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Dubai is filled with some spectacular, modern looking buildings … Iconic, is one word that PR agencies love to use.

On the flipside there are also some hideous looking monstrosities where the only comments could be “What the hell were they thinking!”

What is, in your opinion the worst looking/ designed building in Dubai?


Mine is the Mazya centre, it reminds me of a huge bathroom, including the stainless steel toilet roll holders

The WTC is starting to look tired and dated

dbxsoul wrote:Dubai is filled with some spectacular, modern looking buildings … Iconic, is one word that PR agencies love to use.

On the flipside there are also some hideous looking monstrosities where the only comments could be “What the hell were they thinking!”

What is in your opinion the worst looking/ designed building in Dubai?


Mine is the Mazya centre, it reminds me of a huge bathroom, including the stainless steel toilet roll holders

The fact that all of the Jumeira beach residences are exactly the same design and colour ....

ajb wrote:The fact that all of the Jumeira beach residences are exactly the same design and colour ....

On the inside however they are majestic.

When they're finished they will have racing stripes of different colours put on them.

DEWA, DU, ETISHITALOT...basically all the buildings you go in richer and come out thinking why oh why?

i hate lamsy Plaza , it sux and its ugly and everytime i go i get dizzy

Corcovado wrote:i hate lamsy Plaza , it sux and its ugly and everytime i go i get dizzy

LOL

Eeewww - that horrible, beige coloured building that looks like a pile of egg trays - you know, the one near DIFC/Emirates Towers.

that is the WTC, Zoots

the_zooter wrote:Eeewww - that horrible, beige coloured building that looks like a pile of egg trays - you know, the one near DIFC/Emirates Towers.

lol...egg trays

arniegang wrote:that is the WTC, Zoots

That building just over defence opposite Burj Dubai can't remember name

arniegang wrote:that is the WTC, Zoots

Woops - my bad!

Just always remember it as the egg tray building!

I actually like the WTC - it's an honest building with some style, somewhat reminiscent of some of the early NY skyscrapers.

My vote would be the Karama Market buildings - now that is only reminscent of a run-down council estate in the UK - the one's that are getting pulled down.

Cheers,
Shafique

shafique wrote:My vote would be the Karama Market buildings - now that is only reminscent of a run-down council estate in the UK - the one's that are getting pulled down.

They are pulling down Karama Market??

One which I hate is one that's right beside chelsea tower, I think it's on the left, it's a typical tacky tower with bright red and blue colours and then roman columns at the bottom which don't match the rest of the tower at all. In the future it'll be the big ben replica

Zoots - I meant the council estates they're pulling down in the UK - not Karama. At least, I haven't heard they're pulling it down

Cheers,
Shafique

WTC always reminded me of an oversized pidgeon loft

dannyM wrote:One which I hate is one that's right beside chelsea tower, I think it's on the left, it's a typical tacky tower with bright red and blue colours and then roman columns at the bottom which don't match the rest of the tower at all. In the future it'll be the big ben replica

I think that building is alright actually! The Chelsea tower itself freaks me a little - its that spike that runs through the top - I keep thinking it might drop through the building (which is very off putting when you are staying there!)

shafique wrote:Zoots - I meant the council estates they're pulling down in the UK - not Karama. At least, I haven't heard they're pulling it down

Cheers,
Shafique

Thats ok then - will still be able to get some cheap, knock-offs!

dbxsoul wrote:WTC always reminded me of an oversized pidgeon loft

One made out of egg trays??

yep, either that or have a gigantic world globe stuck on top and change it into the headquarters for planet hollywood

Architecturally, there have been some total doofers in Dubai...

The Emirates training centre building that looks like the front of an airbus (that now has become so iconic that they cannot get rid of it, even if they wanted to!)

The blue and gold glass monstrosity on the beach road between Diyafah and Shindagah...with the 'breaking waves' all down the side!

Most of the towers on the Sheikh Zayed Road...as they all seem to be on standard plot sizes and therefore all just little copies of each other. They just get higher...and higher!

Most of the stuff in the Marina is looking like each other as well now.

How many truly iconic buildings are there in Dubai?

Emirates Towers, the old Trade Centre (I know its old but it has a sort of traditional character and was the first tower in the city) The Burj Al Arab, The NBD Building on the Creek (Known as 'The Pregnant Lady!') The Dusit Hotel. Possibly the nicest building here is the Royal Mirage hotel. For any aesthetes, just go and check out the style and proportions. Its delightful!



Knight

True, towers in the marina and on SZR are starting to look the same. In the marina tameer's newest building's pretty awful, it's the typical dubai kitsch design and the roof doesn't go well with the rest at all:




There will be some great ones in the marina though, not all looks the same. Damac's ocean heights might be a candidate for best dubai building when built, the only downside though is that it's damac who're building it




On szr the problem isn't only that they're on standard plot sizes but also that the plots are small so that means developers will have to make maximum use of their plots if they want to make any money. I like the new tallest on szr...




but there are some pretty bad ones aswell, such as this gold-plated tower going up 2 doors down. The tall towers will most likely all be similar in shape since they'll have to be pencil-thin.




Down near the fairmont hotel one of the towers getting built has a nice enough shape, can't find a pic since I don't know what it's called, all I know is that it has green glass. Down at that end there are some interesting towers planned, most likely the plots there are bigger so that allows for some better architecture.
Business bay is most likely to have the best collection of buildings in the city though. Most of the planned towers there are great, some crap ones of course but mostly good.

I've also seen plans for a 4 seasons hotel down at festival city, I'll try and find the image since it looks fantastic.


There are some crappy buildings are on the palm aswell, they're nice on their own but when you put about 20 of them that look exactly the same it looks terrible. It now looks like a communist avenue because of them.

UP Tower looks like it has a giant Iced Gem on the top of it. The there's the building the other side of Shk Zayed road with the weird square on top, which looks like it's trying to be the evil eye from the Lord of the Rings.

They are building a tower next to the building that has cosmo on SZR that will look like big ben, i almost cried when i saw that.

Yup, here it is. Apparently the DM told the developer to remove the clock and then they went and put up a mock model of the thing including the clock
Hopefully the idiots building this thing will run out of money or something while it's still at the foundation stage.




Here's another of my hated ones, anyone recognise the roof?




BTW, I found the 4 seasons pic:

NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! No Big Ben!

Going off slightly on a tangent, has anyone else noticed that the Shangri-La looks like the spooky big building from Ghost Busters?

actually, my first impression of the City Centre was quite ugly (first shopping centre I've been in Dubai). The shape of the building and the sign of the building look a bit 'cheap' for a shopping centre.

the_zooter wrote:Eeewww - that horrible, beige coloured building that looks like a pile of egg trays - you know, the one near DIFC/Emirates Towers.

Mind you its one of the oldest significant building in Dubai which shows that this land w/o expat would be ......