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A masterplan has been unveiled for the Burj 2020 District, an upcoming megaproject set to include a skyscraper dubbed ‘the diamond of Dubai’ [...]
The centerpiece of the district, the Burj 2020 tower, will be designed by Adrian Smith and Gordin Gill (AS + GG), the architects behind the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia.
— meconstructionnews.com
"The demand that will be registering will dictate the exact height of the tower, but at the highest, it might go 700 plus," the Executive Chairman of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, was quoted saying. "We are looking at a supertall tower, and we are looking at having one... View full entry
...From seemingly out of nowhere, a large quad-rotor drone drops out the cloudless sky over Dubai Internet City, hovering insect-like just above the heads of the men, watching them with camera-eyes.
Before they can even notice, a squad of policemen – wearing helmets, body armour, and carrying assault rifles – rush them...
Welcome to Dubai, and to one of the more awkward moments of an already odd competition called Drones For Good. We’re here to watch teams compete for a million-dollar prize...
— the BBC
The dean of OU's College of Architecture issued an apology Monday for wearing clothing associated with Islam at a back-to-school meeting.
A photo on the College of Architecture's Facebook page that has since been deleted showed Dean Charles Graham wearing a white thawb and a red keffiyeh on his head at the meeting on Aug. 20.
— The Oklahoma Daily
In his apology (posted below), Dean Graham wrote, "I asked a number of my Muslim friends around the campus and in Norman to see if my wearing the attire would be offensive in any religious way, and the answers were all resoundingly 'no.'" Still, his sartorial choice was controversial enough to... View full entry
Tall buildings specialist Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) has been chosen by the master developer of Dubai’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) district to design the Burj 2020 tower - set to be the world’s tallest commercial tower. [...]
The Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat ranks New York’s One World Trade Center as the world’s tallest commercial tower, at 541 metres. The height of Burj 2020 is yet to be revealed.
— thenational.ae
When most people think of the Arabian peninsula, they think of the opulent man-made islands of Dubai and that city’s sparking, futuristic towers... But with his series Crossings, Arko Datto shifts the attention to the millions of migrant workers from throughout Asia who are building these structures.
Datto used Google Maps and Google Earth to capture the vast highways, sprawling landscapes, and grand projects that laborers have built under conditions that border on slavery.
— Wired
“The work deals with the issue in a fairly abstract/tangential way,” Datto told Wired Magazine. “The total lack of human presence in the images is symbolic of the anonymity, facelessness, and lack of representation that the migrant workers suffer.” View full entry
Completely stable on the water, the base of the island is built to last for far over 100 years and will create a new underwater habitat for sea life, the company states, adding, it is building similar islands in Maldives and in Miami in the US. — emirates247.com
Dubai's "The World", a man-made archipelago of islands arranged like a world map, is now spawning private floating homes. The "luxury floating private islands" will be designed to specific client wishes, and reportedly will all come with a pool. Developed by Amillarah Private Islands, these aren't... View full entry
Dubai is home to the iconic 828-metre high Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, but companies here are now vying to claim second place on the list of tallest towers in the emirate.
[...] the trend of building 'megatall' towers — those which reach more than 600 metres high – is likely to increase, particularly in the Middle East. [...]
Currently, Dubai has 917 high-rises and 465 skyscrapers, states Emporis, which collates data on building worldwide.
— emirates247.com
[Rem Koolhaas] addressed a packed auditorium at the American University of Sharjah on Tuesday..."Dubai has escaped from its architectural caricatures,” Mr Koolhaas said... [He] had a positive outlook on the region despite recent upheaval and said that it provided the opportunity for the dawn of something new. He also praised the involvement of the country’s rulers and the freedom they have given to designers to transform the landscape of the region. — thenational.ae
Dubai continues to treat city planning like a simulation game with the cheats turned on, unveiling its latest architectural wonder: the Museum of the Future. The building is set to open in 2017, and while we're not quite sure how to describe its shape (a lopsided torus? An aerodynamic donut?) it serves an interesting dual purpose as both museum and research lab. — theverge.com
Residents affected by the fire that broke out in The Torch tower in Dubai Marina at the weekend have been moved to a nearby hotel while the extent of the damage is assessed. [...]
More than 1,000 people fled after a fire broke out at around 2am on Saturday in one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. [...]
The exact cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
— thenational.ae
Construction work on 'Aladdin City', a project inspired by the tales of Aladdin and Sindbad, will start next year, Dubai Municipality chief told Emirates 24|7. [...]
The project, which was announced in April 2014, will have three towers, comprising commercial and hotel space, with the towers spread over a distance of 450 metres on Dubai Creek. The total cost has not been revealed.
— emirates247.com
Dubai is already home to the biggest shopping mall in the world, but that apparently isn't enough.
The emirate is planning an even bigger mall, one so massive it's already being described as a temperature-controlled city. It's going to be called Mall of the World, and will stretch for 48 million square feet.
The plan may seem curious to Americans watching their neighborhood shopping malls start to fade.
— cbsnews.com
To its critics—and even many of its fans—“culture” and “Dubai” barely belong in the same sentence. The city is perhaps the world’s most extreme example of a business-first, built-from-the-sand boomtown. But Shoufani and her fellow Poeticians have become a prime exhibit in a debate that has broken out with renewed vigor in the Arab world and among urban theorists worldwide... — bostonglobe.com
Dubai won the bid to host the World Expo 2020, being the first Middle Eastern city selected in the Expo's 160-year history. HOK, in partnership with Populous and Arup, led the design team that developed the master plan, themed "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future." Their proposal won against those from Brazil, Russia, and Turkey.
The 1,082-acre (438-hectare) Expo site is equidistant from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, next to the new Al Maktoum International Airport and near the Jebel Ali Port.
— bustler.net
Images: HOK View full entry
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... View full entry