dezeen

ridiculous and banal form making. dumb architecture at its dumbest.
the techtonics look interesting however.

Impressive,
Astonishing!

Proof you CAN actually polish a turd. Ridiculous.

A less impressive copy of Zaha’s work !!!!
Pointless!!!!!11

yeah, wrong way of sucking… awful…

it looks hot…

from time to time my dog produces something like this too

so bad. no words for it…by far the worst entry of them in dezeen.

Well…all forms made from RHINO NURBS are helplessly Zaha-look-alike. Well, for me, I think previous Snøhetta’s projects were more compelling and original. But that’s just me.

much better than a hadid> snohetta show a lot of different ideas - no coorporate brand shi….

I agree with all above posts… Zaha-ification. Looks like you can beat her in a competition if you play her own game. The juries probably had trouble figuring out who was who.
I also fail to see how this form represents “the history of oil in Saudi Arabia”…. I thought it was supposed to be abstract…. no wait … it reflects…. the desert around it…. wait ok I get it. Saudi Arabia was just a desert before the oil… LAME!!!!!!!!

nothing original….pale in comparison to the amazing oslo opera house.

a saudi center for culture and knowledge in an empty shell - very appropriate - i salute snohetta on their subversive commentary.

How can one be impressed by such a BIG mess?

i wish the large pebble was inside me… love it

I’m somewhat suprised by all the negative reactions. I rather like it. It looks like a structure one might find on Arrakis.

yeah, what’s up with the comments?? Everything’s so negative. It looks good, c’mon!

fluid outside, rigid movement inside… POOR articulation.

trashing logic ?

it was a ridicolous competition…the jury was just the client with a very bad taste… check the video document of the competition! and in any case there is no sign of intelligence in the project… just stones in the desert… this is not architecture.

I love that kind of critique!

oma project was amazing!!…is such a shame!

where can you see the other proposals?

Big silver turd anyone?

does anybody know the other entries?

I also would like to see the other proposals to wash out the taste of this mess. If you must be formal at least be timeless. This will be quite the the hangover in 20 years.

am i the only one who likes it?

So you get this huge job from a client with, obviously, a lot of money. You can basically do whatever you want. And all you can come up with is this? Give me a break! This is rubbish. Period.

I think it’s beautiful, and I can’t believe some of the criticism posted here is so vapid and without content.

It might seem Hadidesque, but not by much and that’s hardly a reason to get so worked up about it. It beat Hadid’s entry, is that the problem? I wish we could have something like this in Toronto instead of the extruded sterile glass rectangle stacks architects seem to think are so nice.

Hal’s Pal - If you can’t connect the liquid sheen of the complex’s surface to *oil* then I don’t think you could ever understand why this entry won.

a giant metallic blog in the desert…sounds terrible for energy consumption.

this is awful looking, by the way. pure, unadulterated gimmick.

snøhetta are much better than this.

Great….form follow function, …..

I love how they had to boast the fact that they beat zaha and some guy named KOOLHAUS, priceless!
btw,
msa Says:

“a saudi center for culture and knowledge in an empty shell - very appropriate - i salute snohetta on their subversive commentary.”

best comment ever on DEZEEN!

does anyone know, when will it be built??

if it were in an urban setting, I’d say bollocks, but this is out in the middle of nowhere.. a sculpture like this can make sense, yet still difficult to understand for me personally. But then again, it could just refer to itself as a beautiful object, like a mirage..

it is the desert anyway.

They use to design sensible building. Now this is just ridiculous!

yes, Zaha does produce this kind of geometry, but this is not a comparison to her by a long shot. this lacks the most important criterion of design -logic!
There does not seem to have been any intelligent thought-process behind this design.
and i was actually beginning to like Snohetta’s work..

Really, this looks like a maya tutorial with some glow effects. I really think that the Alexandria library was just an accident( they might be bad architects but their parties are great)

a lot of architects, including snohetta, were modelling and studying nurb forms and BLOB (binary large object) architecture long before zaha built her first curved building. so many of you posting on this site only have architectural memories that last a week’s worth of dezeen posts. close the blog and read a book every once in awhile.

“Flight of the Navigator” anyone?

I agree with rek!!!

i think visually its incredible and i want to see more!

shiny stony buildings

i don’t like mercurial blobs

re-bah..

it looks stupid. knowledge= sharp edges (basic art) , the whole building is curved. UGH i cant even comment well enough because its just so STUPID

so when are you guys who know about the other entries gonna post some links?

prettty plzzzzzzzzz

Viktor Mari - This is Web 2.0. Knowledge is nebulous, not geometric.

I really fail to see why there are so many negative comments about this project…

Whats wrong with abstract shape?
Is it not clear that the structures are supposed to represent nebulous drops of oil and the material its texture??
Oh, and hy must everything be boxy in our modern world???
*sigh* These are just some questions running through my mind at present.

For what my little opinion is worth here, I think its actually quite beautiful - perhaps not exactly what I would have chosen (given that I had seen the other entries), but still a very well thought out effort!

i have no problem with forms which is called abstract or forms which are not boxy, but i can not find any relation between drop forms above; why they are formed like this? if this is some seperated forms that are droped, i think this is not a beautiful droping!

hi. only this is a consept. but not bad. email me all of your eskimas please.

i think the project is incredibly beautiful! its really quite elegant and graceful. and subtle in its inspiration: stones. its a great thought. and a pleasure to see it get built. lets hope they can follow through on the delivery! go for it!!

I like the material they used…

… but i’m sorry… I love Snohetta’s designs, but this one… looks like dog poop

i can’t see how this can be a museum for saudi arabia’s oil industry history. it doesn’t even reflect on the architecture created.

illike this desgin and very importent in saudi pepol

this desgin is Creative and new architectural in saudi