Architects Chris Bosse and Tobias Wallisser of Laboratory for Visionary Architecture Asia Pacific (LAVA) have unveiled Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower at the Cityscape property fair in Dubai.
The 59-storey tower, one of seven to be built around the world, has been built in collaboration with former Formula 1 champion Schumacher, and is described as “branded architecture’s next step”.
The following is from LAVA:
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MSWCT
Future Living – Michael Schumacher Tower launched in Abu Dhabi
Today at Dubai cityscape, Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher presents the design for The Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower, the first in a series of seven towers to be built worldwide. A unique concept envisioned by Joachim Swensson, founder of branding specialists PNYG:COMPANY, the building represents branded architecture’s next step.
“The Tower marks a departure from traditional architectural thinking,” state the architects Chris Bosse and Tobias Wallisser. The tower designers represent a new generation of architects. Being responsible as associate architects for world recognised structures such as the Water cube in Beijing and the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany.
Just one year ago, they founded LAVA, the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, a worldwide architectural network, together with architect Alexander Rieck, innovation expert at the Fraunhofer institute in Stuttgart.
“The project brings together our previous experiences, the Mercedes-Benz Museum, a brand-owned museum with an extraordinary spatial concept exploring the latest digital design and fabrication technologies with the Water cube Beijing, an example of the highest performance of both the building and the athletes, creating by a stunning atmosphere developed through the deliberate morphing of molecular science, architecture and phenomenology”, says Chris Bosse.
Inspired by the geometrical order of a snowflake and the aerodynamics of a Formula 1 racing car, the tower encapsulates speed, fluid dynamics, future technology and natural patterns of organisation. Rather than purely mimicking shapes in nature for their elegance and unpredictability, the architects learned from nature’s own geometrical orders creating highly efficient structures and intriguing spaces.
“We let the design unfold as a result of the project’s needs: optimal natural light and air distribution, maximum views, minimal structure, user comfort and an unrivalled water experience”, explains Tobias Wallisser. The organisational principle of a minimal surface allowed the optimisation of the facade/floor area ratio and each apartment in the 59 storey luxury tower has unobstructed ocean views.
“The unique collaboration with Michael Schumacher gave us new insights. Technology, precision, speed, elegance, paired with human intuition and extraordinary performance were a great source of inspiration for the design. Similar to the formula one operation, construction is a team sport with a lot of highly skilled experts. In this sense the architects take the driver seat in the process, taking the project to the physical limits of possibility”, adds Alexander Rieck.
The lower levels of the tower, traditionally the most difficult and least attractive area, has been reinterpreted as a series of prestigious wharf apartments, terraced similar to that of cruise ship decks. By widening the base, the tower is anchored into its surrounding water basin similar to the surrounding mangroves and nearby canals. The top Sky villas offer 270-degree views opposite the new cultural district on Saadyiat Island.
The building features an iconic silhouette and a facade characterised by vertical slots with private balconies. A series of reflective fins generates a vertical dynamic and gives the building a constantly changing appearance. The fins track the sun, control the solar shading and dissolve the rationality of the plan into a continuously evolving building volume. The facade’s continuous surface enables curvature with a lot of repetition and the potential for standardisation in the building process. State-of-theart engineering and innovative materials will be used to achieve a fully sustainable performance.
The Tower Ground Breaking will be at the beginning of 2009, with a completion date around June 2011.
Client: Vedera Capital|Marasi
Concept: PNYG:COMPANY, Dubai
Architecture: LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture),
Stuttgart|Sydney with Wenzel+Wenzel, Abu Dhabi
www.l-a-v-a.net
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Posted by Matylda Krzykowski
October 7th, 2008 at 7:03 am
beautiful towers
October 7th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Formula One is appearently the business in Dubai,… So where are the rest of sic cities where this type of tower may build? USA or Australia, perhaps in China? Donno if there is a demands for in the current financial crisis…
October 7th, 2008 at 8:41 am
unmemorable.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:52 am
is this a joke?
October 7th, 2008 at 9:55 am
“In this sense the architects take the driver seat in the process, taking the project to the physical limits of possibility”
never read something that stupid
fortunately, the client stills being the gasoline station
i hope this project will run out of oil
October 7th, 2008 at 10:03 am
must be, but the guy has so much money…
October 7th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Is Michael trying to compensate for something?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:00 am
what on earth?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:16 am
BLAH
October 7th, 2008 at 11:34 am
looks more like two tubes of sugar than like a formula1-car
and I didn’t know michael was that succesfull as a brand… just a few steps away from david hasselhoff
October 7th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Schumacher the race driver as architectural inspiration? If the project were changed suddenly from Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower to Tiger Woods Tower, could they change the bullshit and submit the exact same design? Sarah Palin demonstrates a more intelligible command of English. How does a design encapsulate future technology? Does it encapsulate metaphorical technology? And not to make too fine a point of it, but snow flakes are hexagonal in structure, though perhaps not hexagonal in their morphed phenomenology, whatever that might be. This building is triangular. Count the sides. A cube could as easily be inspired by the “geometrical order” of snowflakes as by the strength and clean lines of Michael Schumacher. Let’s hope the answer to primo’s question is yes.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Lovely design. Ethics…well, make up your own mind.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
booooooooooring
October 7th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Snowflakes in the desert!?
How “inspiring”…
October 7th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Great instructive feedback guys,
let me remind you of the latest master pieces by
BIG (http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/30/walter-towers-by-big/),
Herzog de Meuron(http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/29/le-projet-triangle-by-herzog-de-meuron/)&(http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/14/56-leonard-street-by-herzog-de-meuron/),
OMA(http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/15/23-east-22nd-street-by-oma/) quite liked this one actually,
Zaha (http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/07/farrer-road-residential-towers-by-zaha-hadid/)
and so on, pretty much standard, this however (despite the text admittedly) shows real potential, pretty but also with a conceptual response in the change of the tower typology, with the whole wharf tower. And yes, it is expensive but higher level of non standard buildings are, and yes they need to be sold.
Clearly the text is part of some kind of marketing ploy.
2cents
October 7th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Looks like a tornado in search of a trailer park …
October 7th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
..could be any tower from any architect in dubai. as boring and outdated as the rest of the stuff from these guys.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
it would be nice to see all the project made for dubai in the las two years, together. Same renders, same views, same ambiences and I don’t even talk about the architecture….
October 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I HATE these types of towers. All these architects – they think they’re making cool designs and don’t realize how stupid these proposals are. And what’s up with Schumacher?!?
October 7th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
ahh, industrial design at its largest.
no architecture worth mentioning here, unfortunately.
October 7th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
AUTSCH ::::BULLSHIT
October 7th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Very sexy shapes. But like everything in Dubai, is about how much money they have!
October 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Actually, I think this is the first design in this category that makes sense. Architecture has seemingly lost its place in its place. The neighborhood, city, region, are all unimportant in design. We construct towers that could be built anywhere because they ignore all their external stimuli.
Why not become more efficient and design a series of identical towers. Because place does not matter, this tower can go ANYWHERE. They went a step further and put it in 7 locations. This is just massive, highly visible branding. Surely you can appreciate that attitude over a one-time ego trip that could belong anywhere.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
“Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower” (????)
Holy crap!!! :O
October 7th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Guys…please… calm down.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
no Zaha.
no.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
looks like frank gehry’s proposal for the NY Times…
October 7th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
i bet those boat berths gonna be EXPENSIVE!!!!!
October 7th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
in dubai any is shit buildable.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:01 am
well…… ,
it looks better than any tower i’ve ever done thats for sure!
i can only do boxes its a curse.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Have you even been in Dubai? There is very little extraordinary things happening there, a lot of development but only 20 year old designs. Thats why there is a big push for better more extravagant designs.
Branding might be the only way to build insane structures. As for the shape? Who cares? it looks awesome!
October 8th, 2008 at 12:10 am
C’est tres beau, mais pas assez dark. Il nous faudrait une tour comme cela a Monaco.
It’s really nice to see that a new generation of digital architects are well decided to build up and not to fill the web with crazy un-buildable blobs.
Very interesting projects on their website.
I can see a lot of potential in the wharf apartments, something between Venice mixed with Hong Kong and New York, nice relationship with water . At least these guys are dealing with the site, it is anchored in the water and that’s a new way to address a shore line.
Hopefully the 7 other towers would be as different as the geometry of snowflakes.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:16 am
i am actually laughing out loud at that napkin sketch and straw wrapper model….!
October 8th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Another Dubai tower? Yaaaawn….
October 8th, 2008 at 5:31 am
I think it’s a really fine looking high rise, but I don’t see the point in saddling a fresh design (obviously others don’t agree) with this goofy “Michael Schumacher World Champion” thing. What’s one of the perks of this place? A bed in the shape of a Formula One? A sink in the shape of a hub cap? In ten years who’s going to care (or know) Michael Schumacher?
October 8th, 2008 at 8:32 am
supercool
totally relaxed!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Obviously sport men are a good source of income and of branding in the real world.
Strangely architects or maybe students in architecture are so ignorant that they don’t know, Rene Lacoste and Bjorn Borg were sportsmen before becoming iconic brands.
In which world do you live guys, seriously, I bet none of you ever went to the UEA or even knows the difference between Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat ?
I bet most of you are just or are about to become cad monkeys for their entire life in some old fashion crappy office in the middle of nowhere, designing public schools, gas station, or butcheries.
October 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Olé! Olé! A mi gusta mucho!
Could not have designed it better myself!
October 8th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Bjorn, I understand that Schumacher was/is an iconic sportsperson but I would question what he has to do with UEA, skyscrapers or *anything* aside from F1 and motorsport. I guess the people who want to market this project had a budget and a list of names.. Michael might have been top of the list. I guess the marketing people think theyre getting value for money. It doesn’t make the situation any less ridiculous though.
You lose your bet: I for one am not a cad monkey, I work in a nice office in a nice city thank you and I don’t design public schools, gas stations or butcheries (all of which are arguably more valuable to society than a speculative appartment block).
October 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
EY!
public schools, gas stations and butcheries are way cool!
October 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
i bet tiger woods, fed and maybe just maybe bolt was in the list of names too hahaahahaha
October 8th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Cher Martin,
You definitely don’t understand anything about the UEA.
First of all it is the only place on the planet at the moment where you can find money, architecture and the political power to achieve a real cosmopolitan 21th century where islam meets christianity and hindou in a peaceful coexistence, something that the western world assumed was destroyed after 9/11.
Second, Formula 1 races are as big as the soccer World Cup or the Olympics around the world, maybe not in your posh liberal middle class suburb, mon cher Martin (tennis, squash ?), but still it is with golf, flying Cessna and boating Riva, the favorite sport of the upper middle class and surely the tradesmen, which means high rate investments and good taste for high technology (something missing for some of you).
Third the UEA have the money, the energy and the political enlightenment to look for alternative and green technologies, because all the visionary engineers and architects around the decadent western world can work there to find solutions for tomorrow. There are jobs, and opportunities beyond your imagination.
Fourth and last to be able to start designing a public school, a butchery or a gas station, you need First to build a city with apartment block and roads.
Mon cher, properties and investment come first before retails, you should know that if you have sometimes meeting with your client.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I doubt the architects were the ones who presented the idea of branding it with the schumacher label. Developers often have these brilliant ideas.
And isn’t racing bigger the more money and oil a country has? Maybe the go crazy for racers down there? I don’t know, never been over to that area of the world.
October 9th, 2008 at 6:54 am
i think it is remarkable how much nonsense can be written in such a short time.
and how much great architecture comes out of young firms.
LAVA you rock!
world you watch!
backseatcommentators you comment!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:18 am
The oil killed the architecture and the design overall…terrible building inspired by a terrible person, I hate it!
October 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
whooaaahhhmmm…. boring…
October 10th, 2008 at 12:57 am
*buaj*
October 10th, 2008 at 1:07 am
gorgeous !!!
no doubt
October 10th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Who do you think you are armeyn ? Who’s boring ?
Your work is so rubbish you wouldn’t even work for a third rate architect in Europe.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Looks amazing. I would definitely do that tower.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
dudes whats going on? no more smartass comments?
back to hatching toilet blocks in autocad light?
October 11th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I like how everyone here is soooo senitive.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:03 am
this tower is planned on the same planet where humen got a finincial crisis and some serious climate trouble right???
October 13th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
no back to grasshopper and alias … cool design
October 14th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Yes Stefan, the same planet, but on the other side, where people are not brain washed and paralyze by guilt and fear, so they can’t think to find different solutions….
October 14th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Nice Point Past present but what seems to be more “brain washed” for you? To think about new solutions IN the context of our social and economical situation or to build a design tower which looks like student design visions from 1999?
In fact i like organic and fluid forms and i really like aesthetic experiments doesnt matter if the form makes much sense btw. just to try to go some steps further is an brilliant idea in times where many views stuck and cant be moved… but please… who in this world asked for a big scale project which has nothing really new to it…?
October 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Stefan, you have the emotions of a child it seems. Or possibly not enough experience on this planet. Personally, I’d love to see this project a go. I’d also love to see you’re idealistic proposal put to paper!
October 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am
emotions of a child because of …?
well let me put it in another way… facade experiments are always interesting… but a small city hall would be more appropriate to do so… big structure experiments are interesting as well… but then i want to see a real structure not jsut some lines which looks like they could be adapted from nature… in fact this project is not half as intelligent as it looks like… so it is not structure experiment it is facade experiment… and when it comes down to the intention it looks like they just need to build something big… so it is more or less a social thing not even a facade thing… and in the next step they just build it without reflect what they can move in social aspects so in the end its a big tower which will afect its sourrounding in random ways… but ok! tell me things about child emotions again please
October 16th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
It’s both encouraging to see the big names posting to this blog in response to LAVA’s work, and amusing to read the comments by the commentariat. Just wait till these people see the non-orthogonal designs that were documented by Dr Vollers of The Netherlands, at the recent CFTBH conference.
If you have difficulties with this design, wait till you see the Free Shapers, Sliding Twisters and Intersecting helical twisters design categories on the drawing board. I say give these guys a break, if they have already had one of their collaborative projects successfully translated into a LEGO design, then thay have something going for them. Until those out there with problems can say that you have achieved this yourselves, then pull you head in.
I think this design is pretty cool, but the term buildability needs to be remembered, spare a thought for your Engineers and Sub-Contractors.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
michael must drive and architecure must happen, but they together we saw upward is not impossible!
October 16th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Stefan read SMLXL and calm down!
October 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
unsw graduate who are you?
smart person obviously….
see you at d city launch?
October 19th, 2008 at 1:43 am
It looks like a Chess Rook, and is almost lovely, but the triangular symmetry eliminates any sense of surprise.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Sirs
Its a beauty.
We wish we could have one of the seven in Kerala- Trivandrum- INDIA ( one of
the most beautiful place on the planet.)
There is our Prime land (50 acres – 2million sqft of lake front& sea on the otherside . The Trivandrum airport is 3.5 km from our property.
We invite Mr Schumacher and Lava to visit us and be our guests
the Govt of kerala can sent you an official invite.
The Dubai-Middle East is 3hrs flight from Kerala
Kindly reply. Thankyou
truly. Vijayaraghavan Deepak Kumar Chairman 1000thope. from Chennai India
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:31 am
6 pointed star in UAE
indeed
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Not a lot has been said in the last few months; what happened- did the credit crunch have the desired effect and put this one on the back-burner?
July 29th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Alright, Schumacher is going BIG!!!, despite of what others think…. Its cool, i mean, if i was a Formula 1 7 times World Champion, im damn sure i’d build 7 freaking nice towers around the world, this guy is making money and who cares!?!?! Its all about business, ofcourse most of the people dont understand what big business are, however, it has to be done, this is not only a 7 tower project, its work/jobs for a lot of people, investment, development and so much more, and… i think the desing is awesome.