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UAE: The Latest Architecture and News

Cinema Box - Designing a platform for film exhibition

A room of audience erupts into a fit of giggles as a comical tramp with a short mustache, wearing a suit and tall hat slips on a banana peel. The couple embrace as the man makes her stand on the railing of the ship, grabs her arms and extends them out. "I'm flying" she says, as people swoon in unison over their romantic harmony and impending tragedy.

Cinema is one of the biggest cultural activities in the world. An art form with biggest influence, budget and widespread connectivity. Inducing emotions and crafting perspective, as it grows to be a visual medium

X-Space, a Greenway Project in Dubai Wins the Grand WAFX 2019 Prize

Presented to projects that anticipate and address future challenges, the WAFX Award celebrates the “most forward-looking architectural concepts”. X-Space, an urban fabric regeneration project in Dubai, winner of the Smart Cities Category was selected to take on the overall WAFX 2019 prize.

CUMULUS to Design Romania’s National Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai

Romanian architecture office CUMULUS, won the first prize in the solutions contest to design Romania’s National Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020. Entitled “New Nature”, the sensory experience will focus on the importance of natural elements.

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Safdie Architects Propose Conceptual Design for the Abrahamic Family House

Safdie Architects’ entry for the Abrahamic Family House competition located in the Saadiyat Island Cultural District, in Abu Dhabi, brings together a mosque, a synagogue, and a church within a shared public park.

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Adjaye Associates Selected to Design the Human Fraternity Project in Abu Dhabi

Adjaye Associates have been selected as the winners of The Abrahamic Family House competition, in Abu Dhabi. The landmark project, on Saadiyat Island, is a space where 3 religions will come together with the implementation of a mosque, a synagogue, and a church.

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A Closer Look at the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Winners

On the 13th of September 2019, the six winning projects of the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) were honored at a ceremony held at the Kazan’s Musa Jalil State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. After the ceremony, ArchDaily managed to get exclusive comments from all the awarded teams and from the director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Farrokh Derakhshani. Read on to discover what they had to say about this cycle of prizes.

Shortlist Revealed for Tamayouz Women in Architecture and Construction 2019

The Tamayouz Excellence Award has revealed its shortlist of finalists for Women in Architecture and Construction 2019, given to emerging female contributors in the architectural and construction field throughout the Near East and North Africa. This annual award honors 2 categories, Rising Star and Woman of Outstanding Achievement, and the winners will be announced next month.

What Urbanism Needs to Learn from Dubai

In the past three decades, Dubai has grown from a dusty desert town to a strategic hub for international business and tourism. As a result, several cities in the developing world have been competing to outdo one another in the race to replicate this development model—an urbanism largely built around the automobile, luxury villas, gleaming skyscrapers, massive shopping malls, and ambitious “smart” cities, designed and built from scratch. Across Africa, these new developments go by different names: Eko Atlantic City Nigeria, Vision City in Rwanda, Ebene Cyber City in Mauritius; Konza Technology City in Kenya; Safari City in Tanzania; Le Cite du Fleuve in DR Congo, and several others. All are mimicries of Dubai.

A First Look at Dubai's Supertall "Burj Jumeira" designed by SOM

Dubai Holding has released details of the latest skyscraper planned for the UAE metropolis, designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill. The Burj Jumeira will soar 550 meters in the air, “inspired by the harmonious ripples of the UAE’s desert sand dunes and its flowing oases.” Inaugurated by the UAE’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on January 31st, 2019, the new tower will be built as part of a vast development known as Downtown Jumeira, “a city of the future distinguished by its intelligent design and cohesive infrastructure and network.”

The tower’s façade is to be covered in digital displays that can be utilized for various occasions and celebrations, with a 450-meter-high sky lounge and sky restaurant complete with interactive surfaces. The tower will also contain multiple observation decks giving visitors 360-degree panoramic views of Dubai, rising from a base designed in the outline of the Sheikh’s fingerprint.

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Egyptian Architects Design Shipping Container Housing for Cairo

UAE based architects Mouaz Abouzaid, Bassel Omara and Ahmed Hammad have designed a shipping container housing project for Cairo, Egypt. Dubbed ‘Sheltainer’, the project aims to address a need for low-income, student and refugee housing. The design focuses on Egyptian life around a single house unit with all the necessary needs for a small family. Sheltainer aims to offer a flexible solution with new open spaces, activities and homes.

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Fentress Architects Chosen to Design USA Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai

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Pictured here, the masterplan for the World Expo 2020 Dubai designed by HOK. Image Courtesy of HOK

Fentress Architects has been chosen to design the USA Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai. The American Pavilion 2020 will sit within the 438-hectare masterplan designed by HOK, pictured above.

The U.S. Department of State selected the consortium containing Fentress Architects, led by Big Things Group, to deliver a pavilion based on the theme “What Moves You,” featuring highlights of American culture and technology. The team will seek to use the program as “a showcase of the innovation, creativity, and diversity that defines the United States.”

"Biodomes" in the UAE's Al Hajar Mountains Will Promote Ecotourism

The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, towers at 828 meters in the heart of Dubai’s ever-growing urban core. But just a few hours east of the metropolis, a different kind of monument is garnering tourism to the United Arab Emirates: the Al Hajar Mountains. With its peak at 3,008 meters, the mountain range’s natural elegance rivals the country’s architectural achievements. The Biodomes Wildlife Conservation Centre, a project from Baharash Architecture for the UAE’s Eco Resort Group, seeks to celebrate the mountain range through an ecotourism paradigm.

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X-Architects' to Design an Urban Mosque That Forms the "Heart of the Neighborhood" in Abu Dhabi

The Dubai-based firm, X-Architects, have found inspiration in the cultural and architectural heritage of Islam for their new design. The Revelation Mosque, a +2500 square meter project, aims to create a new "heart of the neighborhood" in Abu Dhabi, UAE. In creating a generous urban void among a towering context, the proposal offers an immersive escape from everyday life, where the public (regardless of religion) can gather, communicate, and interact with one another.

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New Video Shows Foster + Partners' Vision for Cargo-Carrying Hyperloop Network

Foster + Partners has released a video depicting their vision for a future high-speed transportation infrastructure, taking advantage of recent advances in hyperloop technology. Designed for DP World Cargospeed, a collaboration between cargo giant DP World and Virgin Hyperloop One, Foster + Partners’ vision for an infrastructural network seeks to create a new ecosystem where urban centers and rural landscapes are interconnected, as are humans and nature.

The World's First Commercial Hyperloop is Coming to Abu Dhabi in 2020

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) has released details of their plan to create the world’s first commercial Hyperloop system in Abu Dhabi. Situated on the border between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in close proximity to both the Al Maktoum International Airport and Expo 2020 Dubai site, the HyperloopTT will begin with the construction of six miles (ten kilometers) of infrastructure, with future development potentially creating a commercial Hyperloop network across the United Arab Emirates and beyond.

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Zaha Hadid Architects' UAE Central Hub Inspired by Water Droplets

Zaha Hadid Architects has won an international competition for the design of a Central Hub for Aljada, a prominent masterplan for the UAE city of Sharjah. Regarded as the ‘cultural capital of the Arab world', Sharjah will play host to ZHA's unmistakeable brand of fluid, curving, sculpted urban design.

UAE Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale to Explore Human-scale Landscapes and Social Spaces

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage we present the proposal for the UAE Pavilion. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words.

The National Pavilion UAE will present “Lifescapes Beyond Bigness,” an exhibition exploring human-scale architectural landscapes, at the 2018 Venice Biennale. The exhibition aims to highlight the role of architecture and urban design in forming the choreography of people’s daily routines. It particularly investigates the role of ‘quotidian’ (every day) landscapes in accommodating, enhancing, and facilitating social activities across different places in the UAE.

"World's Largest Picture Frame" Opens in Dubai

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via Instagram user linvraisemblableordinaire

Rising 150 meters from Dubai’s Zabeel Park, the “World’s Largest Picture Frame” has officially opened in the UAE. Known as the Dubai Frame, the structure is the latest in the city’s line of eye-catching megaprojects, offering up panoramic views of the skyline while framing views of iconic buildings such as the Burj Khalifa for visitors and residents all across the city.