Museums on an Island

Went to see an exhibition about the some projects that all you net savvy architects are very familiar with by now. It was about the museums proposed for the Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.

This new development has been planned by EDAW and will house one of the most expensive collection of museums to be built anywhere. The masterplan itself is nothing impressive and continues the same sort of absurd development commonly seen in Dubai with golf courses and canals, but on the bright side most of this land form exists naturally and done not need insane amounts of Land fills into the sea.

The western edge of the upper model shows the area which will house the four big museums.

Here's another detail model of the museum edge.

--------------------------------------

The rest of the snaps focus on the four main museums on the island.

First the Louvre Abu Dhabi designed by Jean Nouvel.

This one is probably my favourite of the bunch. The idea of its huge shading canopy -sort of like a tree- with a village of gallery spaces seems like a very interesting approach for a museum.

Though I am very much against buildings that look like microwave melted foam models I have to admit that if it is done well the next building will be no less impressive than the one my Nouvel - below the Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid.

In the distance above the most restraint of the four museums - the calm yet dynamic Maritime museum by Tadao Ando.

Ando adds a much required sanity to the island with his Japanese simplicity : )

And the last project and probably most disastrous building yet planned for this region.

This monstrous Guggenheim is courtesy of Frank Gehry

To me this one is literally a pile of cr*p!! How I wish they would never built this project!!!!

All in all the Island of Happiness (which is the translation of Saadiyat Island) surely is a great opportunity for AbuDhabi to step out of the shadow of Dubai and try and make a name for itself. Sadly it chooses to play the same game of Absurdity as its more glamorous neighbour.