Dubai has become one of the most exciting economic stories of this century. It’s global and growing at a very fast pace. The city has captured the attention of the world over the past several years because of its ambitious architectural projects and booming economy.
The Dubai economy is driven by real estate and tourism. There appears to be a never-ending growth of very innovative and huge over-the-top construction projects. It should not be assumed that this mind boggling architectural expansion is about to end because even now, new amazing constructions are being designed as you read this!
The Burj Khalifa Skyscraper
The Burj Dubai is a supertall skyscraper capturing global attention. It is the world’s tallest man-made structure. For illustration, just imagine that the distance between Freiburg in Germany and Strasbourg in France is about 86 km. The Burj Dubai skyscraper is so tall it can be seen with naked eyes from a distance of about 95 kilometres. Adrian Smith designed this amazing structure working with Architecture & Engineering firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
Zaha Hadid Dancing Towers
The Dancing towers are an amazing structure located in Dubai’s business area. The building is composed of three structures that rise from the ground level, bending and then intertwining with each other in a unique way to create some special fluid animation of a diversity of forms.
The Cloud
The Cloud is a truly speculative design that is elevated some 300 metres into the air above Dubai. This resort city is supported on slanting legs that resemble falling rain. The Cloud was designed by Lebanese Nadim Karam and architect Atelier Hapsitus. It comes out as a horizontal presence that is placed on an elevated platform in contrast to the majority of skyscrapers to be seen across the whole region.
Dubai Hub One
Designed as a cultural center, ‘Dubai Hub One’ serves the entire United Arab Emirates and was planned by Studio Nova. Its forms and features have been generated utilizing algorithms and some unique programming scripts to generate an amazing dense structure of spaces.
Opus
Designed by Zaha Hadid, the British architect, ‘Opus’ is another remarkable Dubai building. The 235 million GBP development project stands at 20 stories tall and is located next to the towering skyscraper tower, the Burj Dubai. The concept by Hadid is to have the tall building open onto Dubai City, framing the looker’s views.
Da Vinci Rotating Tower
This is the focus of the ‘Lagoons’ development initiative. The 4 towers vary in size between 54 and 97 floors. The design was inspired by the movement and flames of candlelight. David Fisher worked with safety consultants to design the Dubai Towers. This has been described as being among the leading, innovative and unique buildings in Dubai.
The Da Vinci Rotating Tower rises some 250 meters above the ground to allow each of the floors to freely rotate making it possible for the structure to shift its overall shape. Placed in between each floor are horizontal wind turbines allowing the building to generate energy for use within the building.
0-14 Tower
Designed by Resier, Umemoto & Rur Architecture PC together with Shahab Lutfi, a Dubai developer, the ‘0-14 Tower’ is an amazing architectural feat. It was designed for the business bay in Dubai. The Tower features 22 floors that are covered in an extraordinary double skin façade, while the outermost skin is made from thick perforated concrete. In between the skins, the one meter space creates a special chimney effect, which nicely cools the building.
The real estate industry in Dubai is growing so fast, such that an amazing 15-25% of the construction cranes being used globally are in fact located in Dubai alone. The people here have transformed a tiny Bedouin Arab desert state to become one of the world’s most important trading hubs. As a matter of fact, Dubai is only second to Hong Kong in terms of attracting merchants from across the globe.
By: Vincent Stokes
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