Art & Architecture Collide in A.D.

Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, just ended a wonderful exhibition on the Saadiyat Cultural District Projects, an exhibit opened up by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahayn, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, for Saadiyat Island. What we saw is a far cry from the traditional Arab architecture you see both outside and within the cities in the UAE, but certainly more in line with the modern, tall high-rises and shiny envelopes you see developing minute by minute in Dubai, and certainly in some form in City Centre, Abu Dhabi.

It was really exciting that we got to see this exhibit. I think in some way, we were both really craving some thought-provoking, art-inspired educational experience (like we had when we were immersed in school at the BAC perhaps), and this was the perfect remedy. We had no idea that it was even on exhibit, so it was the surprise factor that was cool as well...for me at least.

Familiar names like Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, Jean Nouvel and Frank Gehry were the main attractions with other small exhibits for a dozen or so of the other buildings within the Cultural District, which will include the Sheikh Zayed National Museum for which 13 of the world's top architectural practices were invited to enter the design competition.

The master planning for the Cultural District on the "Island of Happiness" (direct translation of Saadiyat Island) is being prepared by SOM and will include: the world's largest Guggenheim Museum by Gehry, The Louvre Abu Dhabi by Nouvel, the Maritime Museum by Ando and a Performing Arts Center by Hadid. In addition, the island is said to be the largest single mixed-use development in the Arabian Gulf, planned by Gensler Associates, and upon completion, will house over 29 hotels, a 7-star property, 3 marinas housing up to 1,000 boats, 2 golf courses, elite villas, and a partridge in a pear tree! Kidding, about the last part, at least I think...;)

So, on with the show!

First up is my least-fave building by my least-fave architect: The Guggenheim by Gehry.

At first glance, I remember my exact words to be: "....it looks like they picked up the scraps off the floor of a thesis studio workshop and threw them on a base and called it architecture." Yup, that was it. I said that. I really meant it too.

In fact, this is the only image that we took of his exhibit, and we took it as a gag shot for Wayde, knowing that he would just about puke over it! I am not sure what the concept was or why there are translucent funnels and blocks tipping over onto one another...but I do know that it will house 130,000 s.f. of exhibition space to feature permanent collections, special exhibit space, centre for art and technology, a children's art education facility, archives, library and research centre and a conservation lab...and what do you think this monstrosity costs? Over $200 million. I need not say anything more. I have better things to get to...

(P.S. Anyone hear about MIT suing the pants off Gehry for the Stata Center and it's leaky issues? He better not pull that shit here in the UAE, they don't put up with that - they may not build things to last, but they certainly want the best to be the best while it's still standing!)

Second would be one of my faves, and since the remaining 3 are all noteworthy and beautiful for their own reasons, and my faves, these are in no particular order...

The Martime Museum by Tadao Ando

Tadao Ando is known for his exceptional and creative use of light as well as creating structures that work with the landscape, rather than against it. With it's reflective surface and ship-like interior, this building is quite striking in form and it's simplicity and use of water are a clear reference to Ando. The site is clean and gridded with trees creating an "oasis-like border" to ensure a smooth transition from Abu Dhabi City Centre to the more "serene and contemplative space of the museum."

As stated by Ando himself regarding the museum,

"Our elegant architecture begins with a unique space carved out from a simple volume shaped by the force of Abu Dhabi's wind. The solitary form stands like a gate over a vast water court, defining a space of encounter between two important landscape elements of Abu Dhabi's culture."

In addition,

"With this concept of a simple volume with a unique carved-out space, we intend to create in a single gesture a museum that is itself an architectural adventure - a building whose space and abstract forms symbolise the new relationship betweenAbu Dhabi's maritime tradition and its future as a centre of the Arabic world."

I really love this project and can't wait to see where it goes from the design phase...it promises to be quite captivating and I can't wait to visit.

Third is the Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid.

It resembles a tadpole swimming, reaching out to sea.

The presentation boards for Zaha were incredible...in fact Giuseppe made it a point to take a few extra images of them for reference when doing the POSIT boards. I personally loved her concept, taken from veins of the leaf, fruits, branches and stems and sort-of superimposed onto one another to create a design sketch, inevitably incorporating the programme requirements, circulation, etc. I can't quite describe it, but when you look at her Formal Development board and her other images and Programme Boards, and then you see the final design, you can see the original concept just breathing through. It is a clear abstraction, and yet the basic biological geometries are totally prevalent.

Hadid says of this project,

"A sculptural form that emerges from a linear intersection of pedestrian paths within the cultural district, gradually developing into a growing organism that sprouts a network of successive branches. As it winds through the site, the architecture increases in complexity, building up height and depth and achieving multiple summits in the bodies housing the performance spaces, which spring from the structure like fruits on a vine and face westward, toward the water."

One element of this particular building that I find facinating is the creation of a central axis that is a pedestrian corridor that stretches from the Sheikh Zayed National Museum right through and out of the Performing Arts Center, interacting with the seafront promenade. It is a sweeping, stem-like gesture that creates a direct tie from the waterfront, where the 4 major museums sit, through to the arch of the Cultural District, incorporating the various other elements of this area, including parks, boutique hotels, retail and commercial environments and luxury town homes and apartment developments. Check out the images and decide for yourself...

Last, but certainly not least...

The Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel

I think from the immense number of pictures that Giuseppe took of this project, this was by far his fave. It is actually really cool-chic and stunningly beautiful at the same time. Some of his presentation boards of interior perspectives actually look photographs or paintings. Amazing. In one of the images, you actually can imagine yourself inside, seemingly strolling under a canopy of trees and light, with the reflections on the floor creating lovely organic forms.

It is said that this museum will boast itself as the most lavish cultural museum centre in the Arab world...pretty impressive.

Nouvel says,

"We could not help but let our imagination drift into flights of fancy, forgotten chimeras of unknown cities buried deep into the sands or sunk under water through immemorial floods and earthquakes. These dreamy thoughts have merged into a simple plan of an archaeological field revived as a small city, a cluster of nearly one-room buildings placed along a leisurely promenade."

Sounds dreamy just reading that, huh?

The Louvre will carry some thousands of works from some of France's best museums, including the Georges Pompidou Center, Musee d'Orsay and the Palace of Versailles. The Louvre Abu Dhabi will become part of a new relationship with the International Agency for French Museums, with members including Musee d'Orsay, Pompidou, Musee Guimet, the Chateau de Versailles, Musee Rodin, Musee du Quai Branly and the Louvre.

Regarding the micro-environment that one experiences upon entering the museum, Nouvel says,

"This micro-city requires a micro-climate that would give the visitor a feeling of entering

into a different world. The building is covered with a large dome, a form common to all civilisations. This one is made of different patterns interlaced into a translucent ceiling

which lets light diffuse, magical light come through in the best tradition of great Arabian architecture. Water is given a crucial role, both in reflecting every part of the

building and acting as a psyche, and in creating, with a little help from the wind,

a comfortable micro-climate."

Sounds like a project too big for just Nouvel to handle, and it is said that the appointment of a local architecture office to work alongside Nouvel is imminent. POSIT, anyone???

I hope that we get to see many more exhibits as marvelous as this one, and I don't doubt that we will, being that we are living within an architectural BOOM!!!!

Check out all the pics we took at flickr!

Bye, d:)