Foster + Partners   United Arab Emirates   Close to the airport, 10 kilometers from the center of Sharjah, stands this two-floor building by the British firm Foster + Partners. Overhangs 15 meters wide shade the facades against the sun, and aluminum lattices varying in density filter solar ra

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen   United Arab Emirates   This set of gardens was designed and built for the 11th Sharjah Biennial, directed by the Japanese curator Yuko Hasegawa. After developing a strategy to urbanize the existing heritage area of Sharjah, the design proposed a set of pavilions that compl

petrjanda/brainwork   United Arab Emirates   The firm of the Czech architect Petr Janda has won the competition to build a visitor center in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve, located in the United Arab Emirates capital, where flamingos abound. The project seeks to make the building blend into the

Zaha Hadid Architects   United Arab Emirates   In the emirate’s skyscraper-filled Burj Khalifa district, Opus ME Dubai of the Meliá Hotels International chain is in a building that Zaha Hadid herself designed before dying in 2016. In a play of solids and hollows, opacity and transparency, the sch

Heatherwick Studio   United Arab Emirates   The studio was commissioned by Related Companies in 2015 to design a new residential project in Chelsea, Manhattan, at West 18th Street. The site is split in half by the High Line, the elevated public park, and called for an inventive solution that w

X Architects   United Arab Emirates   Distinguished with the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Wasit Wetland Center in the Emirate of Sharjah is a facility with a marsh, a visitor center, and points from which to birdwatch. The Dubai-based firm X-Architects, headed by Ahmed Al-Al

Zaha Hadid Architects   United Arab Emirates   The new headquarters of the environmental and waste management company Bee’ha in Sharjah – capital of one of the seven emirates in the UAE – is designed like an array of dunes within its desert environment, protecting an inner oasis. The design by Za

BIG / Bjarke Ingels Group   United Arab Emirates   The government of the United Arab Emirates is developing the ‘Mars 2117’ project, the objective of which is to build the first stable human settlement on the Red Planet within a time frame of 100 years. Part of this ambitious program is Mars Science

Irisarri + Piñera   United Arab Emirates   The building is a lightweight structure containing the different ‘boxes’ (closed spaces for specific exhibition purposes and services), and that functions as a ‘support stage’ for the textile walls that organize the free use areas... [+]

estudioHerreros   United Arab Emirates   The pavilion is wrapped with a skin of cellular polycarbonate sheets and vertical methacrylate tubes filled with different materials; in this way the color and textures take center stage during the day, and the translucency of the interiors stands ou

Carme Pinós   United Arab Emirates   The pavilion is designed as an elongated gallery that rises and folds tracing a spiral shape, embracing a central oasis cladded with glazed tile in blue tones. Its modular and reconfigurable design guarantees the pavilion a second life after the Expo

The firm founded in London by the late Zaha Hadid and now headed by Patrik Schumacher has in the skyscraper district of Dubai just completed Hotel Opus ME, one of those buildings whose hollows perhaps cost more than their solid parts. Contorted to th

The team formed by Atxu Amann, Andrés Cánovas, and Nicolás Maruri (Temperaturas Extremas Arquitectos) is the winner of the competition for the privilege of building Spain’s pavilion at the Universal Exhibition of 2020, to be held in Dubai. The winnin

The petrodollar-funded construction of huge cultural complexes is a strategy used by Gulf countries to craft themselves a recognizable and influential image.

Jean Nouvel’s most awaited building of the last years, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, finally opens this coming 12 November through what promises to be a ceremony of great political substance. Originally programmed for the year 2012, the project has been swam

Paulo Martins Barata   ‘Back on the Chain Gang,’ the song by Chrissie Hynde written after the collective overdose of the British band The Pretenders, would be the perfect metaphor for the endemic schizophrenia of Dubai’s property market. Every year the emirate hosts ‘Citys

Everyone knows about the paradoxes inherent in the idea of a glazed skyscraper in the Persian Gulf, so it is not surprising to hear of solutions such as those that have been developed by Aedas, in collaboration with Arup, in the Al Bahar Towers, two

El estudio Ehrlich Architects, con sede en Los Ángeles, ha ganado el concurso internacional para diseñar el complejo donde se ubicará el futuro parlamento de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, que estará situado en uno de los mayores bulevares de Abu Dhábi.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   El Golfo Pérsico ha devenido un golfo de marcas: marcas de récord y marcas de lujo. Dubai ha levantado el rascacielos más alto del mundo, Abu Dhabi está construyendo el más colosal conjunto de museo del momento y Qatar albergará el Mundial de 2022 co

La primera ciudad carbón neutral del mundo estrena institución: el Masdar Institute, una universidad dedicada al desarrollo de tecnologías sostenibles. Para dar ejemplo, toda la energía utilizada procede de un gran huerto solar que además de cubrir l

En la isla de Saadiyat de Abu Dhabi se ha presentado el proyecto del Museo Nacional Zayed, diseñado por el estudio de Norman Foster para el nuevo distrito de la cultura del emirato, que contará también con sedes del Guggenheim y del Louvre, según pro

Stefan Behling   En el desierto de Abu Dhabi se levanta la primera fase de Masdar, una iniciativa promovida por la compañía estatal de la energía y diseñada por el estudio británico de Norman Foster.