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I was wondering, is anyone interested in architecture here? Whenever I hear people talking about Dubai (I don't live in Dubai btw) all I hear is real estate, real estate, market crash, real estate, real estate, etc... Hardly anyone I know talks about how any of these new buildings going up will actually look like and feel. Also I wonder how they will all fit together. Take the marina for example, will it become a great place or will it be a super-congested concrete jungle. I think the jumeirah beach residence has done a great job of ruining the marina because of how they recycled a design (a pretty bad one at that) 40 times for 40 towers. It could still turn out OK in the end though since in the most recent pictures that I've seen the parts near street level seem a lot better. One good thing about the beachfront near the marina though is the twin towers in front that look great:



The reason why I dislike the JBR is because this could have been one of the best beachfront skylines in the world if all the towers looked as good as those 2.


I always wonder how many architects are actually working on buildings for this city. Dubai's height fetish reminds me of New York in the 20s and 30s. I'm sure we know of burj dubai right? (click on the pics for bigger pictures)




but do you know that from what's planned now Dubai will have at least 24 towers over 1000 feet in the next 7 or 8 years? The city with the most right now is Chicago with 5.








I don't actually care about how high these things are. The key is a good design. There are a good number of buildings going up that look like crap but some developers fail to realise that with so much being built only projects that are of good quality will be successful. Some do actually seem to be very good though. Here are some of my favourites that should be ready in a few years:




Dubai has some pretty whacky proposals aswell. The burj al arab would be a good example but there are also a few in the works. Here is the centrepiece for the palm jumeirah, was redesigned and released only yesterday:

old design:



new design:



I really prefer the new one since the old reminded me too much of this:




I think it would be great if Dubai built some kind of theatre or something designed by a world class architect. I've heard something of an opera house being built near the creek, can't wait for some drawings.

Just wanted to share my thoughts, is there anyone else who's even remotely interested in this sort of stuff?

(btw thanks to skyscrapercity.com for all these pictures. It has probably the biggest collection of info and images anywhere. If you've invested there it's probably a better source of info than the developers themselves)

who cares as long as the builders are making money and the ppl are happy

thx for the info i live in dubai and i didnt know taht there were so many high rise towers being buit here

btw the interiors of burj duabi are being designed by giorgio armani

Xibit!!! You robbed your name from yer man who does 'pimp my ride' on mtv.................

Or maybe you are him-yay,we got someone famous on DF!!!

Architecture in Dubai? Madness!

If it can be built bigger and glitzier, then they'll build it...and faster! That's the worrying part, they sling them up so fast, it makes me wonder just how safe and secure they are!

When the first one comes tumbling down, there will be a reckoning...I reckon!



Knight

The empire state building was built in just over a year and that was in the 1930s. Burj dubai by comparrison is taking about 4 years.

dannyM wrote:I was wondering, is anyone interested in architecture here? Whenever I hear people talking about Dubai (I don't live in Dubai btw) all I hear is real estate, real estate, market crash, real estate, real estate, etc... Hardly anyone I know talks about how any of these new buildings going up will actually look like and feel. Also I wonder how they will all fit together. Take the marina for example, will it become a great place or will it be a super-congested concrete jungle. I think the jumeirah beach residence has done a great job of ruining the marina because of how they recycled a design (a pretty bad one at that) 40 times for 40 towers. It could still turn out OK in the end though since in the most recent pictures that I've seen the parts near street level seem a lot better. One good thing about the beachfront near the marina though is the twin towers in front that look great:

What I don't like about the JBR is the buildings are somewhat regimented. They did'nt really put the principles of composition into play here.

If anyone can tell me the premise or why they chose the style of architecture in a beachfront, I'd be interested to know about it.

saracen wrote:If anyone can tell me the premise or why they chose the style of architecture in a beachfront, I'd be interested to know about it.

I don't know but I presume they were designed to be as cheap and as cost effective as possible, all function no aesthetics. Their positioning is pretty clever actually since the way they're placed allows for the most amount of apartments getting sea views.

BTW, has anyone seen the new Aed100bn monstrosity released yesterday? The massive dubailand resort that'll build replicas of the world's tallest towers including the burj dubai!!

It's the tall tower near the bottom:




Petronas towers, taipei 101 (current tallest), bank of china and the weird thing from Shanghai:






And the big burj: (click on the link)

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com ... JnXPJ0nA--


Unbelievable what some people can come up with!

Just wanted to bring this thread back, these towers were released the other day. Designed by Zaha Hadid, she doesn't have a lot of stuff built and most of her work has been conceptual, these should be built though (if it's possible ) She's also designing an opera house here




Anyway, I wanted to show this great 3D model I found on www.skyscrapercity.com (the site has loads of useful info on different projects, etc). Vision of the future in 10 to 15 years time


















I wonder how many more scams will arise between now and then

Dubai and the UAE is a place where every Architect can live out their dream and design their fantasy.

Actually Abu Dhabi has some of the most horendous buildings you could ever imagine.

One off Buildings like Burj Al Arab (W.S. Atkins) are great in my opinion.

Emirates Towers (NORR Group) is another stand alone icon.

JBR, is for me a nightmare, I reall feel sorry for Al Fattan, the owner of the twin towers in the middle (Also NORR Group)

However the dream goes on, which I would imagine is the direct or indirect reason that most of us are here.

Sheikh Rashid Bin Maktoum was a visionary.... Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid continues his legacy....

To think that these people and the UAE itself was a backwater Arab land not even 30 years ago....

dannyM wrote:


The reason why I dislike the JBR is because this could have been one of the best beachfront skylines in the world if all the towers looked as good as those 2.

Danny I wonder if they actually will look like those two. It would be great to see a picture of what the finished project would look like.

And the two small building on the bottom right; are those resorts?

A64Venice wrote:
Danny I wonder if they actually will look like those two. It would be great to see a picture of what the finished project would look like.

They will look like that. If you go to the JBR sales office in the Marina, or in the foyer near Scarlet's at Emirates Tower they have the models there. I thnk they look reasonable although a bit chunky.

I'm worried what the traffic in the marina will be like.

Liban wrote:Sheikh Rashid Bin Maktoum was a visionary.... Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid continues his legacy....

To think that these people and the UAE itself was a backwater Arab land not even 30 years ago....

what visionary?? well if I had monnie i would hire archirtects and do the same instead ask ur leader to concentrate on more imp parts

dannyM wrote:Just wanted to bring this thread back, these towers were released the other day. Designed by Zaha Hadid, she doesn't have a lot of stuff built and most of her work has been conceptual, these should be built though (if it's possible ) She's also designing an opera house here




I wonder how many more scams will arise between now and then

this is one of the most wackiest buildings i have seen so far......i hope those residents get insurance b4 livin there ...

the etisalat building (?) they're putting up in sh. zyed road

sniper420 wrote:

Liban wrote:Sheikh Rashid Bin Maktoum was a visionary.... Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid continues his legacy....

To think that these people and the UAE itself was a backwater Arab land not even 30 years ago....

what visionary?? well if I had monnie i would hire archirtects and do the same instead ask ur leader to concentrate on more imp parts

so u think now its about money ?

all GCC country have money ..we didnt see them doing somthin ?

and please dnt talk about our leaders ..ok sweety .