What comes up, must... come up in Dubai, of course
No other place in the world is so saturated in architectural "creative juice" right now, as Dubai. Powered by the government's idea of creating some kind of Flash Gordon /Buck Rodgers tourist trap (and by the injections of pure cash, of course), the place sports ridiculous amount of mind-boggling projects, part of which we covered in The Rotating City and Burj Dubai Highest Building articles. Now's the time for a quick overview of what's already on the plate, and what's coming on the (decidedly gourmet) Dubai's architectural menu.
First, projects already (even if partially) built:
Palm Islands
The largest artificial islands in the world, built by (who else?) Dutch engineers, who perfected their dredging technology in their constant battle for ground with the rising sea. Three of these islands are large enough to see from space, and swanky enough to attract wealthy buyers from all over the globe.
The World Islands
Variation on the Palm islands idea, except in a (slightly cheesy, we think) world map form. Every little "island" will cost in the neighborhood of 20-30 million dollars, and there will be 300 of them.
The world's first, and a planned celebrity magnet. German company Hydropolis is going to build the modules, of which there will be three: the land station, where guests will be welcomed, the connecting tunnel, which will transport people by train to the main area of the hotel, and the 220 suites within the submarine leisure complex. (source)
Land Station:
"Dubailand" - which will be twice the size of Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando (largest amusement park collection in the world) is going to be the subject of a separate article.
Now real fun begins; these are the projects that just recently came to our attention: (One page on the internet is called "Dubai is nuts". I'd say, Dubai is going "triple nuts" with whipped cream and a cherry on top)
1. LAS VEGAS ARAB STYLE: THEMED HOTELS PARADISE
Bawadi Section of Dubai: - spans a stretch of over 10 km - houses 31 themed hotels, including the largest hotel in the world. Las Vegas on steroids, built in half the time, with probably wilder (or tackier?) design sense. Although, it might turn out interesting, if tastefully done.
Asia Hotel - the biggest (of course) hotel in the world:
I like this one the most. Morphing into mesmerizing shapes under the sublime light of the moon, wooing romantic couples with a whir of the wind turbines, making the tenants slightly dizzy by the graceful rotation of their bedroom's scenery - this is radical enough to attract scores of tourists, if successfully built.
- 68 floors - built by Italian company "Dynamic Architecture" - every floor is controlled independently by the owners: (have a sunset in your window when going to bed, and see the sunrise when waking up) - 58 wind turbines can produce up to 300 kWatt of energy (fully powering not just the tower, but a few surrounding city blocks as well) - One tower can produce $7 million dollars worth of energy a year. - Amazing construction technology: build the "stem" first, and then - starting from the top! - string the modules along the spiral grooves. (1 floor every 3 days, with only 90 workers needed, instead of 2,000) - Modules are prefabricated and transported to the site by trucks.
(image credit: Dynamic Architecture)
3. DEATH STAR: CERTAINLY A PRACTICAL SHAPE
RAK Convention and Exhibition Centre Ras Al Khaimah: Rem Koolhaas from "Office for Metropolitan Architecture" OMA in Rotterdam, Holland chose this form because of its effective use of space and inherent practicality. The center will house multiple hotels, residences and offices - all having individual balconies facing the central open space.
The circular openings in the sphere will allow enough sunlight to host an exotic garden inside:
The "Sphere" will be located immediately adjacent to the proposed NEW CITY (no less). Here is how the whole "Death Star/Satellite City" combination will look like:
Proposed new city - "RAK Gateway":
Images courtesy SOM and Emaar Properties.
To summarize this smorgasbord of architectural delights: The only thing going against Dubai seem to be that it's really a desert with an atrocious climate, that it's located in the seismically and politically volatile Middle East, that their government is technically running out of oil money (and real tourist money is yet to come) - and that there are way too many projected new cities in the region, that will need to be populated by whom? The tourist industry is huge, and lets hope these eye-candies will prove to be attractive enough for the volume of tourism UAE needs.
Burj Dubai has overtaken Canada’s CN Tower also which was the tallest standing free structure at 553 meters. I have blogged about it in more detail. You can check out here: http://desinotes.com/burj-dubai-races-past-cn-tower/ and also check this one
I'm curious, do they really think that THAT many people will move in when this city is completed? Or will it become the world's most expensive Ghost Town in human history?
...But hey, if you're wealthy now and you know your oil will eventually be gone building a luxury city like this is a pretty good idea (even if it is a risky bet) to create a steady revenue for the future.
At the pace that they're building all of these architectural wonders do you think they're trying to "finish" the city before the oil runs out? Do they know something we don't?
It seems that a number of you assume that Dubai is wealthy from oil reserves. This is not the case, have you not noticed that since the 1990's this city has become the ecomomic and financial hub of the middle east? Oil contributes only around 6% of GDP. And i think people will be moving in Peter, every apartment in the Burj Dubai was bought within 8 hours of going on sale. There is so much fuckin cash in this place its hard to fathom.
It is crime aginst hummanaity. if this building catches fire the people cannot evaccuate or come out of the building quickly to save there lives,half of the people would die due to suffocation which has occured due to smoke.This is harmfull for there lives, even if there are anysecurity measures, as security measures would not withstand humman errors.
I'm pretty sure that last little fellow is called a tapir. They're south-American and endangered, and aren't they gorgeous? I believe the stripes disappear before they're mature, and they're meant to be good swimmers.
Yes, Annie's right. Its a tapir's (Tapirus Terrestris) puppy. Here in Brazil they're most called "anta", and can be found in almost the entire South America. They're much friendly, you can literally hug them and feed by hand (they're herbivore). In my town's local zoo we had one female, she died few years ago. You can check Wiki out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapirus_terrestris (english) or http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anta (portuguese - in this page is depicted an puppy). And for the record, the site is amazing. I check it daily and always have a great time. Cheers!
These concerns surprisingly gained a lot of weight in the government...
"Surprisingly"..? Have you actually looked at the results of the sonic boom testing done at Oklahoma City in early 1964, and at White Sands later that year? We're not talking fuzzy green Luddite environmentalism here... we're talking what the FAA and Boeing concluded would be millions in payments for physical damages per overland flight.
The article misses the fact that Concorde did indeed fly successfully and accident free for a great many years. The TU144 was a great triumph both of soviet ingenuity, and soviet espionage, incorporating much of concorde's design. Whilst a Concorde is in a museum in Seattle it is far from being the only one preserved. One is at Filton, near Bristol, England, from where the first proving flights took off. Truth is, Concorde was a triumph that worked, first flying in 1969, in service 1976, and continuing until late 2003. An airliner that flew higher and faster than any other, ever. Whereas the Boeing SST was a pipedream that never materialised.
The interest of the governments may not have been as benign as the article implies. There is a story that - as a test - they once flew a Concorde out over the Norwegian Sea then had it cruise back over Britain at its normal height and speed, just to see how easy it would be to intercept. The answer was that it wasn't. It flew too high and too fast for anything in the UK to get to it before it had flown right across the country.
The noise problem was BAD. I used to work at Heathrow and many the time I stood outside Hatton Cross (tube) station as Concorde climbed into the sky. There was a longterm carpark between the station and the runway, which meant that Concorde passed over that even lower, and as the rumble of the plane died away you could always hear the blaring of the horns of the cars - their theft alarms triggered by the vibration. I often used to wonder how many travellers parked in there and got back to find that - for some unknown, to them, reason - their car batteries were flat.
soubriquet said: "The TU144 was a great triumph both of soviet ingenuity, and soviet espionage, incorporating much of concorde's design."
May be Concordes' design was stolen from USSR? Tu-144 has it's first flight 2 months earlier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144
"However, even if this were to be confirmed, the documents were early development plans and would not have permitted the USSR's engineers to come up with their own aircraft; the plans could only serve as a general indication of the work of the Concorde design team. Moreover, Soviet aircraft designers in the 1960s had significant experience building delta-shaped aircraft, which proved an efficient means of achieving Mach 2, and TsAGI, of which Andrei Tupolev was a graduate, had developed extensive data about such designs."
Yeah, yeah. I'll believe the US can build a craft comparable to Concorde when I see it build a V/STOL plane that isn't 100% craptacular (especially when compared to my country's brilliant AV-8B Harrier). Until then, forgive me for thinking that you're way out of your league here.
Dear friends: I uploaded some pictures of the SST Museum that my father took during our trip to Florida the summer of 1976. Hope you enjoy them, the link is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8767849@N07/sets/72157618299890370/
I will be uploading more pictures of the SST Museum soon !!!!!
All three programmes became surrounded in myth. The soviet 'steal' question was settled some time ago in a British TV documentary when Boing, Concord and Tu./KGB engineers all got together and reminised, their chat then being intercut throughout the telling of the story by narator/camera.
The ex-Soviets admitted that they had stolen a complete set of plans through the French end of the Concord programe but didn't use much from them as their design was already too advanced (in the process of procurment). The British and French designers looked at Tu blueprints and agreed that there was nothing 'really' Concord about the Tu.
Another story revolves around the fact that the Americans were so pissed off at A) the success of Concord and B) the cancellation of their own that they spent years not letting C. land at New york or other places useing the noise argument.
I lived under the flight path of Concord most my early life and still miss her at 11am most days. The roar of those jets was akin to a Bloodhound Missile, Minutman or small satalite launch-vehicle. It was the sound of mens dreams writ large, and sometime in the 80's under Thatcher, Regan, Schmitt and Miterresturant or whatever his name was...we stopped dreaming, the bean counters and grey suits took final control over our destiny and it's all down-hill now...
"QUANTUM SHOT" #192
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3 Comments:
i think the rotating tower idea is slightly insane and extremely dangerous, but if they pull it off, it will be a masterpiece of architecture
The Rem Koolhas "Death Star" is not proposed to be built in Dubai, but in another Emirate, Ras Al Khaimah.
Some of these were designed for other cities, not Dubai. The rotating towers for example are for Moscow.
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