Post by earl on Mar 12, 2008 17:14:04 GMT
The spherical skyscraper the architect has designed for Waterfront City looks frighteningly familliar
Is it just me, or is Rem Koolhaas, of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, planning to build a a gargantuan 44-storey replica of the Death Star as a corner-piece for his planned city in Dubai? According to his office, the enormous sphere will be part of a masterplan for his concept of "the generic city", which has been described by the New York Times as a "sprawling metropolis of repetitive buildings centered on an airport and inhabited by a tribe of global nomads with few local loyalties".
The building will act as a symbol for a 1.5bn-square-foot "global city" - as dense as Manhattan - built on an artificial island off the coast of Dubai. Waterfront City, which will shield the existing Palm Island, promises to be home to 1.5 million inhabitants - effectively doubling Dubai's population - and create one million jobs.
The city, moreover, will contain a logical grid of 7x7 streets that should ensure that the "city [will be] on a human scale ensuring not only the ease of traffic passing through the city but also creating walkable distances between blocks". The sphere itself, with a telltale circular recess that looks like its been taken from George Lucas's drawing board, is conceived as a self-contained three-dimensional urban neighbourhood and will encase various public institutions in a series of smaller spheres suspended on the inside and connected by escalators enclosed in long tubes.
The idea of a ball shaped skyscraper has been kicked around by OMA before, but will Waterfront City finally mark its realisation? Or has Koolhaas got something more sinister on his mind?
Is it just me, or is Rem Koolhaas, of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, planning to build a a gargantuan 44-storey replica of the Death Star as a corner-piece for his planned city in Dubai? According to his office, the enormous sphere will be part of a masterplan for his concept of "the generic city", which has been described by the New York Times as a "sprawling metropolis of repetitive buildings centered on an airport and inhabited by a tribe of global nomads with few local loyalties".
The building will act as a symbol for a 1.5bn-square-foot "global city" - as dense as Manhattan - built on an artificial island off the coast of Dubai. Waterfront City, which will shield the existing Palm Island, promises to be home to 1.5 million inhabitants - effectively doubling Dubai's population - and create one million jobs.
The city, moreover, will contain a logical grid of 7x7 streets that should ensure that the "city [will be] on a human scale ensuring not only the ease of traffic passing through the city but also creating walkable distances between blocks". The sphere itself, with a telltale circular recess that looks like its been taken from George Lucas's drawing board, is conceived as a self-contained three-dimensional urban neighbourhood and will encase various public institutions in a series of smaller spheres suspended on the inside and connected by escalators enclosed in long tubes.
The idea of a ball shaped skyscraper has been kicked around by OMA before, but will Waterfront City finally mark its realisation? Or has Koolhaas got something more sinister on his mind?