UAE: The Latest Architecture and News

Zaha Hadid Architects has won an international competition for the design of a Central Hub for Aljada, a prominent masterplan for the UAE city of Sharjah. Regarded as the ‘cultural capital of the Arab world', Sharjah will play host to ZHA's unmistakeable brand of fluid, curving, sculpted urban design.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage we present the proposal for the UAE Pavilion. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words.

The National Pavilion UAE will present “Lifescapes Beyond Bigness,” an exhibition exploring human-scale architectural landscapes, at the 2018 Venice Biennale. The exhibition aims to highlight the role of architecture and urban design in forming the choreography of people’s daily routines. It particularly investigates the role of ‘quotidian’ (every day) landscapes in accommodating, enhancing, and facilitating social activities across different places in the UAE.

Rising 150 meters from Dubai’s Zabeel Park, the “World’s Largest Picture Frame” has officially opened in the UAE. Known as the Dubai Frame, the structure is the latest in the city’s line of eye-catching megaprojects, offering up panoramic views of the skyline while framing views of iconic buildings such as the Burj Khalifa for visitors and residents all across the city.

Ever wished you had superpowers and could fly through cities like Superman? Now is your chance! Well, kind of. The new XLine Dubai Marina lets you zipline at speeds up to 80 km/hr through the “City of Gold.” An upgrade from its first XLine on the Dubai Fountain, its new sequel is twice the distance, twice the time and, of course, twice the thrill, excitement, and adventure.

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The Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Bee’ah Headquarters has topped out in Sharjah, UAE, as its structural steelwork and centerpiece concrete dome have been put in place.

With a design inspired by the form of sand dunes and oriented to optimize prevailing winds, the complex is striving for the highest standards of renewable energy and sustainable future targets, an appropriate goal for the new headquarters of the UAE's leading integrated environmental & waste management company.

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Construction has begun on one of the centerpiece structures at the upcoming Expo 2020 Dubai, the Santiago Calatrava-designed UAE Pavilion.

Inspired by the shape of a flying falcon, the UAE Pavilion covers more than 15,000 square meters and four floors, including a 1,717-square-meter top-story hospitality lounge. A 588-square-meter mezzanine will house support functions, with the remaining two floors containing 12,000 square meters will of exhibition space showcasing displays that respond to the Expo theme of “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.”

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MVRDV has teamed up with local architects Dewan Architects + Engineers to create Pixel, a 76,000-square-meter (818,000-square-foot) mixed-use residential development that will serve as a centerpiece of Abu Dhabi’s new Makers District.

Also featuring a landscape and public realm design by BIG, Pixel will become MVRDV’s first constructed project in the United Arab Emirates upon its scheduled completion in 2020.

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With its massive, intricate roof and man-made pools and canals, Ateliers Jean Nouvel's astonishingly complex Louvre Abu Dhabi was a project 10-years in the making before finally debuting to the public earlier this month. But even if the project missed it's original completion date, it certainly wasn't for lack of trying – and that's proven in this new video timelapse from EarthCam.

The video captures the 8-year-long construction process from groundbreaking to completion, showing the museum as it came together from a variety of perspectives, including how the roof was assembled in mid-air before being gently lowered into place, and the enormous effort of earth moving to build the unique site.

Check out the video below.

The government of the United Arab Emirates has announced the launch of the Mars Science City project, a $140 Million USD (AED 500 million) research city that will serve as a “viable and realistic model” for the simulation of human occupation of the martian landscape. Designed by a team of Emirati scientists, engineers and designers from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in partnership with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the 1.9 million-square-foot domed structure will become the largest space simulation city ever constructed.

The Ateliers Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi is ready to make its grand first appearance, as the museum announced it will open to the public on November 11th.

Opening celebrations will take advantage of the unique structure, with a series of concerts, performances and events planned for a variety of spaces beneath the building’s 180-meter geometric dome. Comprised of nearly 8,000 arabic motif stars, the steel pattern will filter sunlight into a dramatic ‘rain of light’ on the museum’s walls and floors that calls to mind shadows created by overlapping palm trees.

The long-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, is getting ready for a grand opening, with images showing the metal-domed building in the final stages of construction. Officially started in 2009, work on the museum is nearly complete, with a rumored opening date scheduled for this November.

One of the world’s tallest residential towers, Dubai’s Torch Tower, caught ablaze in the early hours of the morning, causing the evacuation of the building’s 676 units and leaving lasting damage to the building and its immediately vicinity

This is the second fire to affect the 79-story building in just two years, raising more questions about safety standards of materials used in highrise construction.

Foster + Partners have announced plans for the redevelopment of a major landfill site in Sharjah, UAE, belonging to Bee’ah – the foremost environmental energy and waste management company in the Middle East since 2007. Upon Sharjah reaching its “zero waste to landfill” target by 2020, the site is set for redundancy, sparking a proposed sustainable masterplan as an example of a circular economy and a reflection of Bee’ah’s vision of clean energy and sustainable innovation.

“We believe that this vision, as interpreted through our masterplan, represents a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate just what can be achieved at sites like this which feature in every industrialized nation on the planet,” expressed Giles Robinson, Senior Partner at Foster + Partners. “The project will also serve to further showcase Bee’ah’s waste management center as a place where innovation, environmental best practice, and good design take center stage.”

“The world’s most sustainable eco-city,” Masdar City, is preparing for its next phase of development, as unveiled in the award-winning detailed master plan (DMP) by CBT. Depicted in a comprehensive masterplan by Foster + Partners, Masdar was originally envisioned as a carbon-neutral elevated city without cars, instead featuring pod-based transportation located below the podium. As the first phase was constructed, including the Masdar Institute of Technology, a new vision for the city began to emerge, eventually leading to CBT’s pedestrian-oriented innovation community plan for Phase 2.

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Metaform architects and The Space Factory scenographers have won the competition for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai, which is centered on the theme of “opportunity.”

Inspired by a Möbius strip, in which a twisted and folded ribbon has no beginning and no end, the winning pavilion proposal is modeled around the concept of “cradle to cradle” and the circular economy.

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