Waterfront City – Dubai Takes on Urbanism and Koolhaas
In a city where buildings grow like weeds, Dubai has been known as the place to attempt the world’s tallest and most lavish buildings. Urbanism happens in the form of man-made islands in symbolic configurations that could be more appropriately attributed to marketability.
Waterfront City aerial rendering. Courtesy of NY Times.
I’m impressed by the growing number of projects being publicized that support my theory that infrastructure is the new Bilbao. However, the one place I never guessed I would see proof is in Dubai where Rem Koolhaas is developing Waterfront City, and recently covered in the NY Times.
In Dubai Mr. Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture seem at first glance to have simply combined the two concepts, creating a hybrid of the generic and the fantastic. The core of the development would be the island, which would be divided into 25 identical blocks. Neat rows of towers — some tall and slender, others short and squat, depending on the zoning — line the blocks, as if a fragment of Manhattan had been removed with a scalpel and reinserted in the Middle East.
As often found in the work of Koolhaas, there is a strong level of satire or humor in Waterfront City if we consider this his manifestation of the ‘generic city.’ A ‘generic city’ is one that seeks homogeneity, yet Dubai is the city of firsts and acquiring uniqueness. Yet, his plan has certain elements or characteristics that suit the culture of iconography that is prevalent in Dubai, as seen in the picture above and described below.
The island project would be a perfect square, emphasizing its isolation. The tallest towers are concentrated along the project’s southern edge to shield the interior blocks from the blazing sun. The gigantic sphere is placed precariously at the water’s edge, setting the entire ensemble artfully off balance. The spiraling tower stands just across from it, on a narrow spit of land that forms a barrier between the island and the gulf.
Waterfront City site model. Courtesy of NY Times.
His “flair for composition” can only be matched by his ability to twist designs that match his theories and his clients’ egos. The following are a few of these dualities that I can see…
- Dubai’s interest in man-made islands to Koolhaas’ idea that “density in isolation is the ideal” (Generic City)*
- Formal and referential iconography to Koolhaas’ reference to the tower and the sphere of ‘Manhattanism’ (Delirious New York)**
- Waterfront, the most expensive word in real estate equates to Koolhaas idea behind quarters termed “Lipservice” (Generic City)***
I’m sure there are other ideas of his wound into this project, specifically along the lines of programming based on the following.
But the thrust of his strategy is to turn the logic of the gated community on its head: isolation becomes a way to trap urban energy rather than keep it out. His goal is to imbue his waterfront enclave with enough complexity to provide a distilled version of the great metropolis within this moated sanctuary.
Creating new experiences through public friction is an idea that harks back to his proposal for the Parc de la Villette. I think this has the potential to be a really interesting project if it becomes a physical manifestation of his ideas related to bigness and the generic city.
To me though, its success hinges on the following questions…
- Will it be occupied? Are the buildings’ residents living their full time or seasonally?
- Will the outdoor atmosphere be created, as suggested?
- Will the buildings be different enough so that individual towers read within a uniform grid, or will it be apparent that a single hand orchestrated each tower?
Article [update: I have corrected the article link below, my apologies]
City on the Gulf: Koolhaas Lays Out a Grand Urban Experiment in Dubai, NY Times
*The Generic City is on its way from horizontality to verticality. The skyscraper looks as if it will be the final, definitive typology. It has swallowed everything else. It can exist anywhere: in a rice field, or downtown – it makes no difference anymore. The towers no longer stand together; they are spaced so that they don’t interact. Density in isolation is the ideal.
**The needle and the globe represents the two extremes of Manhattan’s formal vocabulary and describe the outer limits of its architectural choices. The needle is the thinnest, least voluminous structure to mark a location within the Grid… The globe is, mathematically, the from that encloses the maximum interior volume with the least external skin… In many ways, the history of Manhattanism as a separate identifiable architecture is a dialectic between these two forms…
***There is always a quarter called Lipservice, where a minimum of the past is preserved: usually it has an old train/tramway or double-decker bus driving through it, ringing ominous bells – domesticated versions of the Flying Dutchman’s phantom vessel. Its phone booths are either red and transplanted from London, or equipped with small Chinese roofs. Lipservice – also called Afterthought, Waterfront, Too Late, 42nd Street, simply the Village, or even Underground – is an elaborate mythic operation: it celebrates the past as only the recently conceived can. It is a machine.
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