Archinect - News

New video shows construction progress on controversial Dubai Frame

2017-08-04T20:04:00-04:00

The Dubai Frame is quickly taking shape in the heart of the city, providing breathtaking views of 'old' and 'new' Dubai. A Dubai Municipality delegation on Thursday has given residents a sneak peek into one of the upcoming iconic structures in the city. [...] The work has already started on the frame's glass bridge, and the cladding is expected to be completed by the end of this year, a top senior Dubai Municipality official had told Khaleej Times earlier this year.

Construction work on Dubai's latest gilded landmark appears to be making progress as the Dubai Municipality documented today in a new social media video of a city government delegation visiting the site.

The design of the 150-meter-tall Dubai Frame structure isn't without controversy: the concept originally surfaced as the 2008-09 ThyssenKrupp competition-winning design by architect Fernando Donis who eventually filed a lawsuit against the Dubai Municipality for stealing the copyright to his design. In a 2015-interview, Donis told Archinect: “At the end they took it, built it and will profit from it, without having involved us nor paid us."

The opening date of Dubai Frame has been pushed back numerous times but is now expected to happen by the end of this year.

The conspicuous ethics of the Dubai Frame, opening date delayed to later this year

2017-03-13T14:49:00-04:00

Raised as a monument to Dubai’s aspirations as a center of international commerce, the Frame is now a physical manifestation of the crude system that erected it.

Considering the already controversial nature of the Dubai Frame, The New York Times recently published a piece on the project in relation to the city's “entrenched system [that notoriously] leaves outsiders vulnerable to mistreatment — from professionals sketching blueprints to construction workers laying foundations [...] a system in which kinship can outweigh contract terms”.

Based on the 2008-09 ThyssenKrupp competition-winning design by architect Fernando Donis, the 150-meter-tall Dubai Frame structure in Za'abeel Park has drawn plenty of opposition over the years, most notably from Donis himself. Donis filed a lawsuit against the Dubai Municipality for stealing the copyright to his design and for breaching the international UNESCO-UIA regulations from the competition. “At the end they took it, built it and will profit from it, without having involved us nor paid us,” Donis previously told Archinect in 2015.

After multiple delays, the opening date of the Dubai Frame was pushed bac...

Archinect speaks to designer of controversial Dubai Frame project

2015-12-17T12:55:00-05:00

Whatever you think of the initial "Tall Emblematic Structure in Dubai" prompt, there's no doubt that some fairly significant changes were made to Fernando Donis' winning design for the Dubai Frame and the actual monument as it is being constructed. As Archinect commenter Donna Sink noted, "The proposal shows the frame section being an extruded square. The project being built has angled mitered corners. Angled mitered corners recall the traditional shape of a picture frame, and mitered corners are not Modern. In something as simple as this, changing the corner connection completely changes the cultural resonance of the form. In short, the designer is right to be pissed."

Archinect had the opportunity to speak directly with designer Fernando Donis about how he ultimately didn't get paid for his work due to a fraught contract signing process, his open letter to Dubai Municipality, and his advice to architects thinking about entering future open design competitions.

Archinect: What happe...