Atlantis The Palm

The wife decided to book us a trip to the Atlantis The Palm in Dubai. A quick weekend trip, which we spent most of it soaking under the sun, gliding through the water slides, and floating along the river lagoon. Following our check-out, I decided to do a quick goodbye sketch of the wonderful hotel building.

I walked around to look for a good spot with a nice wide perspective. I found a jetty just next to the water sports club cabin, which I thought was perfect. It turned out to be a mistake from my part, as I was trying to sketch under the blistering sun, at 1pm in the afternoon, when it was 40 Degrees Celsius, on a blazing jetty that burned my behind, with kids hopping on and off the jetty splashing seawater on my sketchbook and causing the jetty to wobble, making it challenging to draw a simple straight line. I persevered with the assistance of the water sports club staff, who provided me with an ice cold water bottle that got me going, and some encouraging words from a curious 7 years old girl and her mother. Below is the outcome following 2 hours of enduring the above.



In the comfort of my home, in an air-conditioned room with the temperature set at 23, sitting on my recliner, I tried embellishing the raw sketch, adding some shades and colors here and there. Below is the result.

Design as Reform

I wonder what makes a Manhattan based design studio like RUX think of entering a mosque design competition after designing a condom wrapper and a vodka bottle, and amazingly winning the competition.

The competition is called Design as Reform and is arranged by Traffic, a Dubai based art and design practice founded in 2007 which includes a store, gallery and studio. In the second edition of their competition, the focus was on design through the reapplication of existing Arab forms, preserving authenticity of the Arab culture in the age of mass production and exportation. The competition, open to both students and professionals, has been divided into four categories that address different aspects of the urban landscape of everyday Arab life, which consist of a mosque (architecture), majlis (interior design), a pattern (graphic design), and a public installation (experimental design).

The mosque winning entry has a very interesting idea behind it, although it is one of those unpractical ideas that can only work inside the imagination of a designer, and not real life. The idea is rather than designing a mosque as a building with doors and walls, the mosque here is an urban plaza. Designed as a "developer's tool", this public space orientated towards the qibla, would extend this "sense of community" towards the surrounding buildings. Although a romantic idea, as the category falls under architecture, I am afraid that it does not address key issues, most obvious is climatic considerations. The project also assumes that a mosque has the single function of serving as a space for praying, where in fact in most mosques, lectures are given, children are being educated in religion, and many mosques have adjacent halls for special occasions like weddings and funerals.

Most importantly, as the competition aims for preserving the authenticity of the Arabic culture, the idea of a public square is not really that common in the urban fabric of Arab cities. Public outdoors spaces, like a market for example, are usually narrow and shaded by surrounding buildings. I guess the main reason for ignoring these issues is the fact that the design strategy was to serve as a "developer's tool"!

The majlis entry was another interesting one, one which I thought was much more successful in addressing the theme of the competition. Designed by German interior designers 22 Quadrat, the project is called "white space" and combines a minimalistic aesthetic with references to the Islamic tradition of abstract art. The building provides separate divisions for men and women yet with the flexibility of being opened up.

Police in Sheikh Zayed Road

An exciting proposal for a performance in Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road by Christian Sievers. The performance will have police cars racing in a circle with lights flashing and sirens blaring. I wonder whether people would appreciate this artwork during the rush hours??

Check this out for another cool installation by Sievers.

The Cybertecture of the iPad and Shuffle Towers

i-Pad Tower



Shuffle Tower

In a country which has the tallest tower in the world, the largest shopping mall, a rotating tower, a copy of the Eiffel Tower, another copy of the Leaning Tower of Pizza and many more pioneering projects... I am sure you have heard of the latest additions to that intriguing portfolio: the i-pod, sorry I meant i-pad tower and the shuffle tower.

The architect, James Law, is one of the key figures in Cybertecture projects. He was a director of internationally renown US architectural design firm, Gensler International, prior to setting up James Law Cybertecture International on the first day of the new century 2001. The firm works on architectural projects, infrastructure and city planning, business strategies and communication models along with other software applications. Among the many consulting teams and collaborations the firm had in different fields, James Law Cybertecture is consulting for the United Nations for the design of a virtual world archive designed to preserve World Heritage Sites. This way the firm "develops the core Cybertecture vision of the world, in which the now and future world is designed and created inspired in a symbiotic balance between space and technology."

One may wonder where would a term such as Cybertecture emerge from. Wolf Hilbertz, a German architect, was an assistant professor in the US when he wrote his book "Toward Cybertecture", which laid the foundations for the discipline in the early 70s. It went out of fashion like other movements at the time, but we see it now making a massive comeback. I remember during my first year we had a project where we had to design a clothing item -a shirt, a hat or anything- that would resemble an architect or building. And now I do see the link between fashion design and architecture; after all both are part of our daily lives, influenced by our behaviour, and perhaps most importantly our ever changing taste for aesthetics.

Cybertecture is not CAD. Its not "colorful renderings on black backgrounds, gradually painting a dark and endless space in our minds that seems to represent the virtual reality." If the "virtual reality" was to be represented, it would be anything but a endless black space. "Moreover, cybertecture is not necessarily the re-invention of architectural languages to express instability and movement. A tilted column is no more cybernated than a straight one." Cybertecture is basically architecture that integrates virtual activities into physical spaces.

Cybertects would be creating places that need to be full of information and communication. This means that connection points is what Cybertecture is concerned with. Connections that link people and machines separated by time and space. Cybertecture is therefore responsible for realizing these connections in the physical and virtual form.

Going back to the i-pad and the shuffle towers in Dubai. What really intrigued me where the concepts behind the designs. I mean for a place like Dubai that's becoming a major hub in the world, such concepts of cybertecture is what makes Dubai what it is. Its a point of connection between people, businesses, and industries from the East and West. The shuffle tower is a mixed used development consisting of residential, commercial and office blocks; a great way to give meaning to the term shuffle besides shuffling music. Many may think that the i-pad tower is called that because of the tower shape. However, it goes beyond that. Its supposed to change our lives just like i-pods changed the life of music. The idea behind it is to fulfill the dream of living in the future; the experience of integration between technology and space, creating unlimited boundaries for young people who know how to get the most out of the technology they use and therefore their life.

Dubai Metro

This is a map of Dubai Metro... the red line is under construction and is due to be completed at 2009, the green line is due at 2010. According to wikipedia, other lines will be added in the future to expand the metro network.

The costs for the full Dubai Metro System are about 14.3 billion AED, including civil works, stations, system fixed equipment, trains, engineering and financing. The operating cost is approximately 570 million AED per year, including staff, maintenance, and power consumption. The revenue is planned to cover the operation coast through fare box revenue, advertisement space, and according to Dubai Municipality website "joint development or other sources". I don't know how long will take to cover the investment cost but I sure do hope they will.

More cute facts about the Metro:
• Trains will be about 75m long, consisting of 5 cars and fully air-conditioned.
• Trains will be driverless, fully automated, running as often as one every minute and a half.
• Trains will run on tracks and the electrical traction system is made environmentally friendly in terms of noise with no gas emissions.
• The total fleet size will be slightly in excess of 100 trains.
• The two lines will total nearly 70 km, with 35 stations along the 50-km long Red Line, and 22 along the 20-km long Green Line.
• The two lines will run underground in the city centre, and on an elevated specially designed viaduct everywhere else.
• In no location will the tracks cross the public highway, ensuring fully safe mode segregation.
• The Metro network will be fully integrated within the overall Public Transit network. Bus routes and stops as well as taxi stations and park will be organised around the rail system, extending its reach in Dubai.

I am really excited for this Metro system... I think its really important for any major city even as small as Manama... it will not only reduce traffic off the streets so car enthusiasts can step on the gas a little bit more... but it could be a step for reducing carbon emissions... I am sure that wind turbines will be of great use if integrated on those trains... after all a train travelling say at 80 km/h on an elevated track will have enough aerodynamic drag to keep those turbines moving... PV panels will surely help as well... I am no engineer but I guess you can have trains running solely on renewable energy if they were on elevated tracks... some are even arguing energy can be obtained by vibrations caused by crowds. Bahrain are doing some studying for a metro system design and I really hope that they consider renewable energy for it