Archinect - News

Fabricator of Louvre Abu Dhabi's lattice dome declares insolvency due to the project

2018-11-27T18:48:00-05:00

Waagner-Biro, the Austrian steel engineering company that built the dome of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, has announced its insolvency and is fighting to save parts of its business by selling off subsidiaries. Austrian press reports say that delays in payment and spiralling costs of the Louvre project were chiefly to blame for the company’s struggles.

Established in 1854 as a locksmith, Waagner-Biro has played a significant role in architectural steel engineering. Some of their high-profile projects include the spiraling roof of the Great Court in the British Museum, the dome of the Reichstag in Berlin, and a stage system for the Sydney Opera House, to name a few.

A failure "in truth-telling"

2017-12-03T14:32:00-05:00

Starchitecture is out of fashion these days, but it can still produce visual wonders. The look of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by Jean Nouvel, might be described as Arabic-galactic. In the form of an immense, filigreed gray half-sphere resting on a low base infiltrated by water channels, it could pass as a spaceship, an unfinished mosque or a Venetian pavilion set on the edge of the Persian Gulf.

Holland Cotter reviews the new building and collection/inaugural installation, of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Jean Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi opens

2017-11-07T15:00:00-05:00

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has finally opened its doors a decade after the agreement between the French and Emirati governments was signed to establish the mega-museum on Saadiyat Island. [...] An underwhelming entrance via a nondescript car park might be improved in years to come by an adjoining garden. “It should appear in a few years,” Nouvel said, adding that this was dependent on funding.

The video above shows the installation of Giuseppe Penone’s sculpture ‘Leaves of Light’ and the beautiful movement of the spots of light coming through the structure's massive dome.

Also watch Jean Nouvel describe his design for the "first universal museum in the Arab world" in a brief video interview here.

Jean Nouvel rejects accusations of exploitation at Louvre Abu Dhabi

2017-09-25T15:31:00-04:00

The French architect Jean Nouvel has defended his Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, a massive domed complex that opens in November, from accusations it was built by exploited and abused migrant workers. [...] In an interview as the finishing touches are put to the colossal construction, the architect dismissed accusations over exploited workers as an “old question” and insisted conditions for those building the museum were better than for some employed in Europe.

"A 2015 a Human Rights Watch report," The Guardian explains, "suggested migrants working on the Louvre museum and neighbouring Guggenheim, part of a £18bn 'cultural hub' on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, were subjected to conditions amounting to forced labour including summary arrest and deportation if they complained."

Nouvel insists on having inspected the workers living quarters at the beginning of the project, resulting in no concerns: "We saw no problem."

Louvre Abu Dhabi's "rain of light" concept © Louvre Abu Dhabi, Photography: Mohamed Somji

Widespread human rights abuses of migrant laborers building the Gulf region's megaprojects have repeatedly been reported over the past years.

New photos of Louvre Abu Dhabi appear on Twitter

2017-08-23T21:01:00-04:00

Mr Pouille posted pictures of the museum's exterior, including its 7,000-tonne dome, which shelters many of the museum's gallery spaces while creating a microclimate for its internal plaza areas. They also show the Louvre Abu Dhabi's concrete beach, whose steps have been designed to act as an amphitheater-like public gathering space and viewing platform, just opposite the main museum complex.

Ludovic Pouille, the social media-savvy French ambassador to the UAE, has posted photos from his recent visit of Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi on Twitter.

The opening of the museum is projected to take place later this year.

The (2016-2017) Amazing Expanding Arts Universe

2016-10-12T23:53:00-04:00

Between now and next fall, Mr. Holl’s office will dedicate five major arts projects in the United States. In the same period, dozens of new cultural commissions will open around the world, many by the biggest names in the architectural business, including David Adjaye, Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Thomas Heatherwick, Fumihiko Maki, Mecanoo, and Robert A. M. Stern.

Despite earlier predictions and rumors to the contrary, Reed Kroloff reports on the Millions of Square Feet, Billions of Dollars: (from the new Tate Modern and Elbphilharmonie, to The National Kaohsiung Arts Center in Taiwan) of new cultural commissions.

Gulf Labor initiative renews criticism of Abu Dhabi museums over migrant workers' rights

2015-08-03T19:39:00-04:00

Migrant workers building branches of the Guggenheim Museum, the Louvre and the Zayed National Museum on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi continue to face crushing debt, substandard wages and harsh working conditions despite recent efforts to improve treatment, according to a report published this week by Gulf Labor, a coalition of artists and activists. [...] the researchers found that “underpayment is far and away the primary concern” for the workers themselves.

This issue of labor rights in the greater gulf region previously on Archinect:

Is the Louvre Abu Dhabi Worth Celebrating?

2015-03-16T17:46:00-04:00

The Louvre Abu Dhabi looks set to open in 2016, as work on Jean Nouvel’s colossal construction speeds up and his vision of a modern medina starts to crystallise on what was once a desert island. This vast project has been stupendously controversial...Abu Dhabi’s new cultural centre is being built by exploited and abused migrant workers...Fifty years from now, when the Louvre Abu Dhabi has established itself as one of the world’s great museums, how clearly will its dark beginnings be remembered?

In Jones' op-ed, he makes a strange case, stating point blank: "Nothing excuses the inhuman working conditions that have been reported." Yet, for him, these "unexcusable" working conditions might produce nothing short of "a revolutionary subversion of the old European imperialism of knowledge." Jones asserts that the world needs a "a network of cultural oases on every continent." And, if this is accomplished, "That would vindicate the democratic educational dream of the Enlightenment, from which the first world museums grew."

I'd imagine, however, that for many of the workers currently locked into de facto slavery, art and culture are the last things they actually need. In fact, they may argue that the resources currently being applied towards the museum could instead be used to pay living wages or to provide for their basic needs. Of course, Jones' point is that these issues shouldn't be mutually exclusive, and that the merits of a museum may outweigh the conditions that brought the...

An updated look at the conditions for Abu Dhabi's migrant workers

2015-03-04T14:30:00-05:00

With all the cultural, sports and real-estate projects launched throughout the United Arab Emirates, there have been persistent protests about the working and living conditions [...] ”Serious concerns about workers’ rights have not been resolved”, claims the advocacy group, asking for a commitment for ”more serious protection” from these institutions and Saadiyat Island’s developers. [...] appears to have made a serious effort to address the concern expressed by Western museums and architects.