Dubai Design

I came across an interesting article on some of the architectural projects being proposed, planned, or constructed in Dubai. The designs are eye-opening, to say the least. You probably have seen some of these already, but I think you’ll find some new ones that are worth a look.

I envy the CAD and BIM designers who get to model these in 3D. If you’re one of the designers, please send me some juicy stories and I’ll publish them!

The city of Dubai, by any standard, is an amazing place. Among other things, it’s a hotbed of cutting edge, out-of-the-box, futuristic architectural design and engineering.

Let’s start with a bit of geography:

Dubai is a booming coastal city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and is located in the Dubai Emirate. The Dubai Emirate is one of seven Emirates, or principalities, that make up the UAE. Contrary to popular misconceptions, it is not a country, nor is it a city-state.

Here’s a map in case you’re unfamiliar with the area.

Map of Persian Gulf region

Map of Persian Gulf region with Dubai marked

Wikipedia has this information about Dubai:

Its strategic geographic location made the town an important trading hub, and by the beginning of the 20th century, Dubai was already an important regional port.  Today, Dubai has emerged as a cosmopolitan metropolis that has grown steadily to become a global city and a business and cultural hub of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region. It is also a major transport hub for passengers and cargo. Although Dubai’s economy was historically built on the oil industry, the emirate’s Western-style model of business drives its economy with the main revenues now coming from tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services.

Here is a cool time-lapse NASA satellite video showing the growth of Dubai.  This time-lapse video shows the rate of Dubai’s growth at one frame per year from 2000 through 2011. In the false-color satellite images making up the video, bare desert is tan, plant-covered land is red, water is black and urban areas are silver:

CLICK FOR VIDEO

Now to the buildings:   Here’s a rendering of a complex of high rise buildings known as the Dancing Buildings, designed by London-based, Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid:

Hadid high rise complex

A complex known as Dancing Buildings by Zaha Hadid

Here are two renderings of a proposed new city planned to  resemble clouds, literally. The steel supports are designed to appear like rain falling from the cloud:

cloud city

Cloud City

Take a look, I think you’ll find it interesting.

Here’s a link to the article in DesignBoom, which is a very cool online magazine of design:   ARTICLE LINK

Autodesk University

By the way, I hope to see many of you at Autodesk University 2013 in Las Vegas this December.

It would be great to see some people at AU wearing Best CAD Tips T-shirts and hats. There’s a link on the main page called “Cool Stuff” where you can order yours, or just click HERE. Show your CAD colors!

Keep on CADDing!   🙂

Mark

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