The posting tonight is of the iconic 'seven-star' Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai by Atkins Design, a building probably already well-known throughout the world. Expains architect Tom Wills-Wright, the hotel was designed deliberately to be iconic, to test which he devised a simple 'litmus test,' as he explains here:The brief was to create a building that would become an icon for Dubai rather like Sydney has its Opera House and Egypt has the pyramids. The brief was given by Jumierah International who wanted something novel, different, which can be symbol of Dubai.
The litmus test we used to assess if we had fulfilled the brief was to see if we could draw the building in five seconds pictionary style and ask everybody to name it.
He probably succeeded, don't you think? Not great architecture, but certainly exciting, and undoubtedly a modern icon -- and wouldn't you just love to play tennis up there with Andrei and Roger? :-)LINKS: Atkins Design website
Burj Al Arab hotel website
Burj Al Arab - Galinsky.Com
TAGS: Architecture
2 comments:
I stayed at the Jumeirah Beach Resort beside the Burj Al Arab in 2001 with a colleague who was once trained as an architect, he looked at the Burj and said "Fuck I don't beleive it!" "What?" I asked
He replied "I think thats the first building I've ever seen where no-one has dicked with the architects original concept!"
And sure enough he went and bought the "official" book and the only major change from the napkin sketch is the "mast" being straight rather than canted forward.
The building is meant to be a sail billowing in from the Gulf.
Dubai itself is a fascinating place, the ultimate property developers nirvana,a place where "audacious vision" is not only appreciated - it gets built!
Sure some of it is really tacky (the Emirates "Plane" building) but for a city that built its first multi-storey in the 70's they've come a long way fast.
"wouldn't you just love to play tennis up there"
Be a bastard to be a ball-boy though...
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