Rock Stadium, UAE, MZ Architects.

Rock Stadium is a stadium project in sand that will soon be built in the UAE. A project estimated for the sum of €750 million by MZ Architects that will be built under the ground in the desert of Al -Ain for more freshness. More images after the jump.

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WATER VILLAGE- SHARJAH \ Office of Architecture

Courtesy Office of Architecture

Introduction:

At the northern edge of the emirate of Dubai, lies the neighboring emirate and city of Sharjah. Historically one of the wealthiest towns in the region and an important trading centre due to its strategic location in the gulf. While Dubai’s economy is mainly focused on free trade, finance, and tourism, Sharjah plays an important supporting role by providing home to most of the foreign workforce employed in Dubai. On one side stands Dubai’s glittering and spectacular search for postmodern magnificence, while on the other side Sharjah is focused on the preservation of a very strong tradition ill-suited in many ways to integration into a modern, globalized world.

Courtesy Office of Architecture

Nevertheless, Sharjah aspires to develop its own identity and it is investing massively in public infrastructure. Sharjah’s lagoons are the most prominent man-made landscape feature of the city. With the objective of increasing the waterfront area, the project aims to bring “water to the desert”. At the center of one of the lakes there lies an artificial island, which is currently perhaps the most attractive potential location for urban public development and an icon for Sharjah.

Courtesy Office of Architecture

The challenge:

The site, with its prime location shall be sculpted by such an architectural form and function that it redefines the entire perception of the area, proving Sharjah with a new identity.

The project “ WATER VILLAGE” is thus envisioned for this site, meant to be a new icon for the city of Sharjah. The “Water Village” is meant to embrace the public-use vocation of the artificial island without ignoring its potential as part of the planned or already built system of public spaces. The “Water Village” will have a total surface of 150,500 square meters, which is the surface area of the island.

Courtesy Office of Architecture

The water village has the following Functions:

20 Public Open Spaces, 500 square meters each one.

100 Public Roofing Spaces, 100 square meters each one.

1 Water Park, 5.000 square meters.

1 Thematic Hotel with a maximum of 200 rooms (besides other facilities), 10.000 square meters.

10 Playgrounds, 1.000 square meters each one.

1 Covered Water Sports Facilities (MEN ONLY), 10.000 square meters.

1 Women-Only Recreational/ Sports Center, 10.000 square meters.

Central Park and Gardens (walking trails, seawalls, boulevards) 85.500 square meters.

Courtesy Office of Architecture

The concept:

Dubai has already well-established its identity in the world, and if Sharjah too aims to do so it shall do it uniquely. The built environment of Dubai is Heterogeneous as it is defined by the plethora of modern iconic buildings, individually competing for recognition with their unfamiliar forms and scales.

Sharjah’s water village on the contrary shall form a homogenous canvas with its context by being rooted in traditional patterns and yet being individually modern in its form.

Courtesy Office of Architecture

Landscape:

Defined by curves, it forms the center of the water village and integrates with the built in smaller forms similar to the central one.

The Built :

Defined by the Rigid Geometry, it is arranged around the central public space and provides the roofed open spaces for protection against Sharjah’s Harsh Climate.

The built and the Un-built engulf each other to form a comprehensive public open space providing a plethora of experiences. The detailed intricate egde of the built maximizes the view of the surrounding area. The outer most layer of the landscape integrates the built into the sea, and provides a series of public beaches for people.

The water village is developed using natural scales and fractals, therefore in spite of being starkly different in its form the experience of the building shall never seem alien and dominating, and people can related to the building just as they relate to the setting where the water village sits.

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Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid Architects announce the design of the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre:a new cultural institution for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on behalf of the Tourism Development and Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (TDIC).Zaha Hadid unveiled the design of the new Performing Arts Centre at a press conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Hadid’s Performing Arts Centre concept, a 62 metre high building is proposing to house five theatres – a music hall, concert hall, opera house, drama theatre and a flexible theatre with a combined seating capacity for 6,300. The Centre may also house an Academy of Performing Arts.The Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre will be one of five major cultural institutions on the new 270-hectacre cultural district of Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi - developed by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on behalf of the Tourism Development and Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (TDIC).

Zaha Hadid described the design of the Performing Arts Centre as “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.”“The Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre is a continuation of the long-standing relationship we have with the Guggenheim Foundation and with the Emirate. We are very honoured to be a part of the project,” states Hadid. “Our first Guggenheim exhibition design, ‘The Great Utopias’, was in 1992 whilst the very successful mid-retrospective of our work closed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York less than two months ago. We’ve also been working in Abu Dhabi for many years, the Sheikh Zayed Bridge was a seminal project for the office and its construction is well underway”.

Thomas Krens, Director of the Guggenheim Foundation said, “In Abu Dhabi we have had the good fortune to discover a partner that not only shares our point of view, but expands upon it. The plans for Saadiyat Island and the cultural district, envisioned and developed by the Abu Dhabi Government, are, quite simply, extraordinary. When this comprehensive and inclusive vision is realised, it will set a standard for global culture that will resonate for decades to come.”

The Taichung Metropolitan Opera House where Zaha's design came second. It won the competition.

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Dubai Opera House by Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid Architects have developed designs for a new opera house and cultural centre for Dubai.

The dune-shaped building is proposed for an island off Dubai Creek.

More info from Zaha Hadid Architects follows:

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DUBAI OPERA HOUSE AND CULTURAL CENTRE [DUBAI, UAE]

2006-TBC

PROGRAM: Design for a Cultural Centre and Opera House in Dubai

ARCHITECT: Design Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher

Project Director: Graham Modlen

Project Leader: Dillon Lin

Design Team: Christine Chow, Lourdes Sanchez, Yiching Liu, Swati Sharma,

Tyen Masten, Simone Fuchs, Johannes Schafelner

Competition Team: Christine Chow, Lourdes Sanchez, Yiching Liu, Larissa Henke, Claudia Wulf, Hooman Talebi, Daniel Dendra, Simon Yu, Komal Talreja

Engineering Consultant: Arup [London, UK]

Acoustics Consultant: Richard Cowell, Ian Knowles

Structural Engineering: Keith Jones

Building Services Engin.: Tim Thornton

Façade Engineering: Steve Bosi

Introduction

The design calls for an exciting new cultural centre in the new Seven Pearls district of Dubai. This landmark development will accommodate an opera house, playhouse, arts gallery, performing arts school and themed hotel on an island in Dubai Creek just off the mainland part of the district. All of these facilities will be state of the art to host world class performances and exhibitions. The opera house will have a seating capacity of 2,500 while the playhouse will have a seating capacity of 800.

The arts gallery with 5000m2 of exhibition space is indeed a full size exhibition facility comparable to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The hotel will accommodate guests in a 6 star setting. Sited on an island in Dubai Creek, the development will be connected to Greater Dubai by a road connection to the mainland.

Design Concept and Programme Organisation

The proposal houses all of the facilities within a single striking structure. The gentle winding form evokes images of mountains or sand dunes. Rising out of the ground, this form is both a part of the landscape yet very much a distinct element in the skyline. The surrounding landscape forms build up to the main building. These constitute open park spaces as well as ancillary functions such as the parking facilities and the monorail station, which are either tucked under or integrated into the andscape forms.

The two peaks correspond to the opera house and the playhouse. The tall requirements of the fly towers are nested under these peaks. From these peaks, the form gradually swoops down to touch the earth. The form is scalloped away where the three major entrances are to be found. The main entrances for audiences visiting either of the two performing arts auditoria are on the north side of the building. At the ground level will be the VIP entrance with car drop off right at the entrance and a separate foyer from the main foyer. This foyer serves both the opera house and the playhouse. The main foyer is a gentle multi-tiered landscape at one floor above the ground floor. It also serves the opera house and the playhouse as well as having an interior connection to the arts gallery.

Floating above this foyer are further foyer spaces serving the balcony levels. The foyer levels from the main foyer level up are visually connected to each other through a series of voids. This allows for direct views between the main foyer at the first floor all the way up to the highest balcony foyer. Surprising views are abundant in this space.

The auditoria are contained in flowing shapes that seem to emerge from the underside of the main shell. This inner shell however, does not quite touch the main shell. Instead, the two surfaces disappear into a light gap between them. Supporting functions found off the foyer are defined by walls that merge into the underside of the main shell.

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