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November 1, 2009
I saw some images of contemporary architecture in Abu Dhabi the capital of the United Arab Emirates on television tonight. They were impressive and an indication of the immense wealth in the Emirates that has been generated from oil. It was such a long way from the architectural design in Adelaide and Australia:
RMJM, Capital Gate tower hotel, Dubai
What intrigued me was that, though Abu Dhabi one of the richest cities in the world, the architectural emphasis is not on being the biggest or the tallest as in Australia. It was more about technical ingenuity, innovative design and aesthetic significance. It is about the aesthetics of architecture.
An example: is Zaha Hadid's amoeba-like structure covered with a netlike window structure, organic lines, multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry that is in such contrast to the political and architectural culture that had emerged in the 1990s in Australia:
Zaha Hadid Performing Arts Centre, Abu Dhabib
This deconstructs both the classically formal, rule bound modernism of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier and the old rules of space — walls, ceilings, front and back, right angles. She reassembles them in “a new fluid, kind of spatiality”.
Zaha Hadid’s design for the Signature Towers, Dubai
This is proposed for Dubai's commercial district Business Bay. It is a mixed use development, including offices, hotel, residential, and retail areas and incorporates two link bridges, waterfront park, and promenade.
I'm unaware of any deconstructive architecture in Australia--- an architecture of "discomfort and the unbalancing of expectations". The deconstructure movement in architecture is usually associated with Coop Himmelblau, Bernard Tschumi, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind.
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And they are built with what is little more than slave labour, as an article in a recent weekend magazine pointed out.