I guess its a new record that Atkins should claim... it managed to build sail shaped buildings that became landmarks in half of the GCC countries. It all started with Burj Al-Arab in Dubai... Bahrain got jealous so Atkins built the Bahrain World Trade Center to make us happy... the sail shaped buildings fever caught up with Saudi Arabia so Atkins designed the Al-Rajhi Towers in Riyadh.
Who comes next??? Kuwait, Qatar, or Oman??? My guess would be Qatar.
And another thing.. which tower would you prefer??? By unbiased opinion is Bahrain's because its the region's first tower that incorporates wind power... a step towards sustainable architecture in the world's capital for unsustainable architecture.
On a side note... I read this interview with Jean Nouvel regarding his Torre Agbar in Barcelona...
"If you travel a lot in the world you see the same buildings in South America, in South-east Asia, in all the cities in the world. You see the same buildings without roots, without links to anything. You see a lot of repetition of stylistic vocabulary by architects who do the same building in every case. It’s not the right attitude for architecture. For me, architecture is a modification. A little modification of a landscape, a part of a city, a complement to other buildings, a testimony of an epoch and so on. It’s not a kind of sculpture.”
...his commitment to specificity and singularity were tested recently when a wealthy client from Qatar saw Torre Agbar and asked Nouvel to design an identical building for a site in Doha. “I said it’s not possible. But I said we can discuss.” The result, which has yet to go on site, is clearly an Islamicised Torre Agbar, with a geometric brise-soleil and a top like a Saracen helmet.
I totally agree with Nouvel in this point... however I find it a little ironic him talking about repetition considering how similar Torre Agbar and The Gherkin are... but as they say great minds think alike so I won't jump into the assumption that one of those geniuses copied the other's idea.
3 comments:
http://www.freefoto.com/images/1018/14/1018_14_1---Spinnaker-Tower--Portsmouth--Hampshire_web.jpg your first building is a copy of this in england
Thanks anon for the headsup... another one down although not where i expected it to be.... however I think the first building, Burj Al Arab, is the original one since its design was conceived at 1993 and construction began at 1994 and was completed at 1999... Planning for Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth however began at 1995 and it wasn't completed until 2005.
you feel actualy that the Torre Agbar is in an evolution process to become Gherkin..it loooks un stable
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