THYSSENKRUP

Sculpture competition for Dubaï symbol – 2009

The dream

Looking at the paintings of Pierre Soulages or moving around the sculptures of Anish Kapoor, the walker is part of the art.
His presence next to the piece of art influences its colour, its shape also if you consider the reflexion on the surface as the surface itself.
In that way, the piece of art becomes somewhat undefined without the watcher.
Similarly, When Manet painted fruits, he actually painted the space in-between the fruits, but not the fruits themselves.
In this project, the inner surfaces of the curved walls is covered with polished stainless steel, producing a distorted mirror effect.
At every moment of the day, in each location of the heart of the building, the natural light makes the space unique.
It vibrates as you move.
The limits of the space become abstract.
You feel weightlessness, as if you were in a dream.
At night, a set of LED lights increases the dramatic effect and could create through infinite reflection all types of figures, often recalling flowers as you look up.
Using the glass elevators leading to the panoramic bar, you traverse this incredible space, a space like a heart-beat, continuous but sometimes open, sometimes closed.
You discover, little by little as you go up, the reality, the views over Dubai at the four open corners.

The reality

The reality of Dubai is today’s and tomorrow’s set of the most impressive constructions of the world.
Our project is the creation of a unique type of building, a challenge in construction.
It is defined by four vertical palms, or four pages of a book dear to the Arabian culture.