Middle East Architect - August 2010 by ITP Business Publishing

AUGUST 2010 / VOLUME 4 / ISSUE 8

An ITP Business Publication | Licensed by Dubai Media City

NEWS, DATA, ANALYSIS AND STRATEGIC INSIGHTS FOR ARCHITECTS IN THE GCC ANALYSIS

PORTFOLIO

Saudi Arabia’s crisis of architectural identity

Riyadh’s latest supertall, Kazakhstan and Angola’s CBD

KEEP THE FAITH Modernism vs tradition in 21st century mosque design

AUGUST | CONTENTS

AUGUST 2010 VOLUME 4 ISSUE 8 2 WHAT’S ON THE WEB WHAT See mo more of MEA online, with u up to date news and arch of projects and an archive case studies

9 SNAPSHOT A short sharp summary of industry news from the last 30 days, including troubled times for the top 250 ﬁ rms

16 WORK IN PROGRESS MEA visits Jumeirah Beach to see how work is getting on at the Elite Residence

26 COVER STORY From LED towers to aluminium cladding, what will 21st century mosques look like?

8 OPINION Georgina Chakar argues for an overhaul of the concept of shopping malls in the Gulf

12 ANALYSIS Skeleton buildings could be proﬁtable, but are they worth the risk?

20 THE INTERVIEW Architect Sami Angawi on the rights and wrongs of modern design in Jeddah, Mecca and beyond

32 GREEN CITIES Architects, engineers and interior designers are combining their efforts to create truly green cities

40 CASE STUDIES Riyadh’s tallest tower, a record-breaking tent in Kazakhstan and Angola’s new business district

48 THE WORK A detailed reference section covering all the regional projects MEA has looked at in recent months

52 CULTURE Cool products, clever ideas, and some of the latest books in the world of design

56 THE LAST WORD Buro Happold’s Kevin Mitchell gives us an engineer’s perspective

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

ONLINE | AUGUST

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MOST POPULAR • Masdar Institute hit by second senior resignation • Huge Khalifa port project names ﬁnancial advisor • Exchange rate sees Palm Jumeirah buyers dump units • Saudi KAIA airport projects still on table

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HOSPITAL PROJECTS ON THE CARDS

The ﬁ rm’s development in Chongqing, China, could be a world ﬁ rst.

CW columnist Ilham Kadri says the Burj Khalifa is a great example.

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MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

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COMMENT | EDITOR’S LETTER

SECOND WIND GREEN CITIES The new master plan for Masdar City is long overdue

GOT A COMMENT? If you have any comments to make on this month’s issue, please e-mail orlando. crowcroft @itp.com

s master plans go, Masdar City was always larger than life. The AED80.8 billion project, with its ban on automobiles and carbon-neutral aspirations, was way ahead of its time when it was orginally announced in 2006, and almost ﬁve years later there is yet to be another development that matches it in terms of both ambition and scale. In light of this, it is a shame that news emanating from Masdar City in the last six months has been notable only for its absence. The rumours of scale-backs have come thick and fast, while the only official news that leaks is of high-proﬁle resignations. In terms of public relations, Masdar City has become a fortress.

For those of us outside the walls, speculation rules the day. Some say that architects are down to skeleton teams, others say that a whole new masterplan is currently under consideration in Abu Dhabi’s corridors of power. Most believe that the new Masdar, whenever it is unveiled, will be quite a different animal than what was proposed four years ago. That has been denied by Masdar’s chief executive Sultan Al-Jaber, who told Emirates News Agency last month that the carbon neutral residential project will not be scaled back. In a rare press conference, Al-Jaber said that work would continue as planned on the project. But it is not a surprise that people are starting to ask questions about Masdar. The

Masdar City has suffered delays since its launch.

Only the worst kind of naysayers would wish Masdar City anything but success.”

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

four-year-old project has experienced significant delays. While Masdar was originally slated for completion in 2015, five years later the planned 6km2 city contains only the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. Other stories have not helped, either. In July, the Masdar Institute Provost John Perkins resigned, citing personal reasons, marking the second senior resignation in as many months. But while these setbacks are significant, they have to be put into perspective. Masdar is a huge project, as ambitious today as it was in 2006, if not more so considering the global recession. The city will eventually be home to 50,000 people, with 60,000 more commuting daily – that is without mentioning the solar farms and transport infrastructure. Given that it was launched at a time when architects and developers were out-doing each other with ridiculous schemes, it is inevtiable that Masdar is subject to scepticism, but the project is not the same as kilometrehigh towers and underwater hotels. Masdar is one of the most worthwile schemes the UAE has ever seen, and only the worst kind of naysayers would wish it anything but success. Those behind the development would do well to remember that as they continue to allow speculation and not cold hard facts to lead the media coverage of Masdar. When they finally emerge from the fortress walls and let us all know what was going on, they might discover that they have more friends than they thought.

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COMMENT | IDENTITY

BACK TO BASICS OPINION GCC cities need to ﬁnd their own architectural style

Hisham Youssef is an architect at Gensler, responsible for the ﬁ rm’s projects in Egypt and North Africa.

ther than a few iconic structures such as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa or Riyadh’s Kingdom Tower, most of the new planned developments in this part of the world are alien to their context. They could as easily exist in Kuala Lumpur or Frankfurt as they could in the Middle East. The issue of architectural identity is more elusive in cities that are practically being built from scratch – the likes of Doha and Dubai – than it is for Amman or Cairo. But at a time when any material and any product can be made available anywhere in the world, this is an important debate to have. While Dubai may have developed the prototype of what a modern global city can look like, and created an

exemplary image for others to follow, many have questioned whether the development of generically modern designs is appropriate. Is it inevitability, or a choice? But modernity is not the only problem. Equally problematic are new buildings that look to the past nostalgically, implementing building blocks of faux wind catchers, domes and other elements. We have seen what this looks like, kitsch – decorative designs that are not truthful in their response to the context or the climate, unlike their predecessors that truly were. Even worse, some of today’s examples were created by architects from outside the region representing their interpretation of an invented style that never existed. As a city built largely from scratch, Dubai has struggled to ﬁ nd an identity.

I believe we need to develop a new design strategy – an approach based on, and responsive to, context.”

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

The identity issue is different for GCC cities than it is for Cairo or Damascus, primarily because the demographic mix is very different. Who are we designing for? Should design look to the past heritage of the indigenous population, or to the current mix, where the indigenous population in GCC cities forms, in many cases, no more than 20% of the total population. There is great interest now to have designs that do not simply elevate the image of many cities in the region to appear more international and developed, but rather to design buildings that could only exist here. A new paradigm? I would argue, it is merely a sensible return to basics. I believe we need to develop a new design strategy – an approach based on, and responsive to, context. This context can be distilled to people (encompassing their traditions, customs, rituals), climate (responding to and taking advantage of temperature, prevailing winds, light), and materials. History and heritage do have a place, but not as the primary driver. To be sure, this is more about a design strategy than style. In time this will likely develop into a regional style that can both speak about and be rooted in the region’s identity. This is about sensible design, design that is at the same time sustainable, both in its ability to endure, as well as its responsibility to the environmental. If we can do this, the region can have something to be proud of and call its own – a built environment that reﬂects our identity.

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COMMENT | NEW URBANISM

CLOSING TIME OPINION New Urbanism is the way forward for the Middle East

Georgina Chakar is an Australian architect living in Dubai. She recently graduated as a Master of Urban Planning.

moved to Dubai from Sydney in 2006, a time when this emirate, along with Abu Dhabi, was paving the way towards the golden era of its fastest development ever. A number of projects were completed while many others were on their way, and while fascinating, these developments posed a number of questions. Were the buildings with such an international appearance designed with local climate conditions in mind? Were the individual projects capable of ﬁtting in to a cohesive ﬁnal master plan for the city? And was the LEED ranking system appropriate and adequate for this part of the world? Many of those questions remain unanswered today. The concept of diversity and affordable housing seems

to be lost in the mass production of hundreds of archetypal villas and town houses. The neighborhood centres and walking distances are hardly visible on some developments. And heritage architecture is implemented by mimicking details and not its function. The list goes on. My thesis sought to address some of these problems, and pose a new city model for the Gulf region alongside the principles of New Urbanism – the movement established by Peter Calthorp, Elizabeth Plater-Zayberk and Andres Duany in 1993. These new cities should include bioclimatic design which integrates the environment and natural resources, as well as alternative sources of energy, but they should also include the public realm too.

Shopping malls need to be part of the greater fabric of the city.

There is no doubt that such facilities are useful, but do we want to raise future generations for whom the components of a mall is the image of a city?

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

Much of social life in the emirates revolves around shopping malls based on the concept established in 1952 by the American architect Victor Gruen. They are air-conditioned, fully enclosed buildings that have become the social environment replacing the natural city. There is no doubt that such facilities are useful, but they are not conducive to the establishment of green cities, and they do little for the public realm. Do we want to raise future generations for whom the components of a mall is the image of a city? We must not forget that sustainable urban environments are derived from a balance between social, ecological and economic components - this is more than malls alone can offer. There are areas where Dubai has achieved the principles of new urbanism, particularly in regard to Madinat, DIFC and Dubai Mall. While Jumeirah Village is the ﬁrst housing development in the Middle East to be built along New Urbanist principles. Projects like these show that far from doing away with the traditional mall, a futuristic model of pedestrian streets – as well as the desire to use shopping malls as speciﬁc city structures – would make these shopping centres transparent and fully integrated with the rest of the city functions. Finally, I call for a moratorium to the Gruen model of a shopping mall. This outdated concept keeps our young generations imprisoned and destroys their image and enjoyment of a natural city environment.

AUGUST | SNAPSHOT

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are a e you yo a ttraditionalist, aditi i nalist, o are or r you ou a mo er i t? But modernist u there t e e is no o ssuch ch thi thing h n iin m my way a off thinking” thinking h ng Sami S m A Angawi g w ((Page Page g 2 20) 0))

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

SNAPSHOT | AUGUST

US ﬁ rms are looking to cities such as Shanghai.

GLOBAL ARCHITECTURE FIRMS DOWN $2 BILLION World’s top 25 bolstered by work in the Middle East and China Architecture fi rms’ worldwide income dropped US$2 billion in 2009, as designers fi nally felt the pinch of the global recession. Figures released by the Architectural Record revealed that combined revenue for the top 250 fi rms in the world – ranked by the magazine according to their global income – totalled $10.2 bn in 2009, down from $12.5 bn in 2008. But the annual survey also revealed that for the top 25 fi rms in the world – which bring in around 50% of the top 250’s total revenue – Asian markets remained the most lucrative. The Middle East and China accounted for over 30% of the top fi rms’ total revenue, in many cases replacing their home markets.

While the big 25 suffered a $800 million decline in domestic revenue in 2009, from $4.4 bn to $3.6 bn, the amount of revenue from foreign work only decreased by $400 m, from $2 bn to $1.6 bn. Three of the top ten architectural fi rms have a significant presence in the Middle East, including number two fi rm Gensler, number six HOK – which developed the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) – and SOM, which came in at number eight and designed Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Gensler’s managing principal EMEA Chris Johnson told Middle East Architect that the fi rm was taking a slow and steady approach towards expansion in the Middle East,

We have 14 people in Abu Dhabi at the moment, and the plan is to grow that. Our ambition is that there will eventually be 60 people in the capital.” Chris Johnson, managing principal EMEA, Gensler

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

despite it already having projects underway in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco and Syria. But Johnson added that Gensler would not be rushing to boost numbers in the Middle East, and would gradually increase staff as the work in the region increased. “We have 14 people in Abu Dhabi at the moment, and the plan is to grow that. We want to slowly add to that. Our ambition is that there will eventually be 60 people in the capital,” he said. The survey revealed that revenue from foreign sources did not help to insulate smaller architetural practices from the ﬁ nancial donwturn, and 70% of the top 250 list made less than $10 m in offshore and overseas revenue last year. Growth in the industry has been rapid in the last four years, fuelling concerns of instability in the long term. In 2005, income for the largest 25 ﬁ rms on the list was $3.3 bn, but by 2008 it had increased by 94%.

AUGUST | SNAPSHOT

IN BRIEF

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TOP DOGS

Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid was officially named UNESCO Artist for Peace this month in Paris. The 2004 Pritzker prize-winner was recognised by UNESCO for a body of work that stretches from the US to the Far East. The most recent Zaha Hadid project in the Gulf is the under-construction Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi, while others are planned for Dubai and Egypt. The director general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, said the appointment of Hadid was “in recognition of her efforts to promote excellence in design and creativity”.

Green buildings not only help the environment, they help maintain the good health of their inhabitants, according to Saudi Green Building Council’s (SGBC) Sultan Faden. Faden said that people in urban areas spend 90% of their time indoors, whether at home or in office. In the case of women and children it is almost 100%. He said that the gases emanating from paints, floors, ceilings, furniture and carbon gas derivatives have been linked to poor health, and even incurable diseases.

INCREASE IN SALES Architectual fi rm BDP SINCE 2007 has been ranked number 46 BY BDP in the Sunday Times top 100 fi rms, one of only six entries from the construction sector. The fi rm, which launched its Abu Dhabi studio at Cityscape in April, has seen a 74% increase in international sales since 2007, earning it a place in the list, which ranks UK private companies by foreign sales growth over their latest two fi nancial years. Peter Drummond, chief executive of BDP, said that growing abroad was the main focus in 2010.

MIXED BAG

KUWAIT CALLING

Plans for a 40-storey tower in Triploli have been unveiled by

Kuwait has set aside around KD37 billion (US$127 billion) to spend on hospital projects in the next four years, says a Middle East healthcare expert. The project plans are due to an increase in diabetes and obesity across the GCC and a rise in demand for beds, as well as a growing desire to bring healthcare tourism to the region.WSP Middle East’s technical director for healthcare Carl Platt said: “The reason construction companies get involved with projects in this sector is because there is a high demand in the region.” Most locals currently travel abroad for healthcare.

Mediterranean Investments Holding (MIH) in Lebanon. The

mixed-use project will offer around 240 luxury apartments, 23,000 m 2 of office space, 20,000 m 2 of retail space and a conference and exhibition centre. MIH is a joint venture between the Kuwaiti National Real Estate Company and the Corinthia Group, a Maltese company with a ﬁ rm relationship with Libya. They will partner with International Hotel Investments (IHI) and the Libyan Economic Development Real Estate Company.

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

NEWS ANALYSIS | GHOST BUILDINGS

SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET ANALYSIS Ghost buildings may seem like an attractive prospect for designers and contractors, but it can be a risky business

hile developers in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia seem to be up to their eyeballs in new projects, many of their counterparts in Dubai are hoping to profit from the old. The emirate is awash with projects that were cancelled or delayed during the downturn, and these skeleton structures or ‘ghost buildings’ are increasingly attracting developers and contractors in the region looking to turn a profit from finishing the job. But it remains to be seen whether the benefits of taking on a ghost building are worth the significant risks, and lawyers warn that not only developers, but designers and architects, could find themselves in hot water should anything go wrong – even if the mistake was made by their predecessors. Mark Fraser, a partner at Taylor Wessing UAE, explained that there are limited obligations on original contractors to ensure structures are fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality, but in the case of ghost

buildings, the original contractor and architect are unlikely to be held liable for its collapse because an incomplete building has never in fact, been handed over. “Under local laws,” he said, “[the original] contractor is obliged only to complete his work in accordance with the conditions of his contract. Local law does not recognise ‘ﬁtness for purpose’ and ‘satisfactory quality’. Likewise, a designer is obliged to exercise ‘care that a reasonable man would exercise’, however, that standard of care is independent of the achievement of the original objective.” Meanwhile, article 880 of the civil code holds the new contractor solely responsible for the structure. “Article 880 states that a contractor and architect are jointly liable for ten years from the date of hand-over for the total or partial collapse of a building. In the context of ghost buildings, the original contractor and designer may not be liable if the building is not complete because it has not been handed over. Instead, the new contractor and

In the context of ghost buildings, the original contractor and designer may not be liable if the building is not complete because it has not been handed over. Instead, the new contractor and architect will have decennial liability because it is they who will see the project through to completion.”

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

GHOST BUILDINGS | NEWS ANALYSIS

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

NEWS ANALYSIS | GHOST BUILDINGS

SKELETON STRUCTURES: Dos and Don’ts

• DO thoroughly assess the current condition of the structure before restarting construction. • DO employ a competent consultant who has extensive experience dealing with latent

Hundreds of projects in Dubai were abandoned during the ﬁ nancial crisis.

defects, to carry out a site investigation. • DO take an interest in what insurance policies are in place and the amount of cover to protect your balance sheet and avoid unnecessary costs. • DO take a practical approach to completing projects, by working with developers and allocating risk to the party best placed to deal with it. • DON’T rule out the possibility of taking an equity stake in the project to ensure payment on completion. • DON’T forget to think about the long term viability of a project, and the value of its location and use in the future. • DON’T assume a property has to retain its original intent and purpose, but ensure the design structure can support its new use. • DON’T rush into a resurrection project without looking into ownership – work with the bank and get hold of the title deeds to discover any previous claim.

architect will have decennial liability because it is they who will see the project through to completion.” This is a problem because ghost buildings, many of which have been sitting empty for many months or even years, often suffer from signiﬁcant structural deterioration. Meinhardt MENA principal structural engineer Tanmay Biswas said that the level of degradation of a ghost building depends on the stage at which construction was stalled, the quality of early building work, the duration of exposure to degradation triggers and the extent to which the building is protected and insulated from external forces. “As we live in an aggressive environment,” he added, “the deterioration is fast and deep-rooted. As an example, an incomplete structure will have lots of exposed and unprotected rebar or structural steel work which is likely to have started rusting. Depending on the duration of exposure, airborne salts may also have caused deterioration of the concrete, or ‘concrete cancer’.” And, as is often the case, if the developers and contractors decide to change the use of the building, this is only likely to exacerbate risks, the old design structure being unable to support the new use. Further amplifying the problem is the fact that often, even if they commission a full site investigation, contractors and designers may be unable to prepare for latent defects,

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

otherwise known as ‘inbuilt defects’ that go undetected by site inspectors, revealing themselves at a later date. With these risks in mind, industry experts are asking developers and contractors to remain cautious when deciding to resurrect ghost or skeleton buildings in the first place. “Should the contract not be commercially viable, both developer and contractor may end up incurring losses,” said Fergal Harris, Director of Commercial Real Estate at Standard Chartered Bank in the region. Not only does he stress the need to consider the costs of restarting a project, including total costs to complete construction, financial, legal and due diligence costs, but in addition, he emphasises the importance of looking at timeframes for construction, and how this may further increase the costs and affect the financial viability of the project. “If you are re-engaging in a project, then it is critical to consider time to acquire and complete, time to identify an opportunity and get it to a point where it’s good to go,” he said. “It is important to note that what may be a good location today may not be a good location when you’ve finished constructing, bearing in mind it could take up to two years to re-engage and a further two years to get the project to a stage where it’s fit for purpose. It is very important to think about what the building is going to be when it grows up and where it is going to be.”

WIP | ELITE RESIDENCE

CROWNING GLORY WORK IN PROGRESS The 91-storey Elite Residence is taking shape on the beachfront opposite Dubaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palm Jumeirah

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

ELITE RESIDENCE | WIP

“The ability to move the core vertically means you can build very, very fast Ahmed Saffarini, Architect

t is no secret that getting buildings fi nished in Dubai has got more difficult in the last year, which makes the quick progress at the 91-storey Elite Residence all the more impressive. Contractor Arabian Construction Company (ACC) is developing between five and seven floors a month. With 64 floors fi nished on the estimated US$250 million project, only 20 remain. Architect Ahmed Saffarini explains that the use of slipform techniques – which allows concrete to be poured as the core is moved vertically – has enabled ACC to develop the towers so quickly. “The ability to move the core vertically means you can build very, very fast,” he says. But Saffarini also points out that, when fi nished, the Elite Residence will be one of the strongest buildings

around. He says that the architects planned for the building to withstand winds of up to 160 mph, while also designing an innovative ‘core and core’ structure. “You have a central core and you have an outside core. It’s a more rigid type of structure. The structure is very strong,” he says. The façade, meanwhile, is designed to be smooth, minimising the effect of the wind. “Like a car,” Saffarini explains. The Elite Residence sits alongside the Princess Tower, another Tameer property currently under construction. The building will offer 697 residential units to wealthy investors, with amenities such as swimming pools, high speed elevators, a ballroom and table tennis court. With this in mind, it is difficult to see how the building is any different to the other develop2 ments in Dubai. But

135,760 METRES

Workers are completing between ﬁve and seven ﬂ oors per month at Elite Residence.

TOTAL BUILT-UP AREA

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WIP | ELITE RESIDENCE

380 METRES PROJECT HEIGHT

Elite Residence is braced to withstand winds of up to 160 mph.

according to the developers, it is Elite Residence’s architecture that sets it apart. “If you look at the shape and the form of the building, it is an interesting blend between what people consider to be modern architecture and what is obviously a remarkable building that really drove the emerging of technologies and architectural expression,” says John Zwets, Tameer’s chief development officer. “You can’t call Elite a traditional building, because it is simply not. I think what the architect was trying to do was give it a Dubai ﬂavour. And by this, I mean something different to the bland sky scrapers you would see in other metropolis like Hong Kong or New York. I think what the architect tried to do was to give it a bit of soul.” Saffarini agrees that Elite will stand out from many of the other

towers in Dubai, and says that he looked at Victorian and Renaissance architecture for inspiration. This is the reason for the building’s crown, which will be ﬁtted with 400 lights that will change colour at night. “The client was looking for the building to be more or less like a presidential building: the crown gives it the feeling of a classical palace,” he said. A signiﬁcant challenge for Saffarini was the small footprint of the site, which necessitated that the tower was square and very narrow in form. Another challenge was the location, on the waterfront and subject to onshore wind, sand and salt. “We are had to use high quality colouring which is very durable, due to the sand and the salt and the weather,” he said. But in terms of construction challenges, it is the roof that will present

I think it is a reasonable programme. We’re working steadily towards completion.” Bil Parker, project director, Arabian Construction Company.

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the biggest as Elite Residence grows towards its fi nal 380m height. “The roof will be pre-fabricated at ground level, and lifted up to the top of the building in stages and installed by crane,” explains Arabian Construction Company’s project director Bill Parker. “The light fittings will all be pre-installed into the cladding at the factory so as to avoid having to fit the lights at height.” Tameer hopes that the building will be completed by October 2011, but delays have not been a stranger to the development so far, as Tameer were hit by fi nancing problems in 2009. “The recession has had an impact on the construction of Elite, I would be lying if I said otherwise,” says Zwets. “Although we have sold the majority of the units, the fi nancial crisis impacted on how people deployed their capital and paid their bills. One of those bills was to satisfy their agreements with the developer. It became more labour intensive to get people to make payments.” That said, Zwets maintains that the scheduled completion date has not changed since it received RERA approval for the project in 2009.

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INTERVIEW | SAMI ANGAWI

ARABIAN NIGHTMARE THE INTERVIEW

Middle East Architect talks to Sami Angawi, founder of the Hajj Research Centre and one of Saudi Arabia’s best-known – and most outspoken – architects

here are very few architects or designers who don’t want to be in Saudi Arabia at the moment – and it is a cruel irony that Sami Angawi is one of them. The veteran Mecca-born architect recently ﬁ nished work on his family home in Jeddah, a building that has attracted attention from across the world (US ex-President Jimmy Carter has visited twice), while a new hospital he designed in Saudi Arabia’s coastal hub recently won acclaim from King Abdullah himself. Yet at a time when ﬁ rms from across the globe are falling over each other to get into the country, Angawi is doing his best to stay away. He is currently in Egypt, and prefers not to travel home unless he has to. “I’m trying to go back to Saudi Arabia less and less, even though I have that beautiful house that everybody likes to visit. I’m being isolated,” Angawi told Middle East Architect from Cairo. “There are things that I would love to do in my country but I am not

allowed to. I felt that I had to leave. I was not saying what everybody likes to hear. That’s why I am in Egypt, I’m not on holiday. I am trying to do projects away from my country.” As founder of the Hajj Research Centre, Angawi has never been one to bury his head in the sand. The centre has been working to preserve the history of Mecca and Medina for more than 25 years, and Angawi has been outspoken in his criticisms of recent development in the cities that are home to Islam’s holiest shrines. But in 2010, as the “stupid clock tower”, due to become the second tallest building in the world, towers over the Grand Mosque, Angawi feels that he is beaten. Mecca has succumbed to the kind of development that seeks to imitate the ﬂash, glitz and glam of the Gulf, and it seems that there is little that anyone can do about it. “What is going on in Mecca and Medina is wrong, it’s unsuitable from every aspect. Mecca is a sanctuary, it is not a city. You shouldn’t allow this sort of thing to happen,

People say, are you a traditionalist, or are you a modernist? There is no such thing in my way of thinking.”

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and anywhere else in the world it would not be allowed,” he said. “And the clock tower, would you allow that in Rome? Or in the middle of London? Even if somebody now wanted to make Big Ben bigger, you would have all Londoners objecting against it. Now we copy like monkeys, bring our Big Ben tower to be the biggest tower in the world, in Mecca. That makes me angry.” Angawi believes that imitation is the biggest threat to Saudi Arabia at a time when it is opening its doors to bigger projects and international ﬁ rms, pointing out that the majority of schemes that are on the boards at the moment have no relationship to the country or its people. That said, Angawi is quick to point out that he is no traditionalist. The architect has recently designed a thoroughly modern hospital in Jeddah, and is working on similar projects elsewhere in the Middle East. Angawi’s concept of al mizan, meaning balance, guides the way that he mixes modern and traditional aspects of design, taking the best of both – it is not about using glass or stone, it is about using both when they are most appropriate. “There is a big misunderstanding that I would like to correct. People say, are you a traditionalist, or are

SAMI ANGAWI | INTERVIEW

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you a modernist? There is no such thing in my way of thinking. It is all using what you need to serve what is needed from the functional, from the social, from the environmental and so on. When talking about al mizan we say what are the factors, and what are the weight of those factors in the function of the building,” he said. “This is where the ingenuity comes in, it’s not a question of glass being modern and wood being traditional, it is using, by al mizan, how much glass you need for this, and how much you need for that. This is art, and this is science, you work with cultures and with your mind. The word al mizan is the tool of balance, it is the scale to weigh things with.” But in Saudi Arabia today, the scales are well off. As international ﬁ rms come up with bigger and bolder plans for the country, Angawi YEAR THE HAJJ can only despair that RESEARCH CENTRE both developers and WAS FOUNDED the world, leaving the government in the behind all those crazy country are happy to acthings and moving towards cept buildings that could have sustainability and green design? But been built anywhere. What is worse now we are imitating what was the is that Saudi Arabia seems destined fashion 50 years ago, to build towers to not just copy the buildings, but the taller than everyone else. Why do we mistakes too. always run behind?” he said. “Copying is easy, you just put This is particularly true for Jedthings in the Xerox machine and dah, Angawi said, which has been copy. But we are using the wrong thoroughly let down for decades, and original and using a bad machine to produce what we have. It’s a bad copy still has no credible regeneration plan in sight. Unlike the West, where made with a bad copying machine,” modern cities try to preserve their he said. historic areas, Saudi Arabia seems “I wish that instead we would content to let its historic heart rot. imitate the ideas of sustainability, or “If we are imitating the western the idea of environmental respect, world, then we are not doing it Isn’t that what is happening now in

Photos: Oscar Wendel

INTERVIEW | SAMI ANGAWI

1975

How are we advancing humanity with what we are doing in the Middle East? The load is on us, as architects and planners, because people are not listening yet.”

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correctly. They have proven everywhere else in the world that the most valuable parts of the city are the old parts, so there must be something wrong either with the 50 years of experience, or with our thinking,” he said. Finally, it is the legacy of Saudi Arabia’s current boom that should motivate designers and architects today to think past the dollar signs in their dealings with Saudi Arabia. “All we are showing to God and to the people who come in the future is that we have money, and we will spend it. We could have used at least part of our money to do something for the world. To serve humanity, not only ourselves. How are we advancing humanity with what we are doing in the Middle East? “The load is on us, as architects and planners, because people are not listening yet. We need to advise them on what to do,” he said.

INTERVIEW | SAMI ANGAWI

HOME FRONT Sami Angawi’s family home is one of the finest examples of modern Hejazi architecture

n the outskirts of Jeddah, on a regular looking street of white, high-walled villas, Sami Angawi’s house cuts a distinctive ﬁgure. Built and designed in traditional Hejaz style, Al Makkiyah has more in common with the dilapidated coral houses of Jeddah’s old town than the affluent whitewashed suburbs. Angawi’s family home was designed and built around his al mizan philosophy, and uses a mixture of modern and traditional materials and techniques. Its unusual form is immediately notable. The house is wider in the north than the south to catch the northerly wind in every room. The wind is drawn in through the roshan, wooden window boxes, which also act as screens to provide privacy. The house has air-conditioning throughout, but it is only used when it is really needed. This mixture of old and new, of both roshan and air conditioning, is also reﬂected in the materials that Angawi used to build the house. The exterior is made of stone and wood, utilising traditional woodwork and local builders, but at the same time the structure is reinforced by concrete beams and columns. Access to natural light is another important factor in the house, and Angawi designed the structure so that every room receives sunlight. But it is not just a mix of old and new that is epitomised by Angawi’s home, it is a mixture of architectural styles and techniques which, like

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Hejazi culture, has been formed over generations of travellers to the region during Hajj. The overwhelming presence of wood in the architecture of Jeddah, Mecca and Medina is because the ships that transported pilgrims home would come back laden with wood, while the techniques and traditions of designers and labourers from Syria, Iraq, Persia and North Africa inﬂuenced the region’s architecture. The stone work in much of the house is a mixture of Moroccan ceramics and the Syrian stone, with the yellow stone coming from Syria and the green from Morocco. On the ﬂoor of the pool is a Persian carpet design, made with Turkish ceramics. Angawi points out that it is a often thought that all of this intricate work is expensive, but this is a misconception – one of the principles of al mizan is striking a crucial balance between affordability and beauty. The last factor to consider at Al Makkiyah is the social function of the house, something that is as important in Saudi Arabia as it is anywhere in the world. Firstly, the house achieves a separation between the public and private areas. Angawi receives hundreds of visitors a month, but his family are still able to live in the house in relative peace. Above all, Angawi is keen to stress that his house is not an example of Saudi Arabian architecture, but of Hejaz. His house would not work in Riyadh or Al Khobar, it is suited to Jeddah’s coastal climate, where architects have been using similar techniques for generations.

SAMI ANGAWI | INTERVIEW

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COVER STORY | MOSQUES

USE YOUR DOME Both Muslim and non-Muslim architects are redefining the mosque for a 21st century generation

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MOSQUES | COVER STORY

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COVER STORY | MOSQUES

lashing LED towers, aluminium cladding and ornate facades would be a controversial part of any new development, so it is no surprise that their application to new mosques has got traditionalists rattled. Not that opposition has stopped contemporary architects, both Muslim and non-Muslim, from ﬂoating revolutionary new ideas for mosques over the last decade. Many of the new generation feel that religious buildings, which have long been representative of the cities in which they are built, should represent progress as well as tradition.

“What we are doing today is copying the past. The past is a beautiful memory but we can’t just copy it for today,” explains Emirati architect Omran Al Owais. “Otherwise what is going to happen in 40 years time when my grandson tells people that his grandfather was an architect? People will say, what did he do? And my grandson will have to say that I only copied the past.” Al Owais believes that while new mosques such as those in Casablanca and Abu Dhabi are undoubtedly beautiful, architects should not be afraid to experiment with new concepts. One of his ideas is to replace

Fari Hattam’s modern design reinvents both the minaret and the dome.

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the traditional call to prayer with an LED-lit minaret, so that people will know when to go to pray whatever they are doing. Equally, his latest mosque design does not have a dome, since air-conditioning and modern speakers can fulfil both the climatic and atmospheric function it has always served. Similarly, in terms of construction, the function of a dome was to have a raised roof without pillars – but with today’s materials architects do not need pillars to keep the roof up. “Today I am trying to bring up new things to help me as a Muslim. When I am driving my car, talking on the phone, I can’t hear the call to prayer outside, but I can see it. So we can use new technology like LED lights to send the message to me while I am driving my car,” he says. It is a sentiment that Iranian architect Fari Hattam, director at Aedas, agrees with. Hattam says Islamic architecture today tends to fall into three categories: stick-on architecture, where superficial patterns and calligraphy are arbitrarily incorporated into a design, international architecture, where designers forget they are designing for the Middle East, and finally hybrid architecture, where culture and history are translated into a contemporary form. Hattam’s designs for contemporary mosques in both Dubai and Qatar sought to push this concept of Islamic architecture forward and, like Al Owais, avoid simply imitating the architecture of the past. “The form of my mosque is quite simple. Externally, it consists of three elements: a dome, a cube and a minaret. By making a dominant statement with the first, I was in a fi x about how to incorporate the cube. By extending the dome to the ground, the cube section was forced underground. This created a space which was to become a museum celebrating the life story of Prophet Mohammed,” he explains.

MOSQUES | COVER STORY

Owing to the fact that the Quran is the most important element in Islam and contains 30 chapters, the envelope of the building is divided into 30 segments, which contain the writings of the Quran. Another section of the dome is divided into five segments, representing the five pillars of Islam. “The calligraphy on the mosque’s glass also intimates the five pillars, beginning with dark-shaded glass near the bottom, which becomes lighter as it moves towards the top. This gesture is meant to symbolise Hajj to Mecca. The minaret also includes the 99 names of Allah in the Quran,” he said. Hattam’s mosque is certainly focused on Islamic concepts and function, but it is also overtly modern in form. “The architecture of the Islamic world throughout history has adapted and responded to different cultures and existing traditions, this has led to what we define today as Islamic architecture,” Hattam says. “My focus has been on how the component of Islamic architecture can be incorporated into a contemporary context.” Context does not always have to apply to concepts either, as Danish architect Bjarke Ingels will testify. Ingels is one of a new breed of nonMuslim architects who have turned their hands to mosque design, in his case a Grand Mosque for the Danish capital, Copenhagen. “We started analysing the different elements of what a mosque actually does. The mosque is an architectural infrastructure for a series of rituals, and it has certain necessary elements to allow people to perform those rituals,” he explains. “We wanted to be faithful to all these elements, and to make sure the infrastructure supported the rituals, but we also wanted to convert the architectural style to fit with a Nordic country like Denmark.”

Omran Al Owais designed his mosque to make the most of the Middle Eastern climate.

“My focus is on how the component of Islamic architecture can be incorporated in to a contemporary context. Fari Hattan, Aedas

One such regional characteristic is that the Grand Mosque’s roof has designed to be open to the sky, letting in the light rather than blocking out the heat. Back in the Middle East, Jordanian architect Khaled Azzam is about as far from Ingels, Al Owais and Hattam in terms of architectural style as you can get. But the designer of the King Hussein Mosque in Jordan, which

was built in honour of the former king in 2003, still feels that contemporary mosques should not simply seek to imitate the past. “The idea of a mosque is something that is very simple. It’s an open space with doors at the back so that people can come to prayer,” says Azzam. “But one of the things that concerned me is that a lot of these modern mosques just sit there.

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COVER STORY | MOSQUES

The King Hussein Mosque in Amman is a designed to reﬂ ect Jordan’s character.

Nobody goes to pray in them and they’re isolated from the community.” This was something that Azzam tried hard not to replicate with his design for the King Hussein Mosque. Although from afar the building resembles a hill-top fortress, as you approach the mosque it opens up,

using high ceilings, arches and outside space to welcome worshippers and visitors inside. “I was very concerned that in the Arab world traditional culture is removed from us. I wanted people to feel it as a building that belongs to them and is part of their heritage.”

One of the things that concerned me is that a lot of these modern mosques just sit there. Nobody goes to pray in them and they’re isolated from the community.” Khaled Azzam

Copenhagen’s Grand Mosque is open to the sky.

Minarets could light up to mark the call to prayer.

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And just as Azzam has designed the King Hussein mosque to reflect Jordanian heritage and culture, Al Owais wants his modern designs to reflect the UAE’s progress and successes in 2010. “A mosque is always intended to show off a place, and for me it is a tool for showing off a culture and financial power and mind power, the educational level of a people,” he says. “In my project I am admitting that Dubai is an international city and we’re engaged with the international world. Everything we are doing is connected somehow.”

FEATURE | GREEN CITIES

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GREEN CITIES | FEATURE

THINK BIG Middle East A r c h i te co m b c t loo ining k s at h th e i r s ow a r k i l l s to c h i te c c r e a te ts and g re e n desig n e r c iti ers ar es in t e he Mid dle Ea st

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FEATURE | GREEN CITIES

THE GREAT OUTDOORS Despite the arid climate, engineers and architects have been working on innovative ways to make our outside environment contribute to sustainability.

The project has been shortlisted for an Agha Khan award.

SAUDI ARABIA

UAE, OMAN, QATAR

A joint initiative between engineering ﬁrm Buro Happold and Canadian architects Moriyama and Teshima saw the revitalisation of Riyadh’s Wadi Hanifah, which served as both a source of drinking water and a meeting place for families. The project was commissioned by Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA). Over-reliance on the Wadi in recent years has seen its underground water reserves fall so low that much of Riyadh’s water has to be pumped from desalination plants 350km away on the Saudi Arabian coast. The rapid expansion of the capital has turned the once normally dry Wadi into a permanent ﬂowing river in its lower reaches, as sewage from the city and rising groundwater have caused pollution. Following the restoration works there has been a major revitalisation in land values surrounding the Wadi, and the area has resumed its role as a much visited local destination in a city severely lacking green recreational space.

Engineering firm Waagner Biro has already found praise in the pages of Middle East Architect for the artificial wetlands incorporated into its designs for a Dubai labour camp. Now the firm is expanding its TerraSave concept into Oman and Qatar, creating a excellent model for highly sustainable developments in the desert. Waagner Biro’s labour camp in Dubai, built in 2007, uses black water and human effluent to create engineered wetlands, which have become a habitat for birds. In Qatar, Waagner Biro plans to integrate a heat pump system to cool the labour camp in cooperation with the reed bed in nearby engineered wetlands, by installing cooling pipes at the bottom of the reed bed. The advantage of this system for architects is that it reduces the need for outdoor units on the buildings.

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GREEN CITIES | FEATURE

SKIN DEEP Glass facades may appear to be public enemy number one in the Middle East, but there are ways to achieve sustainable substance without sacriﬁcing style

WEIHAI, CHINA Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology is going down a storm in China, but there is not a single development in the Gulf that is currently using the technology. The advantage for architects is that BIPV panels allow for huge glass towers and sustainability, allowing for a reduction of as much as 13% with only a third of the façade covered. Instead of being added to a building, BIPV panels are incorporated into the façade, making the entire building capable of generating power. An added beneﬁt of BIPV is that if they are on vertical walls they do not get dusty, and can be cleaned during general building maintenance. Chinese company Singyes Solar, which has been in the region since 2006 and worked on the Weihai building, is hoping to pilot two projects later this year.

BIPV panels are easy to clean, unlike regular PV panels (Below)

ABU DHABI, UAE High-tech facades are just one way of reducing residual heat and glare, and a recent development in Abu Dhabi has demonstrated that they can have both aesthetic and environmental worth. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) HQ, designed by Aedas, uses a translucent fabric mesh mashrabiya, which moves with the sun to block out glare and reduce heat gain on two 25-storey towers. Furthermore, Abdo Aoun, projects manager at Somfy, emphasises that hightech facades are cost effective. “We have studies that show shading can reduce cooling costs by between 10 and 15% in a room. Imagine the cost saving in a hotel of 300 to 350 rooms over one year? It’s a lot of money,” he said.

Intelligent facades make the most of their exposure to the sun’s rays.

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FEATURE | GREEN CITIES

BIG PICTURE THINKING It’s not only add-ons that help build greener cities, sustainability needs to be part of design concepts from the outset

ABU DHABI, UAE

Masdar City’s new master plan is due in the coming months.

Any discussion of sustainability in the Middle East would be incomplete without mentioning Masdar. Designed by British architectural firm Foster + Partners, the aim is that Masdar City will rely entirely on solar power and renewable energy sources. The government of Abu Dhabi has pledged an investment of US$22 billion to ensure Masdar’s status as an international hub for renewable energy, the centrepiece of which is the Masdar Institute, a graduate-level university for renewable energy research that opened last September. At the end of July, Foster + Partners broke the media drought on Masdar by announcing that its personal review of the scheme was nearing completion, the firm also confirmed that its review would form part of a major master plan review of the entire project. Lord Norman Foster said thatMasdar was an integrated urban research project of unprecedented scale and ambition, which: “shows a commitment to infrastructure at the highest political level.” And Lord Foster is right. Despite the rumours of scalebacks at Masdar, the development is due to set a new bar for sustainable cities - in the Middle East, no less.

CHONGQING, CHINA Woods Bagot and Buro Happold are working together on a scheme in China that will look at sustainable developments on a large scale, rather than at individual initiatives contained within them. The Zero Emissions Design (ZERO-E) initiative seeks to incorporate a range of architectural and engineering features to create truly sustainable developments in China, and elsewhere in the world. “The ZERO-E pilot project conﬁrms that, using the expertise and tools available to us today, far greater advances in building performance – those that comprise zero emissions design – are currently within the industry’s capabilities. This joint initiative is not only an entirely new model for sustainable design, it is also a call to action and an invitation to our development and construction partners to join us as we lead the way to a truly sustainable future,” Ross Donaldson, CEO of Woods Bagot, said. The ZERO-E holistic resource system integrates photo-voltaics, solar thermal panels, absorption chillers, a biogas fuel cell and an anaerobic waste digester into a closedloop system that greatly improves the building’s operational performance.

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GREEN CITIES | FEATURE

INSIDE OUT Building green is not only about exteriors, what goes on inside is just as important

Summertown is the ﬁ rst interiors company to gain a LEED Gold rating.

DUBAI, UAE Design firm Summertown won a LEED Gold certification for its headquarters in Jafza at the end of last year, becoming the first interiors company to win the accolade, and proving that sustainability can be more than skin deep. The office uses 35% less energy, up to 50% less water and diverts over 90% of its waste from the landfill compared to a conventional building. Now the firm is trying to encourage other companies in the Middle East to look at sustainability, claiming that sustainability is analogous to a company’s profitability and provides a visible return on investment within just three to eight years. “These workshops characterise a process that actively engages prominent decision makers and fundamentally creates a broader understanding of the cost savings and design advantages that come with creating premises such as our showroom,” said Marcos Bish, managing director. The offi ce uses 35% less energy and up to 50% less water.

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40/47 CASE STUDIES

48/51 THE WORK

52/54 CULTURE

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BURJ RAFAL | CASE STUDY

BURJ RAFAL Client: Rafal Group Designer: P&T Location: Riyadh CASE STUDY THE PROJECT This 62-storey tower in the heart of Riyadh, will be one of only three tall towers in the city and contain the ﬁ rst Kempinski hotel in Saudi Arabia. The tower – which will be the tallest in the Saudi capital – will include 260 luxury apartments, a 297-room hotel, and up to 6,000 sq2 of retail and a 2,000 sq2 ballroom in an attached podium. The tower has a glass façade, while the podium utilises local Riyadh stone.

THE SITE The 19,315 m2 site is located on King Fahd Road near the rapidly developing King Abdullah Financial Center. The site will contain a total of 96,575 m2 of residential, hospitality, retail and offices.

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CASE STUDY | BURJ RAFAL

THE CONCEPT Stephan Frantzen, executive director of P&T, said that the intention was always for the Burj Rafal to be the tallest tower in Riyadh, but that the firm also wanted to design something that was distinctly Saudi Arabian. Frantzen was able to do so with the podium, which uses local stone and traditional triangular patterns. “From a distance the tower is what you see, but once you get onto the site itself, it is the podium that becomes the focus. That gives the ambience and the character once you are there,” he said.

THE DETAILS Security was a key concern for the designers in a country where terrorism is a very real threat. P&T designed the entrance way so that cars have to make a sharp turn and then pass through a barrier, while the high stone walls reduce the risk of bomb blasts reaching the tower. “In Riyadh you have these towers with machine guns out the top protecting some of the buildings, it’s serious. With so many users on a fairly small site, Burj Rafal was a real challenge,” Frantzen said. Seperate entrances have been provided for residents and guests.

It is often argued that tall glass towers are exactly what the region doesn’t need, and Frantzen admits that he has been grilled on the subject TOTAL HEIGHT OF by other architects. “I THE BURJ RAFAL think that the majority of projects that one does should be very serious about environmental issues, but I still believe that there should be room for some things that go beyond that,” he said. “I think it’s like eating soya beans for every meal, it’s boring, you need a tiramisu now and then.”

305 METRES

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BURJ RAFAL | CASE STUDY

P&T inherited the initial Burj Rafal design from another firm, who 2 had intended to include elaborate louvers on TOTAL FLOORSPACE, the exterior, but they CONSISTING OF RESIDENTIAL, RETAIL were quick to scrap HOSPITALITY AND this design feature. “We OFFICES. convinced the client that it might not look good from the inside. If you buy an apartment on the 60th floor you don’t want your view blocked by some random shape that makes the façade look interesting,” Frantzen said.

96,575 METRES

The firm was also keen to prevent the Burj Rafal from getting caked in dust, a problem that effects the city’s other two tall towers. They did so by taking the money that would have been spent on the glass louvers of the previous design, and spending it on high performance glass. “We have a lot of wind in Riyadh, and with the wind you have the sand and dust. The smoother it is the more the wind just carries on. It’s a very easy façade to clean, and to keep clean,” he said.

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KHAN SHATYR CENTRE | CASE STUDY

KHAN SHATYR ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE Architect: Foster + Partners Location: Astana, Kazazhstan CASE STUDY

THE PROJECT

THE CONCEPT

The Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre contains over 100,000m 2 of space inside an ETFE dome, which has recently qualified as the tallest tensile structure in the world. The tent-like, cable-net structure soars 150-metres into the air from an elliptical base to form the highest peak on the Astana skyline. Inside the tent is an urban-scaled park, along with entertainment facilities, shops, restaurants and areas for events and exhibitions. The different levels form undulating terraces, with the uppermost terrace used as a popular water park.

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

The building is Foster + Partners’ second in Astana, as the firm designed the iconic Palace of Peace in the city five years ago. Design director Nigel Dancey said that while the inspiration for the Palace of Peace was primarily its function as a religious building, the focus of Khan Shatyr is entertainment. “Their forms express the 2 change of emphasis and function, from FLOORSPACE INSIDE religion to enterTHE KHAN SHATYR tainment, as you pass DOME along this grand new boulevard,” he said.

100,000 METRES

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

Images: Foster + Partners

CASE STUDY | KHAN SHATYR CENTRE

THE DETAILS Astanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s extreme climate was a significant challenge for the architects, given that temperatures can drop to -35 degrees Celsius in winter and climb as high as +35 degrees in summer. The three-layer ETFE envelope is designed to shelter the enclosed accommodation from weather extremes and to allow daylight to wash the interiors. In winter, a key challenge is to prevent the formation of ice on the inside

of the envelope. This is achieved by a combination of temperature control and directing warm air currents up the inner surface of the fabric. In summer, fritting on the outermost foil layer provides solar shading. Inside, low-level jets direct cool air across the space.

150 METRES PEAK HEIGHT, MAKING IT THE TALLEST TENSILE STRUCTURE IN THE WORLD

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

LUANDA SKY CENTRE | CASE STUDY

LUANDA SKY CENTRE Designer: Risco Location: Angola CASE STUDY

THE PROJECT Portuguese firm Risco architects have designed two towers to form part of a significant development in Angola’s capital city of Luanda. Work has begun on Sky Residence II – a 22-storey residential tower – and Risco is also behind the design for the adjacent Sky Business Tower, which will provide offices for local and international companies.

THE CONCEPT Risco managing director Tomás Salgado said it was crucial that the towers fit in with their surroundings, and included public space and open areas. “It’s easy to open a magazine and see beautiful tall towers and large scale buildings, it’s not as easy to find projects where buildings and public space merge together,” he said. Sustainability has also been an important consideration, in light of Angola’s harsh climate.

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

CASE STUDY | LUANDA SKY CENTRE

THE DETAILS Salgado explained that attitudes to public space in developing cities like Luanda are different to in Europe. “In terms of urban planning Luanda is a very weird city, the notion is very new. The city is developing very fast and it’s almost all through private investment. Because of this, not much thought has been put into how developments fit together,” he said.

Risco has designed the facades of the buildings to have two layers, increasing the cooling capability INCREASE IN NATURAL of the building. LIGHT BY INCREASING By increasing the THE PERIMETER OF perimeter and creating THE FACADES bumps on the facades, natural light within the apartments is enhanced and sea views are increased by 80%.

80%

Salgado explained that building in Angola is relatively easy. “It is pretty much like anywhere else. Staff are imported from abroad and competent, materials are all imported and techniques are the same,” he said. “Of course we have to avoid designs that require for more artisanal craftsmanship. And we have to keep things simple because all shipments take ages to be unloaded at the harbour.”

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

PROJECT UPDATE | THE WORK

THE WORK PROJECT UPDATE

RUWAIS CITY Client: Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council Architect: RNL Location: Abu Dhabi

NOBU DOHA Client: Nobu Architect: Rockwell Group Location: Qatar

JENAN CITY

340,000 METRES2 TOTAL DEVELOPMENT SITE

Client: Jenan Real Estate Architect: NORR Consultants Location: Saudi Arabia

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

This massive master plan project has been drawn up by design ﬁ rm RNL for Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council. The 27km2 development will be a new city for Al Gharbia, including a harbour and marina, housing, schools, retail and recreation facilities. The development is in line with the Al Gharbia 2030 plan, which seeks to increase the population by creating a new industrial hub in the Western Region.

Created by New York designers Rockwell Group, this is a new 26,000ft2 restaurant for Doha waterfront. The three story building is raised on a glass podium, giving the impression that it is ﬂoating over the harbour from a distance, and will cater for around 250 people in its restaurant and rooftop bar. The building’s interiors feature hand-painted murals of koi ﬁsh by Japanese artist Hideki Kimura.

Jenan City will be a 44,655m2 mixed-used development in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which will include offices, apartments, a mall and a hotel. Spread across two adjacent sites, Jenan City will provide upwards of 100 luxury apartments, a 250-room hotel and a mall on the ﬁ rst plot, and a medium density residential development on the second. The development will also include a number of units of affordable housing.

Client: Roya Architect: DSA Architects International Location: Madinat Zayed, Empty Quarter

SALAM CENTRE Client: Emergency Ong Onlus Designer: Tamassociati Location: Sudan

DJAMAA EL DJAZAIR Client: Government of Algeria Designer: Jurgen Engel Architekten Location: Algeria

BRITISH EMBASSY ALGIERS Client: British Foreign Office Architect: John Mc Aslan + Partners Location: Algeria

THE WORK | PROJECT UPDATE

TILAL LIWA DESERT HOTEL

This project in the UAE’s Empty Quarter resembles a traditional desert fort, and is situated some two hours from Abu Dhabi. The 40,500m 2 hotel includes 120 guest rooms, a restaurant and a health club set around traditional courtyards. DSA Architects incorporated a number of traditional elements into the design, including thick walls and small windows enabling the building to keep cool in the summer months.

Italian architecture ﬁ rm Tamassociati used discarded cargo containers to build staff accommodation. The ﬁ rm had used the containers to transport materials to Sudan. The buildings house 60 staff, set around TREES WERE PLANTED a courtyard in which the TO OFFSET THE CARBON USED designers planted 100 TRANSPORTING trees to offset the carbon MATERIALS TO they used shipping materiSUDAN als to Sudan.

150

Due to become the third biggest mosque in the world, the Djamaa El Djazair in Algiers has been designed in a joint effort by Jurgen Engel Architekten, Drees & Sommer and engineering consultancy Krebs und Kiefer. The project will include a prayer hall holding 35,000 worshippers, as well as the tallest minaret in the world, due to stand at 264 metres. The mosque will take more than four years to complete.

This project in the Algerian capital saw a thoroughly modern embassy building incorporated into the site of a colonial residence. The British Foreign Office had strict requirements relating to cost, use and security, all of which had to be balanced against design considerations by John Mc Aslan + Partners. The eco-friendly building also had to ﬁt into a tight 1,800m 2 footprint, without obscuring views across the Bay of Algiers.

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

PROJECT UPDATE | THE WORK

3000 CAPACITY OF THE GRAND MOSQUE’S PRAYER HALL

COPENHAGEN GRAND MOSQUE Client: Bach Gruppen A/S Architect: BIGBjarke Ingels Group Location: Denmark

ABU DHABI INVESTMENT COUNCIL HQ Client: Abu Dhabi Investment Council Architect: Aedas Architects Location: Abu Dhabi

RUKN AL AQEEQ Architect: Maan Alsalloum, Cowi Location: Saudi Arabia

BREAKWATER BEACON JEDDAH Client: Saudi Aramco Location: Saudi Arabia

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

Denmark’s ﬁ rst purpose-built mosque is being built in cooperation with the Muslim Council of Denmark, an umbrella organization representing 13 different Muslim organizations. The mosque is part of a 124,000m 2 religious complex that will include a prayer hall, shops, conference facilities, an auditorium and an Islamic library. The project has received planning permission, but work is yet to commence.

Touted as the new gateway to Abu Dhabi, the ADIC headquarters will provide 350,000ft2 of office space, as well as retail and food outlets for an estimated 2,000 workers. Designed by Aedas Architects’ London office, the two 25-storey towers utilize a number of high-tech green initiatives, including a mashrabiya screen which shifts in order to protect against direct sunlight. The towers will be completed in 2011.

The Rukn Al Aqeeq is a mixed-use development incorporating a 21 storey hotel and 12-storey office tower, linked by a single storey of retail space. The entire building will be clad in stainless steel mesh and is designed to be elliptical, with the hotel and office towers joining together at the fourth ﬂoor with an open-air garden area in the centre. The steel mesh is designed to help the building obtain a LEED ranking.

This contemporary lighthouse in Jeddah was commissioned by HOK, architects for the nearby King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) project. Designer Dan Tobin was originally asked to produce a 30m tower but the project ended up twice as high. Eventually the tower will include 150 lights, which will glow through the lattice of hexagons from top to bottom, and a marble interior.

Client: Laufen Architect: Nissen & Wentzlaff Engineer: Walther Mory Maier

COURTYARD CONCEPT IN AL SHEGERY Arhitect: Dewan Location: Riyadh

MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT FOR LUSAIL DISTRICT Arhitect: KEO Location: Doha

BUILDING CONCEPT FOR KING ABDULLAH FINANCIAL DISTRICT Arhitect: Woods Bagot Location: Riyadh

Swiss bathroom company Laufen’s new headquarters is an unconventional design, constructed entirely from concrete and without windows. The two-storey showroom is a scale replica of a Laufen washbasin, and was constructed in a single mould with a 44cm-thick MOLD WAS USED concrete. 50 skylights provide TO CAST THE light while also limiting the CONCRETE FACADE effect of seasonal changes in the sun’s position.

ONE

Al Shegery’s dimensions are 700m x 800m with an area of 535,000m 2 . The project, which is currently in concept design phase, will contain residential buildings, a 150-room hotel, a school, a healthcare facility, retail space, a mosque and a health club. The urban design strategy of the project depends on situating the buildings as vehicle-free clusters to create an atmosphere of the traditional Arabian neighbourhood.

Diyar Al Kuwait (DAK) commissioned KEO International in 2008 to design the project for the Lusail District in Doha. The programme for the project is relatively straightforward. It is based on a mixed use development consisting of commercial, residential and retail spaces. It encompasses 247,044m2 of allowable area – 159,989m2 for TOTAL VALUE commercial; 130,220m2 for office space; and 29,769m2 for retail.

US$800

MILLION

Woods Bagot have released designs for a building in Riyadh’s KAFD that is being touted as “an exemplar of the modern workplace”. Its shape is derived from a nested and repeated fractal form, which has been designed with Islamic patterns in mind. By following mathematical rigour to create an interlocking and inﬁ nite geometric pattern, the design creates a balanced and harmonious building form.

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

THE WORK | PROJECT UPDATE

LAUFEN FORUM

CULTURE | LIKE WANT NEED

LIKE WANT NEED CULTURE

SOFA

COAST Arketipo Coast is an informal and comfortable sofa designed by Francesco Rota for Arketipo. An unbroken line links the back and arms, and surrounds a big, comfortable seat. The metal structure grants the sofa with solidity, while the seat padding is made of a quilted cotton cover filled with goose down. Staked on the curved line of the backrest, the sofa commu-

nicates a sense of comfort that is informal and elegant at the same time. United into a single surface, the discrete and thin structure of the backrest and armrests encompasses the seat, encouraging conviviality and relaxation. A dormeuse designed with the same line matches the sofa: a large and comfortable seat cushion closed on two sides by a light structure.

APP

SKETCHBOOK PRO AutoDesk AutoDesk has been making graphics programmes for desktop computers for as long as there have been desktop computers, but this is the first application for the iPhone and

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

iPad. With a single sub-megapixel resolution of 768 x 1024, the program provides a great deal of artistic freedom and tools. In its latest form, Autodesk brings a whole new meaning to finger-painting.

LIKE WANT NEED | CULTURE

FURNITURE

NOVECENTO Natuzzi Natuzzi has introduced Novecento, a modular wall unit collection that can be fully customised. The collection features a variety of separate pieces, including a sideboard, wall shelves, benches, drawers, cabinets and TV elements.

BOOK

SPEAKERS

CITY BUILDING: NINE PLANNING PRINCIPLES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

CUBO 2010

Princeton Architectural Press

Filini

John Kriken of the award-winning planning ﬁ rm SOM has been at the forefront of urban planning for over forty years, and in City Building he brings both his wealth of experience and his great optimism for the future. In this new book, Kriken illustrates a means for comprehensive rather than symptom-based problem solving.

UAE online furniture and lifestyle store Filini has unveiled the latest addition to its growing catalogue of products, the Sonoro Audio Cubo 2010. Designed and crafted by Germany’s Sonoro Audio, the Cubo 2010

is a sleek and stylish CD/MP3 player, clock radio and iPod dock. The product offers a smooth curved-corner design, available in four shades, and is fitted with a full-range speaker integrated with a bass-reflex tube.

www.constructionweekonline.com | 08.10 | MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT

CULTURE | LIKE WANT NEED

BOOK

CONSTRUCTING A NEW AGENDA FOR ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY 1992 – 2009 Princeton Architectural Press This follow-up to Kate Nesbitt’s best-selling anthology Theorizing a New Agenda collects twenty-eight essays that address architecture theory from the mid-1990s through the present. Kristin Sykes offers an overview of the approaches adopted by architects and architectural theorists during this era.

70% COMPUTER

ECO-FRIENDLY MONITOR

REDUCTION IN ENERGY USE COMPARED TO NORMAL MONITORS

BenQ Forget buying solar panels or off setting your long haul ﬂ ights, now you can save the world by surﬁ ng the web. Digital manufacturer BenQ has introduced a new, eco-friendly range of computer monitors to the Middle East. The company’s LED monitor range boast higher energy savings than traditional monitors, mercury-free engineering and an

DESK

MOSAICO Coinma Mosaico, a range of office desks from Spanish company, Coinma, answers calls for practical yet stylish workplace solutions. It combines C-shaped legs, a wooden top and an effective wire management system to create a lightweight, sculptural element. The contemporary desking solution was designed by up-and-coming Spanish designer, Mario Ruiz. “We gave him 100% freedom to create something different,” said Inazio Eguskiza, Coinma’s export manager. The end result is “light, fresh and different – a breakthrough in office furniture”.

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

armful of environmental credentials. BenQ claims that some of its new models can save up to 70% of the energy of a normal monitor, while maintaining one of the highest dynamic contrast rations in the world. The monitors save power by using energy efficient backlighting panels, which consume almost 40% less power.

LAST WORD | KEVIN MITCHELL

REALITY BITES THE LAST WORD Buro Happold’s new UAE country director Kevin Mitchell talks about keeping green, moving forward and making architects’ wacky designs reality.

I learnt a lot of lessons as a 21-year-old consulting engineer on-site.

I remember a foreman once saying: “This is what 8” pipe work looks like; you have drawn it ten metres in the air. How am I going to get it up there?” As engineers we’ve never been posed with a challenge that is beyond being built, we’ve never seen anything completely ridiculous. Not all of it is

plausible, but it’s always vaguely practical. I think everyone in our industry is serious about it sustainability.

There’s a huge commitment to show that it is possible to produce sustainable communities. The launch of Estidama in Abu Dhabi has provided an excellent focal point for sustainability, and I am sure Dubai’s green building regulations will soon follow suit. I’ve been in a few places where I have been completely aghast at the spaces that have just been air-conditioned, even outside. There are better design solutions that we can ﬁ nd. We are involved in some fabulous projects in Saudi, and in Abu Dhabi,

including the Media Zone, the Louvre and the Landmark Tower, and we have a few others in the pipeline there too. Iraq is a really interesting market and so is Iran. There are huge

opportunities there. I came under criticism from a few individuals about coming to the Middle East. They said it was unsustainable to build in the desert. But that’s

tantamount to saying people shouldn’t live in hot places, and how arrogant is that? I’m no economist, but I personally foresee cautious steady growth in the UAE, and I think we will see an increase in the quality of the developments that come onto the market.

MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECT | 08.10 | www.constructionweekonline.com

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