator competition in Dubai. The observation tower is located in a cultural park just off axis from the main skyscraper boulevard in Dubai, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Road.

More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

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

read more »

Architect: Jesse Reiser + Nanako Umemoto
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Design Team: Mitsuhisa Matsunaga, Kutan Ayata, Jason Scroggin, Cooper Mack, Michael Overby, Roland Snooks, Michael Young
Assistants & Interns: Tina Tung, Raha Talebi, Yan Wai Chu
Structure: Ysrael A. Seinuk , PC, New York, NY
General Contractor: Dubai Contracting Company (DCC), Dubai, UAE
Client: Creekside Development Corporation, Dubai, UAE
Site area: 3,195 sqm
Constructed Area: 31,400 sqm
Project year: 2006
Construction year: 2007-2009
Photographs: Reiser + Umemoto

read more »

Here’s Francois Blanciak Architects proposal for the TyssenKrupp Elevator Award to develop an iconic tall emblem structure for Zaabeel Park in Dubai.

This is one of the 926 proposals submitted for the competition.

Seen at designboom. More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

Architects: Kann Finch, UAE
Location: Meydan city, Dubai UAE
Project Team: Jean-Sebastien Herr (associate/design architect), Damian Lambkin (Project architect), Claudio Nunez , Ulysses Lalu, Francis Contreras, Milica Vukasinovic, Clinton Bull, Jamie Madrazo, Mauricio Zulueta, Alaleh S
Interiors: Nicholas Tedford
Structure: E-construct
MEP: Jain Consultants
Building Envelope: MFT
Landscape: Kann Finch
Acoustics: WSP
Client: District development
Contractor: DCC, Dubai Contracting company
Project year: 2010
Construction area: 45,980 sqm

read more »

Architects: X-Architects
Location: Dubai marina, Dubai
Program: Leisure home
Constructed Area: 220 sqm
Photographs: X-Architects

read more »

Well, here we have another skyscrapper in Dubai, this time in the shape of a giant wind turbine. When I saw this, i thought it had this turbine to generate eolic energy, but actually it’s a structure that holds a panoramic restaurant in the glass capsule at the top of the building, as you can see on the further images.

The 2,15 feet (655m) tall tower includes a mixed use developement with retail, offices, 300 luxury apartments and a 250-room luxury hotel. As you can see on the vertical renderings, it has a tremendus atrium and vertical gardens every 27 floors.

The Anara tower was designed by Atkins Design Studio for Tameer Holding Investment

Construction is set to be started during next year. More images after the break.

read more »

UPDATE: We wrongly credited the whole project to AS+GG, but they were only comissioned to design the three main towers, on a master plan designed by SOM Chicago.

It seems no one told Dubai about the financial crisis, as new projects keep being unveiled. This time, our green friends over Inhabitat tipped us on a mega development, owned by Maraas Holding: The Jumeirah Gardens. The master plan for this project was designed by SOM Chicago, and consists of  a mixed-use development that incorporates low, medium, and high-density zones for business, residences, retail, leisure, and recreation – a city within a city, with an estimated cost of US$95 billion.

The three main towers were comissioned to Chicago based architects AS+GG (Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill), The most impressive one -and the third tallest tower in the UAE- is 1 Dubai, pictured above. The tri-partite skyscraper will be 3218 ft (981m) tall, and the towers will be connected by a series of glass suspension sky-bridges. This bridges are so big, they even grow palms on them as you can see on the further renderings. At the base of the buildings, grand arched entrances allow boats to travel underneath the building and into a central atrium space. The mixed-use development includes a hotel, residential, commercial retail and entertainment space totaling 800,000-900,000 square meters.

read more »

Some love this building, and some hate it. I´m impressed.

The Burj Dubai (set to be the tallest tower in the world, while the tallest structure as of now), is almost finished. Located in Dubai, it´s the centerpise of a mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, 9 hotels, 3 ha of parks, 19 residential towers, a man and a 12ha artificial lake.

I decided to Google about the Burj Dubai a little, and i found an interesting interview at Wired with SOM´s structural engineer Bill Baker, telling the story behind the design, the structure and construction. The foundations were overengineered just in case the client wanted to rise the height of the building during construction… which he did!. Now the final height won´t be disclosed until the construction is finished.

For now, enjoy this pictures the air on an helicopter by David Hobcote, seen at Gizmodo:

read more »