DUBAI | Anara Tower | 2,149 FT / 655 M | 125 FLOORS | NEVER BUILT

[photoLith]

Whoda thunk that 10 years ago Dubai would be the worlds first Sci Fi ish city.

[Starsky]

For all the people defending the new, ugly projects in Dubai...Guess what?

If these things were built in major American cities they would be getting 10x as much flack on these forums, *and rightly so*. It seems like they could make a building modeled after a pile of feces in Dubai and it would still have defenders.

[MolsonExport]

well, now that's an interesting design. another example of "build it, and they will come"?

[malec]

Originally Posted by Starsky

For all the people defending the new, ugly projects in Dubai...Guess what?

If these things were built in major American cities they would be getting 10x as much flack on these forums, *and rightly so*. It seems like they could make a building modeled after a pile of feces in Dubai and it would still have defenders.

Um no, I think the opposite. They'd get 10 times more praise

[northbay]

tacky

[Aleks]

malec is wayyyyy right.

[Xeelee]

Interesting.

[futuresooner]

Wow, now that's ugly.

Looks like a bottle opener met a personal, hand-held fan.

[CGII]

The front face of this building is a spoon. The lateral forces from wind will be astronomical. For the people who say 'all the Chicago people are just jealous!' you have to understand that the Chicago Spire is designed to disperse these loads whereas this tower just ignores that element of the equation in favour of something that looks cool.

Often times people bring into question these funky skyscrapers and say, 'well, this building in Dubai looks funky, and this building in NY or Chicago looks funky, so they are of the same quality,' which is a fallacy. The funky design of the Spire has clear structural and aerodynamic advantages whereas the buildings in Dubai are designed sculpturally, where the shape has little pertainence to the engineering.

And let's face it, the base of this building sucks. It looks terrible and has so little relation to the rest of the building (which is already a jumbled mess). And what's worse, it's on a giant interchange. If this building were being proposed for anywhere in America I'd be giving it even more flack because we have a much greater diligence when it comes to designing urban, reasonably scaled and well designed projects. I'm chalking this one up as another Dubai piece of flair with a few interesting ideas that fail to be fully realized or streamlined.

This 'Dubai School' of architecture is like 21st century Beaux Arts (minus the craftsmanship and diligence) where the idea is that if you slather a building in expressive, artistic form it gains architectural value. And we all know what happened to Beaux Arts.

[malec]

Originally Posted by CGII

The front face of this building is a spoon. The lateral forces from wind will be astronomical.

Well if that's the case then when they do the detailed design that'll have to change.

This will probably not be built anyway.
The Dubai property market is undergoing a correction (crash?) and this time next year we'll be in a better position to say what will and what won't be built.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by CGII

And we all know what happened to Beaux Arts.

...it spread like wildfire and influenced the direction of millions of buildings around the world, spreading itself like the plague?

[CGII]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

...it spread like wildfire and influenced the direction of millions of buildings around the world, spreading itself like the plague?

Well, for the most part, it died. I know you'll say 'no' and then bring up a list of counterexamples but you have to admit that in the long run the Chicago school won out, even if around the world it has been watered down or butchered.

[M.K.]

It seems those exaustors in restaurant kitchens or even in some toilets, to put out the bad odor. A big ventilator pod in our room.

[rockyi]

Striking design for a science fiction movies special effects but a complete waste of materials in real life.

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

Towers are not designed and built based on your tastes or personal preferences,

Yeah, generally towers are proposed with at least some semblence of being based in economic reality as well as structural reality per CGII's excellent post above (including, fair enough, Burj Dubai on both counts - an ambitious tower of ego, but still fully grounded in reality), but this tower is clearly an insane pipe dream.

[murdoc9]

got to agree Fuego, I give this one exactly .06% chance of actually being built. The market is falling apart right now and everyone knows its coming. Think South Florida right now, but even more overbuilt. The gov't will try and prop the market up as much as it can, but we'll see prices at about $.30 on the dollar in 2 years.

Too bad though, I actually do like this design, but this will be one of those wouldn't it have been cool type projects.

[malec]

^^ True, but I don't think it's that overbuilt. Miraculously all those apartments in the marina are actually starting to get filled. For example in the jumeirah beach residence all the restaurants and stuff at the bottom of the developments have loads of people in them now according to what people who live there say.

About your last sentence I agree 100%. Same applies to Nakheel Tower, Jumeirah Gardens development, Dubai waterfront, etc...

[murdoc9]

I hope you're right about it not being that overbuilt, I definitely don't want to see a crash there. I keep reading about tales of the average condo changing hands 18 times before move in and of that activity slowing down. I also know a great deal of office space was being taken up by companies coming in to develop new real estate - it kind of felt like a pyramid scheme in a way.

In its similarity to South Florida, I think the overall fundamentals of the market are great. Unfortunately, the supply came in all at once and now there's going to be a glut until the market catches up.

[Duffstuff129]

I must say that I'm not a fan (see the subtle referential humor?) of this building's design. ZING!

[peanut gallery]

Hey, hey, hey! Someone already made that joke on the previous page.