Archinect - News

Abu Dhabi announced as second Sphere venue location

2024-10-15T14:01:00-04:00

The second iteration of the popular Sphere venue will be located in Abu Dhabi after officials from the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT) announced a deal with its New York-based holding company Sphere Entertainment.

The first Sphere location outside of the United States is part of the intended vision of CEO James Dolan for a global network of venues and will require the DCT to pay a franchise initiation fee for the use of proprietary designs and intellectual property. It also aligns with Abu Dhabi's larger 2030 Tourism Strategy, which spurred an investment equal to at least $10 billion.

The DCT Abu Dhabi will also be asked to pay an annual fee to use the Sphere’s creative and artistic content. Populous’ original design for the 20,000-seat Las Vegas Sphere cost a total of $2.3 billion to construct between 2019 and 2023.

This ends some speculation as to where the Sphere would exp...

KPF completes Abu Dhabi airport inspired by undulating sand dunes

2024-02-13T11:58:00-05:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox has completed Terminal A of the Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Formerly named Abu Dhabi International, the new complex will serve up to 45 million passengers per year, doubling the airport’s previous capacity.

Image credit: Victor Romero

The design of the new terminal was informed by the country’s undulating desert sand dunes and the geometric patterns of Islamic heritage. Externally, the form was developed from a desire to provide shading for the interior without the use of external shading devices, which could be impacted by sand accumulation. Instead, the undulating form “drapes” over the facade, where high-performance glass is fritted in a graduated pattern to further mitigate solar glare.

Image credit: Victor Romero

As visitors approach the terminal, they are met with a 160-foot-tall, free-standing glazed facade, behind which sits a largely column-free departure hall. The hall’s supporting arc...

Adjaye Associates completes Abrahamic Family House, a collection of religious spaces that ‘dissolves the notion of hierarchal difference’

2023-02-24T11:50:00-05:00

Adjaye Associates has completed their Abrahamic Family House project in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The development is comprised of three religious spaces: a mosque, a synagogue, and a church, all of which sit upon a secular visitor pavilion, with a mission of “nurturing the values of peaceful co-existence and acceptance among different beliefs, nationalities, and cultures.”

Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue. Photo credit: Dror Baldinger

Within each of the three places of worship, visitors will be able to observe religious services, listen to scriptures, and experience sacred rituals. The fourth sacred space will meanwhile serve as a center for people of all faiths, offering educational and event-based programming.

“As an architect, I want to create a building that starts to dissolve the notion of hierarchical difference — it should represent universality and totality — something higher, that enhances the richness of human life,” said David Adjaye about the interfaith complex, which is set to open in t...

Architecture can be 'an exercise of violence' warns Forensic Architecture founder

2022-10-25T13:38:00-04:00

Forensic Architecture founder Eyal Weizman has used a speech at the Culture Summit Abu Dhabi to set out the group’s position on the relationship between architecture and human rights. Weizman, who is also a professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, offered the summit a series of examples of how the Peabody Award-winning, Turner Prize-nominated organization has used spatial principles to expose human rights abuses.

“Forensic architecture is a way of reading architectural facts, architectural material, architectural situations, in order to see within them evidence for these violations that I'm speaking about,” Weizman said, as reported by The National News. “Perhaps the best way to understand it is, just like a pathologist reads a dead body — looking at the bones — forensic architecture looks for evidence of these crimes in walls, in foundations, in buildings, in plans, in bridges, in roads etc in a way that they're conceived sometimes, in order to survey and control us.”

Related...

Abu Dhabi unveils emirate-wide digital twin project

2022-10-19T09:00:00-04:00

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) has announced the launch of a digital twin project, a first-of-its-kind initiative for the emirate capital.

The undertaking was unveiled during GITEX Technology Week, a tech and startup event held in the Dubai World Trade Center, which ended last week. The project will integrate a range of advanced technology, including aerial photography, LiDAR scanning, and game engines to create an accurate digital copy of Abu Dhabi, supporting the work of planners, engineers, and specialists from the public and private sectors. The aim is to simulate changes to the city’s built environment in 3D and evaluate vast amounts of data. For example, spatial analysis tools will assist in analyzing the impacts of various urban planning scenarios.

The emirate’s buildings, infrastructure, and even interior spaces will be made virtual to improve planning a...

Gehry's Guggenheim Abu Dhabi gets a new opening date…again

2021-09-30T17:41:00-04:00

Frank Gehry has met with Emirati leader Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed in the UAE as the planned Guggenheim Abu Dhabi has announced yet another amended opening date for the second time in as many weeks, according to a press release.

The museum will now open in 2025, a year earlier than was previously announced by director Richard Armstrong at a press conference last week in Basel, Switzerland.

“It is truly thrilling to see this project enter into this new phase,” Gehry said in a statement. “I am immensely proud to work closely with our partners, DCT Abu Dhabi and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, to create a home for their ground-breaking cultural program. I hope that this building is embraced by the people of the UAE and that this work will endure as a landmark for the country for many years to come.”

Previously on Archinect: Opening of Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi announced for 2026. Image courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP

“As we move forward with our plans, it is crucial to re...

Opening of Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi announced for 2026

2021-09-21T17:06:00-04:00

The long-awaited Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will open in five years, said the institution’s director Richard Armstrong at a press briefing held today in Basel.

One of Frank Gehry’s most-anticipated projects to date, the $200 million Guggenheim Abu Dhabi satellite museum, has been pushed back numerous times over the years after being originally announced by Armstrong’s predecessor in July of 2006.

Armstrong’s tenure has been permeated by protests over the labor conditions of workers in the UAE. The new museum will complete the cultural segment of Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island, which includes Jean Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi and a planned performing art center from Zaha Hadid.

“We think it should be five years from next week,” he said. “It looks like everything is coming together, so we can say something definitive. It has been a relatively long gestation.”

World's largest single-site solar project goes online in Abu Dhabi

2019-07-09T13:16:00-04:00

Abu Dhabi is claiming the title of the world's largest single-site solar project, having hit the go-button on the Noor Abu Dhabi project this week, with a reported capacity of 1.177 gigawatts, eclipsing Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park – for now at least. The United Arab Emirates doesn't have a great record when it comes to per-capita carbon footprint, but projects like this show that it's serious about addressing the issue head-on.

"According to the Abu Dhabi media office, the project has sufficient capacity to supply 90,000 people and is expected to reduce Abu Dhabi's CO2 emissions by one million metric tons, or the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars from the road," reports New Atlas.

Construction of Gehry's Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to commence 'soon'

2019-04-30T14:24:00-04:00

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is a project earmarked for the capital’s Saadiyat Island. The museum is being developed near the completed Louvre Abu Dhabi, as part of the emirate’s increased tourism marketing spend by $136 million over three years. The experimental, sculptural Guggenheim building, is the design of famed architect Frank Gehry.

"It's a big building, parts of it are quite complex and it should take a little bit of time to put together as it's also quite large," Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, explains in a recent Euronews interview, assuring that the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi was "on track and on budget."

Image: TDIC and Gehry Partners, LLP

The Land Art Generator Initiative encourages designers to be a part of the great energy transition

2019-03-14T14:58:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by The Land Art Generator Initiative

What does the future of renewable energy look like? As the world comes together over the next decade to meet the challenge of global climate change, solar, wind, and other renewable energy installations will be distributed across rooftops, farmlands, vacant lots, and sites of every kind and scale around the world, having an impact on our cities and rural landscapes like nothing else since the construction of the automobile superhighways of the twentieth century.

While the vast majority of this new infrastructure will be utilitarian installations designed to meet the most competitive cost per kilowatt-hour, the great energy transition also offers the opportunity—for cherished places, sensitive sites, and when community engagement is key to long-term project success—to think creatively about how clean energy technology can weave itself into the cultural landscapes of our cities. When future generations look back at this ...

Plans for the first commercial Hyperloop system in the United Arab Emirates

2018-04-24T18:08:00-04:00

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) recently signed an agreement with Aldar Properties PJSC, a leading real estate developer in Abu Dhabi, to begin construction on the first commercial Hyperloop system in the United Arab Emirates.

Rendering of HyperloopTT station in UAE, in collaboration with AN.ONYMOUS. Image: HyperloopTT.

The first phase of construction will begin with a 6 mile stretch of development between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Design for the Hyperloop pylon is a collaboration with MAD architects, while the station design is in collaboration with AN.ONYMOUS. The agreement also includes building a Hyperloop XO Square Innovation Center and Visitor Center. This section is located close to the Expo 2020 site and Al Maktoum International Airport, with the goal of having it up and running in time for Expo 2020.

Rendering of HyperloopTT station in UAE, in collaboration with AN.ONYMOUS. Image: HyperloopTT.

The Hyperloop system, first presented by Elon Musk, will move pe...

MVRDV reveals “Pixel” mixed-use scheme for their first UAE project

2017-12-11T19:14:00-05:00

MVRDV will be making their mark in the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi with a new project called “Pixel”. The mixed-use project will be part of the 18-hectare Makers District development near the Saadiyat Island cultural hub.

The 76,000 m2 Pixel development will have seven mid-rise, relatively slim towers along the perimeter of the plot, as a response to local sun and wind conditions and to maximize views of the waterfront and landscape. The “mini-towers”, as MVRDV describes, will surround a central public plaza that is accessible from all directions of the plot.

Image © MVRDV.

The towers will incorporate retail, office, co-working, and community spaces on the lower levels, with the smallest commercial spaces at 50 m2 specifically for young start-ups and entrepreneurs. The upper levels will offer 480 apartment units of various types and sizes to fit different lifestyles. “All of the towers' façades combine concrete with luminous ceramics on the inside, a...

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.

Edoardo Tresoldi builds a ghostly wire mesh structure in Abu Dhabi

2017-05-22T12:32:00-04:00

Last year, artist Edoardo Tresoldi made waves with his wire mesh sculpture in Foggia, Italy. Installed adjacent to the basilica of Siponto, the sculpture is a full-size cathedral in its own right, built on the ruins of an older church that once stood on the site. The wire mesh creates an ethereal, spectral appearance, like a hologram or a project. Now, the artist has returned with another stunning installation—a massive event space for a royal event in Abu Dhabi.

Covering a 7,000 square meter space, the installation was built over three months. Like the sculpture in Foggia, this one is made of wire mesh and references classical architecture. After the event, pieces of the installation will be reinstalled separately in universities, parks and museums across the city.

Examining the politics of starchitect megaprojects in Abu Dhabi

2016-12-16T15:18:00-05:00

Even if Abu Dhabi has almost unique economic and institutional conditions and rests for now as a borderline case of development profiles, it still highlights several common problems in contemporary large-scale development projects and in the use of star architecture in other parts of the world: little care for the context of branded projects, de-politicization of urban development, weak and inconsistent public planning...[and] spectacular architecture [for] global competition and media exposure

An excerpt from the upcoming book “Starchitecture. Scenes, Actors, and Spectacles in Contemporary Cities” by Davide Ponzini and Michele Nastasi examines Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island megaproject, and argues how such projects show the little influence that famous architects can have on city-building initiatives today.

'Jet-like' maglev pods are coming to Abu Dhabi's Yas Island

2016-06-29T17:36:00-04:00

skyTran’s computer-controlled, 2-person “jet-like” vehicles employ magnetic levitation technology instead of wheels. The patented high-speed, low-cost, elevated PRT system built at the NASA Ames Research Centre, will have cars zipping above traffic along magnetic lines from one destination to another across the island, a statement said.

More transportation news on Archinect:

Masdar abandons its dream of becoming the first zero-carbon city

2016-02-23T14:33:00-05:00

Masdar City, when it was first conceived a decade ago, was intended to revolutionise thinking about cities and the built environment. Now the world’s first planned sustainable city – the marquee project of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) plan to diversify the economy from fossil fuels - could well be the world’s first green ghost town. As of this year [...] managers have given up on the original goal of building the world’s first planned zero-carbon city.

Masdar City previously in the Archinect news:

Unchecked climate change will make the Gulf uninhabitable, claims new study

2015-10-26T21:03:00-04:00

The Gulf in the Middle East, the heartland of the global oil industry, will suffer heatwaves beyond the limit of human survival if climate change is unchecked, according to a new scientific study. The extreme heatwaves will affect Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and coastal cities in Iran as well as posing a deadly threat to millions of Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, when the religious festival falls in the summer.

"The study shows the extreme heatwaves, more intense than anything ever experienced on Earth, would kick in after 2070 and that the hottest days of today would by then be a near-daily occurrence."

Related:

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:

Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong talks Helsinki, Abu Dhabi, New York

2015-06-16T17:15:00-04:00

We spoke to Richard Armstrong, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, on the eve of the exhibition Guggenheim Helsinki Now: Six Finalist Designs Unveiled at the Kunsthalle Helsinki [...] So the Guggenheim Helsinki will really happen? Come June we will say which architect seems best for the job; then there has to be a vote in city council again [...]. So there are still a few legislative hurdles ahead, but I would predict yes. It’s irresistible.

Did you submit one of the record-shattering 1,715 entries to the Guggenheim Helsinki competition and think it's worth presenting to the wider Archinect audience? Check out the related Archinect Project Collections list to see other user contributions and learn how to get yours listed, too.

Labor violations affirmed in latest report of NYU Abu Dhabi construction

2015-04-21T20:26:00-04:00

An independent investigation into the construction of New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus has found that despite the school’s best intentions and efforts, about one third of the workforce at the site — roughly 10,000 workers — was not covered by the school’s labor guidelines, and thus faced unfair and exploitative practices [that were reported in previous allegations].

To add to that, construction of the NYUAD main campus is nearly complete and the workers have already moved on to other jobs.

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.

Get a drone's eye view of Foster + Partners' Masdar City in Abu Dhabi

2015-02-27T22:00:00-05:00

UK/Dubai-based media company Electric Lime Productions recently released a film for the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi called "The Arcology", defined as "a vision of architectural design principles for very densely populated habitats (hyperstructures)"

The short video below is a highlight from a student recruitment film, showing off beautiful aerial shots of Foster + Partners' solar-powered Masdar City and its desert landscape -- all captured by drone.

Guggenheim protesters highlight poor labor practices

2014-04-01T12:45:00-04:00

Saadiyat Island, off the coast of Abu Dhabi, has seen $27 billion in investments pour in as the island hopes to become a new beacon of culture in the region developers behind the island have received international attention for the poor conditions in which migrant laborers work and live. Reports have found that in some cases, the control employers hold over the island's workers, such as withholding their passports to prevent them from returning to their home countries, amounts to forced labor.

Saadiyat Island includes a half-billion-dollar branch of the Louvre Museum designed by Jean Nouvel, a national museum designed by Norman Foster and a variety of luxury resorts, golf clubs, marinas and private villas.

Where does an architect's responsibility begin and where does it end?

Guggenheim Spoof Site Targets Abu Dhabi Controversy

2014-03-28T12:37:00-04:00

A spoof Guggenheim website, globalguggenheim.org, went live this morning with a satirical “Sustainable Design Competition” for the global museum’s embattled Abu Dhabi branch. The website, a slightly modified replica of the official Guggenheim version, features images of Saadiyat Island, where the museum is to be built, overlayed with the hashtag #futureguggenheim, as well as references to Gulf Labor’s ongoing 52 Weeks campaign.

Launch event tonight! "Shaping the City" refreshes case studies of contemporary urbanism

2013-11-01T18:52:00-04:00

Drop by Hollywood’s finest art and architecture bookstore, Hennessey + Ingalls, tonight for a special event launching Shaping the City, a newly revised edition of contemporary urbanism case studies. The event will also feature a conversation with University of Toronto’s Director of Urban Design, and Shaping the City’s editor, Rodolphe el-Khoury, along with Qingyun Ma, Dean of USC School of Architecture. The conversation will also include Shaping the City contributors Teddy Cruz, Victor J. Jones, and Paulette Singley.

Archinect picked the brains of el-Khoury and Singley before the launch, here’s some tidbits:

Archinect: What was your contribution to Shaping the City?

Rodolphe el-Khoury: [Co-author Edward Robbins and I] conceived Shaping the City as a potential textbook that would sample aspects of the city without imposing an overarching conceptual framework on the complex and varied manifestations of urban forms and phenomena.

Paulette Singley: "Los Angeles: Between Cognit...

CTBUH 2013 Best Tall Building, Middle East & Africa: Sowwah Square by Goettsch Partners

2013-07-10T14:35:00-04:00

In our previous post, we published the four regional winners of the Best Tall Building prize conferred annually by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Winner of the award for the Middle East & Africa region is the five-building Sowwah Square complex in Abu Dhabi designed by Chicago architecture firm Goettsch Partners and developed by Mubadala Real Estate & Infrastructure.

Flush With Oil, Abu Dhabi Opens World's Largest Solar Plant

2013-03-19T16:45:00-04:00

Abu Dhabi, the most oil-rich of the United Arab Emirates, is now home to the world's single-largest concentrated solar power plant. The 100-megawatt Shams 1 plant cost an estimated $750 million and is expected to provide electricity to 20,000 homes, according to the BBC. Why, you might ask? Bloomberg says the less oil Abu Dhabi uses for local consumption, the more it can export.