More news from Dubai

The biggest human-shaped building in the world


Inspiration for the tower: Traditional Arabic clothing


The biggest cross in the world according to some

Well... I am not sure if its good news but I've just heard about this proposal for the biggest concrete and glass human shaped building in the world. Of course such projects are only found in Dubai. The 35 storey, 140 meter, DH 500 million tower is called Burj Al Arabi, and is intended to be built near Jabal Ali Airport as a gesture for greeting arrivals and departures. According to this site, the project also received the backing of Islamic scholar, Ahmad Al Kubaisi. The UAE national had this to say about the project:

"Our Islamic and Arabic history is full of what we can be proud of but we do not make enough effort to reflect this in our real estate sector, as many developers race to copy foreign buildings which have nothing to do with our property heritage nor highlight our historic values. Burj Al Arabi is not intended to be the statute of a person, but symbolises a particular style of dress. It honours the religion, culture and language of the Arab people from a real estate perspective."

The project haven't been approved yet. I don't know the reason for that but my guess would be that it sure had a split decision about its representation of our heritage and historic values. I mean Burj Al Arab have been criticized because it resembled a cross and have been called the biggest Christian Cross in the world. Whether it was intended to be or not, I am sure the developers want to avoid such accusations in this project.

Although the proposal does have some fun features, such as the igal (the black circle at the top) is intended to be a rotating restaurant or a conference center, this is not what Islamic nor Arabic architecture is about. If the intention was to represent "heritage and historic values" through architecture, then depicting human beings is a big no no in Islamic architecture. Even though the architect intended to represent the dress as a symbol for culture, I am sure most people would have viewed the building as an abstract form of a human being. Besides considering the dress as a symbol of culture is very shallow. After all Islamic architecture and Islam always gave more importance to the interior rather than the exterior look. So representing our culture with how we look is not really the appropriate way.

Chill Out in Dubai

Located in Times Square Center, "Chill Out" coffee shop is inspired when Salah Sharaf, a board member of Sharaf Group, visited ABSOLUT ICEBAR in London. In a country where the temperature could exceed 40 degrees Celsius, the idea of an ice coffee shop looked a little ridiculous... but again this is Dubai... where you have a skiing resort in the middle of the desert, 3 identical man-made islands that look like palm trees, rotating towers and 100s of freak-ish-ly tall buildings being built each year.

Chill Out is the fifth in the world of its kind after London, Milan, Stockholm and Tokyo. The project costs AED9 million (US $2.45 million) and took a year and a half to be finalized. The ice, done by Iceculture Inc, will be shipped in freezer tanks by sea and air from Canada for the "best and cleanest kind of ice". Ships in Montreal will embark on a 6,500mile voyage to Dubai. 4 (23,000 kilograms of Ontario-made ice) containers, will set sail to the Middle East. A month later, eight Iceculture workers in Dubai will have $150,000 worth of ice to assemble into an 1,800-square-foot eatery, which will take approximately 7 days.

The restaurant has 3 areas; a lobby, a lounge, and a buffer zone. Visitors will spend 5 minutes in the 5 degrees Celsius buffer zone to allow the body to adjust for the drop in temperature in the dinning area and get a taste of whats coming next... once in the lobby, visitors will be given a hooded heavy jacket, disposable woollen gloves and a pair of shoes. The dinning area will be around -27 degrees Celsius and in all other ice bars visitors have to leave after 40 minutes for health reasons.... not in Dubai though you can freeze to death if you want to.

The electricity will be separate from the national grid, there will be private generators in case of any emergency. Specially designed LED lighting is used not to melt the ice. Every 3 months, all of the interior furniture from the seats and tables to the plates and glasses will be redesigned to revive the restaurant and give a chance for new designers. There will be no smoking in the restaurant (YESSSSS!). The flooring is made of anti-skid ceramic tiles. Will cost visitors AED60 including thermal gear and a free drink. And EVERYTHING is made of ice.

I don't even want to think about the carbon foot print that this project will have on the environment... I am sure it will make money though and unfortunately that's the only thing many people think of.

More info here and here and here