Welcome to the Gulf region, Crunch meets his fate

Residents of Peter Cooper Dubai in the Gulf why it is a good bet for architects in difficult times

In the UK, the recession of the early 1990s, the architects have lost their jobs en masse, many practices and not really interesting commissions dried up. Then, the ambitious head in Hong Kong, where the pre-1997 transfer from airport construction boom is booming. These days, to avoid the worst British economy in 60 years must go to Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi and meet the challenges of the third great oil boom.

The Gulf States have an incredible $ 1.3 billion (£ 715 million) worth of projects under way on the whole of China, and the construction of a boom never seen in the Middle East since the time of the pharaohs.

It is epic in scale, so that the best in modern architecture, and the height epic.

The world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, took the helm of the 160 floors and will be over 700 meters high. At its core is the sixth largest commercial center, a series of iconic towers and development center in Dubai. The interior will be the first Armani hotel, offering a chance to see if they can designer Versace monkey in the translation of fashion for interior decoration.

Needless to say, not far from the second Palazzo Versace hotel is already under construction, with an excellent view over the Dubai Creek. But if fashion is high in Dubai, the architecture of your ambitions are even more pretentious - Zaha Hadid tower in the shape of flickering flames in the new shopping center on increasing the skyscrapers of Dubai International Financial Center and, of course, all three of Palm Island.

The largest airport project is also underway in Dubai, and his first runway will open later next year. If this is not enough, you'll find a number of projects in Doha, who is jealous of Dubai and copies of everything. Or try to Abu Dhabi, whose oil wealth is funding a major new cultural space with a Guggenheim and other cultural buildings of the main architects, and the splashes of $ 200 million (£ 110 million) in other areas of the city.

But what is to live in the Gulf? Architects request for a stimulating environment for their creative work, and it is fair to say that the deserts of Arabia have little indigenous culture. The Islamic art, like life, has been introduced from ancient nations in the region. The challenge for the commission to eliminate the deficit in the local cultural stimulation.

However, this can be very rewarding. Consider the work of Brian Johnson, a British architect who has worked on many large projects in Dubai since 1975. He managed to instill traditional Arabic and Islamic architecture in buildings such diverse topics as the emblematic beach of the luxury hotels and the Emirates Golf Club clubhouse.

From a more practical point of view, architects moving to the Gulf countries should take into account the cost of living has increased in recent years, particularly for housing. Locations have soared sky-earlier levels in London, although the level of the apartments is generally good and spacious.

Wages are exempt from taxes, but it became increasingly difficult to implement, with high rents, and the many distractions of consumerism and high-end travel destinations on offer. Winter sun is very pleasant on the beaches, but the sun of summer can be oppressively hot, and living with constant air conditioning has its disadvantages.

Dubai is more liberal in its social attitudes in Abu Dhabi and Doha. Alcohol is tolerated within three, and there is a very open approach to women's employment. In fact, some barriers to career women, especially in large practices, and the success of Hadid, that speaks volumes.

More of a problem is traffic. The number of road accidents in Dubai is ten times higher than in Europe, and accidents are the leading cause of death for young people. Public transport is very limited, although the subway opened in Dubai in September 2009.

You will not be alone as an expatriate living in one of these cities. In fact, citizens are in the minority. Dubai United Kingdom 120,000 expatriates, while residents make up only 5% of 1.4 million. Finally, an important point to note is that, aside from traffic accidents, the Gulf is a safe place, exceptionally, to live and work.

MAD Cloepfils the opening of New York

The new Museum of Art and Design (MAD) Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture opened in New York in the southwest corner of Central Park opposite Columbus Circle.

Initially, the Huntington Hartford Museum, designed by Edward Durell Stone, and described as "die-cut Venetian palazzo on lollipops," the 50000sq ft building was given to 50 million pounds range.

Iridescent replace the marble tiles of terracotta exterior and the interior was gutted outside a theater mahogany paneling in the basement that has been restored.

Four of the 11 floors are given to the gallery space and the windows are of clear UV-rated glass to protect the art from sunlight damage.

Architectural conservatives who wanted the building restored to its original design, but the New York Landmarks Commission denied a hearing.

How modern travel East China

The West Building and the Chinese tradition to respond to this fascinating story


Modernism in China

Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren

Wiley, HB, 336pp, £ 45

4 / 5

While in the west are used for architecture revolutions - neo-Palladian movement that changed the face of London, for example - not in word "modernity" exists in the Chinese language before the 19th century. The tradition has been evaluated, and construction immutable type consists of three basic elements: an elevated platform, supporting column, and the roof. During a visit to Macau in the late 18th century, the commander Lin was surprised: "Foreigners who build their houses with one room over another ..."

This book, the second by the authors on the architecture in China after Shanghai building two years ago, tackles the complex story of modernity is finally developed, an issue that requires an understanding of the basic architecture and history of China since the Century 17.

In a sense, modernity has been forced to China from the west in a series of important historical events, and is summarized in the early chapters. The transfer of the ports Treaty in 1842, "science and technological superiority of the Western world in an anachronistic Chinese empire: the modernization is inevitable." Later "west of knowledge has become a slogan in China.

However, it took time to establish a professional architect, which emerged after two important events in the early decades of the 20th century. In the wake of the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), the Boxer Protocol has forced China to pay compensation, some of which took the form of educational initiatives, including education, Chinese students overseas. Many were sent to the United States, especially at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received training in Fine Arts under Paul CRET, the captain Kahn. Then, after the First World War, foreign architects from Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States flocked to China to settle in an environment that is always infinite possibilities. They settled in Dalian and Harbin in Manchuria, in Nanjing, Guangzhou and other ports, and most numerously in Shanghai.

Foreign architects, who brought with them a surprising range of 20 century building styles, joined by Chinese architects often work in offices before setting up his own, or have become masters of new technical schools or academic departments. Chinese community, therefore, the architecture has become as diverse as around the world at the time.

One place is in terms of innovation and style: Shanghai, the "Manhattan of the East." The chapter, modernist heyday, which focuses on the development of modernism in Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities, is the best in the book, brilliantly well-studied photographs and historical images. It tells the story of the main architects and their works analyzed in detail, more surprisingly, still stands.

The most interesting practices have been the English firm, Palmer and Turner, who developed the concrete has helped to strike Shanghai buildings stand more than six storeys above the ground spongy, the French company and Leonard Veysseyre, and Hungarian Laszlo Hudec brilliant. Three architects from China for its innovation: Qian Shou Lu, chewing gum and Poy Lee Ting Yang Bao.

Lu Qian Shou is perhaps the only success during this period with the combination of modern construction techniques with traditional Chinese forms - in 1936 the Bank of China in Nanjing.

A theme running through the book is the attempt by Chinese architects to create a national style. Many were trained abroad and too often resort to the use of Chinese decorative patterns and distinctive Eastern roof or repetition of forms that had already been played in the west end of the 19th century with the National Council of Europe and that of Romanticism Arts and Crafts movement in Great Britain.

Modernism in China, which ends in 1949 with the arrival of communism, provides a valuable insight into the work of foreigners and Chinese architects who are not at all the books in the west. Reinforces the idea that the modernism of the 1920s and 1930s could take many forms, whose style has been only a small part. And despite the late start, Shanghai has become one of the most exciting cities in the world.

New York said work on Ground Zero memorial on the road opening for 2011

Work on the Freedom Tower, and Foster, Rogers, Maki towers elsewhere on the site well ahead of schedule

Architect Michael Arad's memorial to the victims of 9 / 11 at the Ground Zero site will open in time for the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Center attack in 2011, according to the authorities in New York.

Issuing its long-awaited report on the revised timetable for the reconstruction project yesterday (Thursday), the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey also said David Child "One World Trade Center, called the Freedom Tower, would be completed in 2013 at a cost of $ 3.1 million, about three times the original estimate.

The port has also revealed that Santiago Calatrava to design the transport center has been simplified in order to see completed in 2013 or early 2014.

The Port Authority, which was paying the developer Larry Silverstein $ 300,000 per day in penalties for the land they had promised to surrender, said the report would be a "new level of security and control" of the complexity of the 'reconstruction effort .

Also under the new timetable, Snohetta museum's underground element of the report will be completed in 2013, and the new Greenwich Street - the gateway to Foster & Partners' Tower 2, Rogers, Stirka port and partners, Round 3 And Fumihiko Maki of Tower 4 - to be completed in 2012, before the Port Authority had planned for several years.

Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia, said: "We have made substantial progress in rebuilding the World Trade Center since he assumed direct responsibility for construction in September 2006, and now through the agency of hard work, we are confident and control over the complex project. "

Rapp and Rapp edge of normality

The mass of solid Rapp and Rapp for mixed use development YPENBURG, a new neighborhood located in a former NATO airfield near The Hague, it is easy for the suburban area of life, reports BIQ architects Hans van der Heijden

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, NATO airfield YPENBURG was declared surplus by the Dutch government and internally developed a new neighborhood. Physically, the airfield has shown little historical depth: a field of grass with barracks, hangars, and more surprisingly, a 2 km-long concrete runway. The empty place, particularly in the context of the density of Dutch Randstad was the most powerful architectural feature.

The new neighborhood, YPENBURG, is designed as an urban area between the towns of Delft and The Hague. It includes a linear public space, with different "camps" between the two.

Masterplanner Frits Palmboom said: "The urban environment creates the conditions that would later be collected by the architecture. But this is more than just a grid of lines and public space. It has its own architectural dimension and a tangible way."

Palmboom framework is designed and made very little use of the relics of the former military landscape. Only the former track can be recognized, and then only in a metaphorical sense: a trace of the runway of the fingerprint is included in the plan, but the monster reinforced concrete has disappeared.

The housing development was carried out by teams of developers and designers, production of a heterogeneous. However, the YPENBURG masterplanners tried to impose the same basic tone in each area. For each of them, a concept plan was provided in the public space, housing type, block design and even the color and materials have been carefully described - a strategy that Palmboom described as a "package of difference."

However, each area are still trying to surprise the market with its own brand or illusion that is simpler than discontinuity in style. To mention just a few extremes, we find banal, ironic Lego houses by MVRDV, the formal experiments in Van Gamer Mastenbroek and laconic palace architecture of the West 8. It remains doubtful that Palmboom of the urban environment has been strong enough to undertake such an explicit expression of market diversification.

YPENBURG the center has also been defined as a "field", and was among the last to be created. The architectural design by Rapp and Rapp avoids the internalization of the surrounding areas. The architect has opted for a set of nine blocks carefully closed the perimeter, which relate to the YPENBURG urban environment.

The size of the blocks correspond to those of neighboring buildings and the main street running through the plan is an extension of a small street that feeds inside the far west of the site. It is bordered by a supermarket, other department stores, Social and Cultural Rights, and a gym.

All the parking spaces for shoppers on the streets and are directly in front of shops. The largest parking area is large enough to host a weekly market.

The blocks along the southern coast of the street through a series of long, in the form of wedge seats that offer a view recently excavated lake. Most of these spaces on the plan cónica to address the lake, the introduction of a false sense of perspective. However, the biggest - to the tram which connects YPENBURG in The Hague - opens in sight, pointing to the "nature" in connection with the everyday experience of the mall. The neutral, repetitive quality of the facades is outweighed by the surreal effects generated by the plan.

The south building has a large semi-circle around the lake.

In a very smart, this gesture is a step back from the street that runs through the plantations are located on each side. The corners of the succession neighbors are attracted to the urban composition of Rapp and Rapp of the project, highlighting the situation of the community center for the entire area. All these options suggest a matter of fact acceptance of the normality of the periphery - YPENBURG inevitably something else.

Increase the slender tower of blocks from the blocks lower. They are in the apparent casualness, vary in height and are limited by a different character brick glass penthouses. At night, a team that generates a sculpture of light between them.

Within the courts, most of which are accessible by residents, are proportionate and grandly doubled in Padoek, a hardwood from Africa. Its height is more articulated by a bridge of access to secondary, which has the support of large steel columns. The bridges are of a scale that allows them to double in terraces, and, therefore, each dish has always been a double row of doors.

Rapp and Rapp of the proposal responds to the complexity of urban conditions with a high degree of simplicity YPENBURG is also useful because it is sensitive. The margin of negotiating the strategic plan is in the architectural scale, the scale between retail and urban design. During the development of the project, a series of surveys were carried out on such issues as the mix of house trading program of housing types and number of parking solutions; runners tie for the shops and so far, without further debate on the regime of living space "recipe".

Once all these issues are decided, the architects have tried the choice of materials and means of assembly. Most of the facades of the street seem precast concrete foundations and lintels, with orange bricks between the two. The panel of return jumps to 50 mm on each floor, while the window frames remain in the same alignment. Therefore, the window displays to reduce the size of the bottom up, ready for facades degree "robust dimensions. In the corner, the improvement is considered particularly strong.

In tectonic terms, the project is very high thanks to the supervision of the architect has had in its construction. Rapp and Rapp working drawings are not overweight or innovation offensive, but the practice was very clever use of what is left room to maneuver in the conventions of the industry today. In this aspect of the project, too, we have a commitment to the forefront of everyday normalcy. More importantly, the practice has designed the exterior of self-supporting concrete panels sockets are set on one another, masonry and rests on top. The Mass has become uncommon in practice the construction, especially in countries like the Netherlands and Britain. In YPENBURG, things are always what they seem, and the level of court that was achieved is exceptional.

The original plan foresaw YPENBURG as a center of a huge superblock, but Rapp and Rapp argued against this approach on the basis that the project of great size - is four times greater than the Pireo, famous Amsterdam, Christian Rapp, in association with Hans Kollhoff - isolating it from surrounding urban fabric.

And yet at the same time near the grain of adjacent houses, all forms, however, a large urban unit. The composition of Piraeus is derived from the articulation of the unification of a "great shape" - der Grossform in German - and not its constituent elements such as individual houses. Piraeus gives the impression of having been formed through a process of cutting a large solid mass. In YPENBURG, this approach is tested on the urban scale. The big way in this case is the district as a whole in the corners that have been carved and the towers have been added.

Again, no attempt is made to the articulation of the various houses. Thanks to the carved spaces, attached to all urban YPENBURG, becoming part of the reality of the new suburbs.

Rapp and Rapp did not fall into the trap of adding a new building in the icon of architecture and YPENBURG rich catalog. If there is an icon on this project, not its purpose, but the quality of the atmosphere in the form of public spaces, buildings and even the light sculpture, the creation of a joint effort.

Hans van der Heijden is an architect and director of a Rotterdam-based practice BIQ.

RMJM wins the round of competition of Russian design

RMJM has won an international competition for a new round of landmark vertical and park in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

The glass and steel construction, which includes 46000sq m of apartments and a five-star hotel, is designed to become the heart of a new art, culture and sports quarter of the city.

Running through the base of the building, the park offers vertical green areas for residents and the public and will be crowned by a sky park offers panoramic views.

Matt Cartwright, director of RMJM, said the Russian extreme weather often prohibits people who receive public open space, and added: "We have decided to do outdoors inside."

Yekaterinburg is the capital of the vast region of the Ural mountains on the edge of Siberia.

If paradise is half beautiful

The long-awaited draft of retailing, rue Paradis is a last attempt to reload the center of the city of Liverpool under a master plan that brings together 22 different architects. And it works, says Ellis Woodman

After dark, and no mistake. Is your pension funds evaporated in the last month? They are the bailiffs at the door? Are you fighting the road from the face of the kitchen through the tail soup from a flock of wild cats of investment bankers? Well, my friend, I have a tip for you. With just 83 days before Christmas, there is only one way we're going to get out of this hole: spend, spend, spend!

You can hardly ask a lack of luck. Last week the opening of the £ 500 million Cabot Circus development in the heart of Bristol, whereas when it opens in four weeks, 1.7 million pounds in Westfield Center in London's Shepherds Bush will become the third Great place mall in the country. After the recent launching of major projects in Cambridge and Leicester (Work May 2), these projects crown a year of development for the retail sector in the UK. Significantly, each occupies the center of the city - the legacy of legislation introduced in 1995, which called for a halt to the construction of out-of-town shopping malls.

Duggan Morris seeks mix of old and new house in Sussex OAST

The draft 167sq m residence, set in 26 hectares of land for a private client in East Sussex, links two purposes OAST of 19th century houses and a barn to a new set of wings to replace three depends.

The couple wanted a design adapted to the place where they live now, they have suffered from "not particularly sensitive or success" for the renovation in the past.

A key objective is to re-expose the architecture of the buildings OAST, but because of planning restrictions on the site, construction of the new element must be the least possible environmental impact.

Joe Morris, director of Duggan Morris said: "We want to restore the original building, to understand their vocabulary and reading the landscape and do the least possible environmental impact."

The project of £ 400,000 to four rooms set on two levels with the new building half a floor below the old theme. Morris described as "a collection of forms, the old barn and two OAST, with four wings in a loose agreement."

It is anticipated that the planning decision is reached in November.

If there is the planning, construction will begin in the spring of 2009. The law should be on the ground for at least a year.

Clipper Contemporary

Speaking of the former home, and notes that hinder the beautiful house that Richard Beard (architect) and Michael Booth (designer) for themselves built in 1995 on the market last Friday. And we must admit that the 100 or so new properties hit the market this weekend in San Francisco, is one of our favorites, but once again, we are part of open floor plans, large windows overlooking the city (now if we could get rid of these power lines damned).

355 Bryant Live/Work Lofts

The interior of the origin of wood and brick was stripped and sandblasted to reveal the beauty of the original brick walls and heavy timber construction. Reasons concrete floors and walls of stucco angle of cut in shades of ocher and green form a backdrop for the origin of wood and brick. Strengthening the system of seismic steel I-beams were exposed and become an element of design. A central court, cutting through all four floors at the rear of the building, the interior of the units semi-serene space. Patio of the units are bathed in natural light from the aluminum window / glass tempering emissions.

One Rincon Hill: Fontana or other Transamerica in the manufacturing sector?

Fontana building has been neglected since it was built, and the time has not healed the wounds. It changed what people think of the new development, especially in the neighborhoods.
Transamerica Pyramid, on the other hand, it is equally ridiculous to aesthetics, and was a member of the dreaded "manhattanization" of the SF which led to an annual ceiling on development imposed in the 80s. However, over time, the pyramid has become an icon of SF, and is very popular today.
Frankly, I'm not sure there are Rincon. I do not like its design, and for me it is much too large to be the "thin tower" that the promised Rincon Hill. He learned some lessons from Vancouver that makes a mockery of the ideas that were supposed to be behind the Rincon Hill. It's so big, so big, so omnipresent, and so damn near the bridge that can not be avoided in the viewscape. But I must confess, a part of me when I have strong feelings around a corner somewhere in the city, and suddenly, that's all.