Architecture - Part One:
'Dubai - what a nightmare city for architecture. Have you seen the Burj - what a nightmare, how inelegant is that? Seen the triangular Emirates Towers.. cough; splutter! So basic... we were doing that back in the 80s.. huh; looks like a bad American city! And that Burj Al Arab; hehe what a joke - how can you build a 'sketch'; symbolism gone mad', etc etc - A.N.Architect, 2007.
Well the reality is that when you arrive here you realise immediately that these buildings that we scornfully snobulise over from our desks in London are by far and away the best of the crop here in Dubai. I mean, the Emirates Towers are VERY successful, the Burj Al Arab is a wonderful symbol that also acts as an excellent marker in the dross of the Dubes skyline, and the Burj (Tower) is actually pretty graceful (shock! - it has the same cladding ALL over it!). 95% of the willy-enlarging towers here are AWFUL - I mean awfully awful, especially when you imagine that the designers were actually probably trying to make their tower individual... It is like the late 80s never happened. Gold cladding, pomo exterior facade make-ups, 'porches', 'bronze'... it's bad i promise.
The Burj Dubai appears like an emerging Terminator from the rubble of its base development, and actually manages to look smaller than it is (maybe it's the context, but I think it's the clever use of the tapering form).
Once you are immersed within the Dubai 'situation' you realise that the Burj Al Arab is actually very smart from the outside; it's the 'postcard' building, Joe Bloggs can draw it on a piece of paper, and it's elegant. Just don't go inside of course.
As someone once explained to me - the Emirates Towers are successful in that they comprise of many different angles - therefore at any one time, one face is pretty much always reflecting towards you, and the other provide interesting glancing light efffects. They are one of the best Dubai buildings in the night time too, when this whole place visually works. Like all of the New World cities - they look very average during the day, and beautiful at night when you can't see their outside faces.
Pretty much all of Paris, London, Prague, etc. look gorgeous night or day. Ciao - Ed Venture
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