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.
— The Guardian
"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."
Widespread human rights abuses of migrant laborers building the Gulf region's megaprojects have repeatedly been reported over the past years.
8 Comments
"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"
Yeah, right. Starchitects think their shit don't stink. F U Nouvel.
Migrant workers are treated poorly everywhere, including on affordable housing projects in the U.S. Pinning your socio-economic anxiety on “starchitecture” is a simple-minded cop out. Let’s separate the two please.
That said, architects worst impulses (as designers) seem to come out in these Middle East projects.... this is a mediocre one liner. Pretty but lifeless, like Melania. (IM Pei’s museum is the only good one I’ve seen there).
Saying that migrant workers in the US are treated worse or same as in the Middle East is the biggest crock of shit Ive ever heard, even on archinect, even from a star-fucker. The fact is that "starchitects" have a social responsibility simply because they have a voice that people listen to (as opposed to the corporate firms). What you are asking one to do is to look at the architecture divorced from the social reality. Typical starfucker.
You miss the point... I’m saying connect worker abuse to all projects. if anything there is probably more of a spotlight on worker abuses for high profile projects than anon corporate work. That most construction work happens in the shadows is a problem.... this is just an excuse by the anti-architecture lamestream media to take shots at designers (also practicing my whataboutism so I can design Trump Tower in Moscow.... call me!)
I want more facts. And it's almost too late for this vital issue. I've personally visited this project while it was under construction. I'm sure there's documentation to prove the level of worker treatment and compensation.
(From the photographs.) It is very scenic. A bath house Cleopatra would like, or a film set where the evil antagonist thinks he got the hero but not. My favorite script would be an opulent art haist, when the museum losing its best collection to an Israeli mission impossible team but not without an hi speed chase by the Iranian navy seals on inflatable boats. At the end, the protagonists picked up by a rusted French cargo ship in exchange for the famous art.
I think Nouvel is the most filmic among the superstar architects who does not suppress his narratives. This museum is hi-arabesque that oil rich Abu Dhabi thoroughly appreciates. I don't think you can do this in the west, we are not that fictional.
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