Reviews by architecture criticsBurj Al Arab during sunsetThe Burj Al Arab has attracted criticism as well as praise, described as "a contradiction of sorts, considering how well-designed and impressive the construction ultimately proves to be." The contradiction here seems to be related to the hotel’s extreme opulence. "This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is largely due to the power of excessive wealth."
Another critic includes the city of Dubai as well: "both the hotel and the city, after all, are monuments to the triumph of money over practicality. Both elevate style over substance."
Yet another: "Emulating the quality of palatial interiors, in an expression of wealth for the mainstream, a theater of opulence is created in Burj Al Arab … The result is a baroque effect".
Sam Wollaston writing in The Guardian described the Burj as "...fabulous, hideous, and the very pinnacle of tackiness - like Vegas after a serious, no-expense-spared, sheik-over".
In ‘Al Manakh’ there are two projects from Dubai that keep appearing, without any argument why these buildings are so important. The first one is the Burj Al Arab hotel; the second one is the Dubai Towers complex that will be discussed later in this series.
In architectural history the word ‘prefiguration’ is an important one. In the case of major inventions there are always predecessors that point in a certain direction, ‘prefigure’ them, but do not take the idea yet as far as it will do later. Tube lighting was in the early twentieth century for instance prefigured by light bulbs put in rows behind translucent glass panels. Mies van der Rohe did designs like that, without actually having tubes yet, which would take that idea into adolescence.
The prefiguration of Dubai is the Burj Al Arab. It was the first project to take the step into the water. It is still a small step, a small island. But conceptually it meant everything; it opened up The Gulf for inhabitation. And just as the delirious New York used the functionalist argument of land-value to justify its densification, so does Dubai use the functionalist argument of beach-length to justify its extension into the sea. The argument is in the end not so important, what counts is the end-result.
Another prefiguration is the metaphor of the sail. It is an iconography that has a triple virtue; contextual (the hotel is sited on an island in the water), timeless (sailing has been around forever) and pointing to leisure (which works like a duck-building for a duck-restaurant). It is brilliant. Just one step further is the idea for an island in the form of a palm, and eventually a group of islands that echo the map of the world.
In ‘Al Manakh’ we also read that the concept of the Burj Al Arab was originally not developed by the architect W.S. Atkins, but by the architect Carlos A. Ott. In an interview with Todd Reisz the architect says he made sketches for the hotel, but forgot to sign them. When his contact with the client got fired, the displacement found drawings without a name, and then turned to W.S. Atkins to develop the idea further.
“My building was identical to Burj Al Arab, but a bit taller. Main concepts – building in the water, sail motif, a restaurant with an aquarium – were my ideas”, Ott says. At about the same time Ott designed a similar looking office building in Montevideo for ANTEL Communications. In the end Ott is the phantom father to the hotel, the anonymous sperm donor so to speak.
Now we also know that that the sail-iconography is an explicit one that has been there since the conception of the building. The back, facing the shore, reminds also to a roach, as Ott also notes.
It has been suggested that the front corner in combination with the meeting room in the sky secretly form a crucifix, a †. That would be a scandal in the Muslim-country, but it merely proves too much people have read Dan Brown. The horizontal line is just too narrow and placed too low to really sustain that suggestion.
With 28 stories the Burj Al Arab is not the highest building around. It is not the size of the building that makes a difference, but its form. It’s main invention and feature is the white exoskeleton. The strong and sleek frame with its enormous circular sweep transforms the building into a distinctive object. There is no building that tops this frame in beauty. Just magnificent.
The cantilevering meeting room and hovering UFO-like helicopter platform are the accessories to this composition, eloquently and very effectively showing off the luxuriousness of the hotel. It is the only 7-star hotel on earth.
The exterior is beautiful, but no show-off. Except for the two tiny clues to the wealth inside it is all very modest and decent. The interior however is a different story. It is a finite Maximalism:
- Maximum color
- Maximum relief
- Maximum form
- Maximum difference
The bright colors and sharply cut patterns just blow you away… Who made up this orgy? Does maximalism indeed equal the end of good taste, as Willem-Jan Neutelings has suggested? It seems like it.
I have also to admit that after looking at the images for some days now, I start to like parts of it. There is a cultural framework that excludes such a use of color. This might however in the future. Color is coming back. (Mark my words!)
*Special thanks to
www.eikongraphia.com Dubai's iconic building is a construction of superlatives. The world's tallest hotel (321 meters) is also popularly described as the world's only 7-Star hotel - although its formal rating is 5 Star Deluxe, the highest the international rating system offers.
Built on its own artificial island, the hotel can be reached by causeway (in one of its courtesy white Rolls Royces) or by helicopter, straight to its heliport cantilevered out from its top floor. (The heliport has also served as a grass tennis court for Andre Agassi and Roger Federer, and a golf green for Tiger Woods.)
Also extending from the top floor is the Skyview Bar, with sunset views over the Gulf, including the artificial Palm Jumeirah island and The World archipelago.
Inside, the superlatives mostly translate into extreme gaudiness, with gold leaf applied more for quantity than design. There is little subtlety in the decor of the communal entrance areas, with the exception of the dramatic larger-than-life aquaria lining the escalators (top-right picture).
The front (shore-facing) facade is constructed of two tiers of huge, steel 'X' trusses. Below these, full-width windows provide panoramic views from two levels of entrance lobby, unencumbered by structural support.
Above these first two levels, the facade outside of the trusses is made up of translucent white fabric stretched around the structural frame - the sail of the dhow that the building's shape is inspired by. During the day, this white wall glows to illuminate the full-height atrium (at 180 meters, the world's tallest). At night, a complex arrangement of changing projected lighting makes Burj Al Arab a changing beacon seen from outside, while providing a dramatic illuminated show seen from the atrium within.
On the opposite side of the atrium, the floors are organized around corridor 'galleries' that open onto the atrium space.
How to visit
As its web site describes it, "Burj Al Arab is located in the Jumeirah Beach area of Dubai, 15 km. from the main city centre and 25 km. from Dubai International Airport. It is well served by taxis and has its own fleet of 10 chauffeur driven Rolls-Royces. It stands proudly on a man-made island some 280m. offshore and is linked to the mainland by a slender, gently curving causeway."
To cross the causeway, however, you need a reservation at the hotel. Casual visitors are not admitted, and reservations - even for a meal - require almost as much advance notice as they do cash.
Even if you don't make it across the causeway, there are great views of the building from the shoreline, including the neighboring Jumeirah Beach hotel and Madinat Jumeirah, which are both also luxury hotels but physically more accessible.
Books and other web sites
Burj Al Arab's web site is at
www.burj-al-arab.com.
The architect's personal web site, with interesting details on the building's design and construction, is at
www.tomwrightdesign.com.
*Thanks to galinsky.com.
World's Top Tennis Stars At Burj Al ArabIn preparation for the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open, tennis legend, Andre Agassi and the world No. 1, Roger Federer, couldn’t resist the temptation to have a friendly knock about on the world’s highest tennis court, the helipad of Burj Al Arab, the world’s most luxurious hotel.
Both players are in Dubai to compete in the US$1 million Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open, which is the first round of the two-week Dubai Tennis Championships.
source:
dubai-architecture.info