Here are all four images of Jean Nouvel’s design for the Classical Museum on Saadiyat Island (see preceding stories).
The client, UAE’s Tourism Development & Investment Company, sent us the following information on Nouvel’s project:
Nouvel’s design concept for the Classical Museum owes much to Saadiyat’s natural surroundings: “The island offers a harsh landscape, tempered by its meeting with the channel, a striking image of the aridity of the earth versus the fluidity of the waters,” said Nouvel.
“These fired the imagination towards unknown cities buried deep into the sands or sunk under water. These dreamy thoughts have merged into a simple plan of an archaeological field revived as a small city, a cluster of nearly one-row buildings along a leisurely promenade.
“This micro-city requires a micro-climate that would give the visitor a feeling of entering a different world. The building is covered with a large dome, a form common to all civilisations. This one is made of a web of different patterns interlaced into a translucent ceiling which lets a diffuse, magical light come through in the best tradition of great Arabian architecture.
“Water is given a crucial role, both in reflecting every part of the building and acting as a psyche, and in creating, with a little help from the wind, a comfortable micro-climate.”
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Fantástico!!!…
February 10th, 2007 at 3:22 am
Pobre nouvel, del buen arquitecto que era hasta hace unos años, ahora haciendo platillos voladores. Además opacos ¿dónde quedó su característica transparencia?
June 12th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Chato, la cúpula no es del todo opaca, el material del que está hecha sí, pero va estar toda perforada con el típico motivo árabe.
A ver si nos informamos mejor de los proyectos que es muy fácil hablar desde la ignorancia.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:09 am
realmente , fantastico ,el proyecto es genial , tal parerciera q la cupula esta sobrepuesta sobre los demas elementos, no es el estilo q le distingue a nouvel , pero quien dijo q un arquitecto solo tiene q seguir una tendencia. es lo bonito de la arquitectura, no hay recetas.
October 27th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Que tamaño tienen el ovni?? porque hacer una estructura digna de starwars y que te la lleve puesta un viento, no debe ser para nada agradable…no?
November 14th, 2007 at 4:28 am
Increible, elegante y original, me gusta el manejo de la simplicidad y el evitar el protagonismo tan recurrido hoy dia entre los arquitectos de la fama de nouvel
June 27th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
very classic
January 15th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I will call it…floating mushroom
February 13th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Much about the design– texture, integration and separation between interior and exterior, serene forms– provide a space I’d love to visit and in which to view art. But the dome seems to need to be supported and anchored with some wall sections at the edges, to confirm its dome-ness, or to be elevated to float above like an umbrella or sunshade. As it is, the overall aspect of the exterior has the appearance of a frisbee or a hubcab that has landed accidentally landed on a lego city.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
I like it
September 17th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
when i see these pics, i think it is like the Grand National Theatre of our country.
before i saw a serie of photoes,they are very spectacular.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
The developers have already built an experimental building on Saadiyat Island to test the roof.
http://blogs.thenational.ae/crane_country/2009/10/a-ufo-has-landed-on-saadiyat-island.html