Top 10 GCC Hotel Openings Ahead for 2013

For too many years Dubai has been the focus of hotel development in the region. Whilst its lead will remain, other states are pitching themselves as serious players in the luxury hospitality sector. Cast an eye across an of the region’s skylines and you’ll see the names of all the global hotel brands

AGi Architects

It seems with some architects one can never do them justice because they are just that good, and two such are Dr. Nasser Abulhasan and his partner Joaquin Perz-Goicechea. These renowned architects are not only good but take perfection to a whole new level. Men’s Passion had another great opportunity to speak with Dr. Nasser to understand their amazing world of architecture and to find out a little more about their latest projects.

Goicoechea and Abulhasan studied their Master’s degree together in the States but eventually went their separate ways and lived in different countries. In September 2004 they started to work together on the design of their first project that turned to become Star House, which inaugurated the inception of AGi Architects.

Two Great geniuses joined forces to create a phenomenal building

Architects are creative people who we have come to admire and highly respect - Architects design places, buildings, libraries, homes and so forth which offer us serenity, calmness and visually and emotionally put us in a state of complacency and belonging.

Perhaps the most visible sign of a nation’s confidence is in the proliferation and quality of its shopping malls. Where once cities were judged on the length and grandness of their boulevards and parks, today they can largely by assessed by the scale and quality of their malls. This is nowhere more clearly shown than in the Middle East where malls have become the singular, and contemporary, expression of public spaces.

Kuwait International Airport is planned to significantly increase capacity and establish a new regional air hub in the Gulf - the project’s strategic aims will be matched by a state-of-the-art terminal building, which will provide the highest levels of comfort for passengers and will set a new environmental benchmark for airport buildings. Its design is rooted in a sense of place, responsive to the climate of one of the hottest inhabited environments on earth and inspired by local forms and materials. The first phase, of the new terminal, is planned to be opened in November 2016.

Qatar has become the most expensive construction market in the Gulf in terms of raw materials costs, says a new research report by business intelligence service MEED.

Dubai

From 18-21 March 2013, Design Days Dubai, in its second year, will offer exceptional rare design creations from 29 galleries, a 30% growth in participation over 2012. As well as being the only design fair in the Middle East and South Asia, Design Days Dubai is now the world’s most diverse

Exquisite dining destination, by Gensler

Leading global architecture and design firm Gensler has been appointed to design Wafra Seef, a premiere food and beverage and entertainment destination in Kuwait. Wafra Real Estate appointed Gensler to provide full

NBK New Head Office

The new NBK headquarters tower will be built in Kuwait’s central business district in the heart of the capital.

NBK retained one of the leading international architectural firms, Foster+Partners, for the creation of an iconic work of architecture that will become a landmark in the skyline of Kuwait, and a symbol of the country’s position as a financial hub of international importance, also to become the new focus for Kuwait’s financial activity; a welcoming forum for the public, customers, vendors and staff alike.

The 300 meter tall tower will integrate the structural, environmental, functional, and operational requirements for modern high-rise office tower. Consolidating NBK’s head office operations currently dispersed throughout Kuwait City, the new building will also house headquarters, a bank branch for retail and business customers and act as a social hub. It will be a powerful statement of NBK’s prominence as the best bank in the Middle East, and of Kuwait’s important position in the global economic network.

Qatar has become the most expensive construction market in the Gulf in terms of raw materials costs, says a new research report by business intelligence service MEED.

Architect & Artist

André C. Meyerhans’ creations range from 250,000m2-urban plans and one-billion-US-dollar mixed use developments to furniture-like objects, art and jewelry. André evolves his designs along academic studies that portray a syntesis between objects, art and architecture. His work often bases on context-related investigations or on parameter interventions that reach through reinterpretation and enhancement a life of their own.

Most of his work has won prices, has been published and/or exhibited. André C. Meyerhans wrote for various trade magazines and held lectures in numerous institutions on architecture and design.

Masterplanning: Msheireb, Heart of Doha, designed by AECOM

Msheireb, Heart of Doha, designed by AECOM, has won the ‘World’s Best Future Projects Masterplanning’ award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards 2012.

2012 Wrap

This is the 5th year the World Architecture Festival Awards have been presented, and by the end of the awards 35 WAF Awards had been announced across the three main sections of Completed Buildings, Landscape and Future Projects. Here we look at some of our favourites.

Qatar World Cup Preparations Step up a Gear with Stakeholder Agreements

Qatar 2022 organisers have taken major steps forward in the organisation of the World Cup, including the announcement of five stakeholder cooperation agreements and finalizing the strategic plan for 2012 -2015. The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee unveiled the deals with Qatar Rail, Ashghal, Kahramaa, Aspire Zone Foundation and Qatari Diar at a signing ceremony in Doha’s Four Seasons Hotel.

Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare

It has always been the goal of the State to provide safety, security and quality of life for its citizens. Adequate housing is one of the priorities which has been carried out by the Public Authority for Housing Welfare since its establishment (as the National Housing Authority) in 1974.

by AGi Architects

Kuwait is, in many ways, the victim of its own success. Few areas of the world have seen such rapid growth over recent decades as has the Arabian Gulf, and even the most optimistic of civil planners could not have foreseen how the region’s population and cities would have mushroomed by these early years of the 21st century. Kuwait suffers from a combination of what has ultimately proved to be inadequate forward planning and poor implementation of those meagre plans that were put in place. It is time for a re-think.

The Lebanese Village

By some wonderful chance, the area around Beit Misk is not drowning in a sea of concrete. Here, the mountain flows towards the sea seamlessly, like a small island of green, protected and cherished, peopled by pine trees, chestnut trees, and green shrubs. A walk here is an experience for the 

The Heritage Village of Kuwait
The Concept: Explore the antiquity of spaces and the ambiance of old Kuwait by walking through its narrow streets and alleys located within clusters of Arabian houses that are marked with the tall minarets indicating each quarter of the fereej.

The project: The Jahra Road Development Project is part of a strategic plan put forward by the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) to develop the motorway system in Kuwait. The project aims to transform the Jahra Road into one highway.

This year’s celebration of Kuwait’s 50th year of independence has provided the perfect opportunity to focus on the nation’s history, a history which extends not just 50 years, but in fact one for which the political roots can be traced back fully 300 years. Little, other than a collection of documents from traders and political agents, still exists from that time. For sure there are archeological remains that stretch thousands of years to the days of the earliest settlers in the region, yet while Kuwait’s oldest historical buildings date from a little more than 150 years ago, today they provide a fascinating insight into how our forefathers lived, and they are now being protected and restored for the nation by the Architectural and Engineering Department of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters.

This modern world has provided us with many positive advances, and in the fast moving lives that we lead we tend to embrace modernity with barely a glace back to the past. There are some areas, however, where we can still learn from our forefathers and combine their knowledge with our technology. Architecture is one of these areas, and where done wisely can help the sustainability of the planet while adding to the quality of our lives. One such advocate of this approach is Bashar Al Salem of Kayan Architects.

Reinventing, rather than rebuilding, is the way to go

Idoubt anyone knows how many vacant and apparently derelict commercial buildings there are in Kuwait. A journey through Shuwaikh or Al Rai reveals countless tired but somehow charming warehouses, stores and offices that hark back to a time when (we can’t help thinking) Kuwait was a somehow better place to live as an aesthete.

Open Air, Zero-Carbon Cooled Stadiums

Qatar 2022, the organisation bidding to bring the FIFA World Cup to the Middle East for the first time, has unveiled 11 of the 12 stadiums it plans to use if awarded the right to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

There’s little doubt that much of Kuwait is a hotchpotch of buildings, streets and people. Residential often sits uncomfortably alongside commercial and industrial. New sits incongruously alongside old. And at times there seems little that is being done in terms of overall planning.

Sometimes, we get so used to our surroundings that we grow immune to their flaws and find it impossible to see another way of looking at them. Here Dr. Thomas Modeen, a partner in smArchitecture, encourages us to take a fresh look at Salmiya’s Salem Al-Mubarak Street, and suggests radical changes that would breathe new life into this well known thoroughfare.  

During the 1960s and as a result of oil discovery, a great planning revolution overlaid the old city of Kuwait. 

Men’s Passion recently received the courtesy of touring the Burj Khalifa. Dubai’s most spectacular landmark which tastefully expresses the enthusiastic vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The successful completion of the World’s Tallest Building makes it impossible to ignore Dubai’s leadership in her capacity to achieve the amazing writes William Schuilenberg.

Hangar-7 at  Salzburg Airport is far more than just an unusual home for unusual aircraft. The impressive steel and glass construction is a place where art, passion, technology and very refined living meet. 

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in the architectural firm, SANAA, have been chosen as the 2010 Laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as architecture’s highest honor will be held on May 17 on historic Ellis Island in New York. At that time, a $100,000 grant and bronze medallions will be bestowed on the two architects.

To tell you the truth, we’re amazed at how little interest some people show towards a number of of the great things that are happening in Kuwait today. How can there be anyone in this fine country of ours that does not know of Al Hamra Tower. It’s the tallest structure on the city’s skyline, and is visible for miles around. Yet to some people it may as well be invisible. They appear not to have noticed its existence. Yet here’s a man - Danny Forster - who has travelled half way around the world in search of the story of Al Hamra. He clambered around the outside of this, the world’s tallest sculpted skyscraper and the tallest  stone covered structure on Earth, but cleverly we waited until his feet were safely on the ground before discussing with him what it was he discovered.

The Moscow Subway

Subways, or at least public railway systems, are high on the agenda once again in the region. Dubai has opened its first automated monorail, to mixed response, and in other countries there is much debate in regard to their own future where mass transportation is concerned. 

South African Interpretation Centre wins World Building of the Year at World Architecture Festival Awards 2009
Regular readers of Men’s Passion will have enjoyed our preview of the 2009 World Architecture Festival in our October issue. At November’s awards presentation, Johannesburg-based Peter Rich Architects secured global architecture’s most prestigious accolade.

A tree top restaurant in New Zealand, a space age high school in Los Angeles and Wimbledon Centre Court in London, are among the 272 building projects that have made it onto the shortlist for Building of the Year.

Two groundbreaking villas are being built at the privileged southwest hillside on the sunny gold coast of the Zürich lake. The buildings, designed by the star architect Zaha Hadid, will create new standards worldwide through the perfection and character of their architecture, the location and their living comfort.

The world’s climate is changing. That much is for sure. We can change our habits in response, but much of the way we live is driven by the environments we create for ourselves to live in. Our towns and cities.

An Interview with I.M. PEI - Architect
How did you come to be involved in the design and construction of the new Museum of Islamic Art in Doha?

There are few subjects likely to stir emotions as much as any discussion over the architecture of Kuwait, and the planning for its future. While it may be difficult to get any two architects to agree on a specific ‘best way forward’, there is without doubt a broad consensus that things are pretty much out of control, and it is high-time that something should be done about it. Men’s Passion spoke to two architects, brother and sister Haitham and Alia Alghunaim, to uncover their views on where the problems lie, and what must now be done.

Completed in 1959, the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright–designed museum is among the 20th century’s most important architectural landmarks. Most of the Guggenheim Foundation’s exhibitions premier here, but its galleries are also used to exhibit the Guggenheim’s renowned collection, which ranges from Impressionism through contemporary art.

I recently read an interview with the mega-rich Hong Kong entrepreneur Sir David Tang. In it he spoke of pessimism being the most serious cause for the global economic tsunami. He said “There is an ocean of people who are now feeling so depressed that not only have they become resigned to the fact that they are in deep trouble, but they have also told everybody else that they are in deep trouble”. In this way, he continued, pessimism has an uncanny knack of being self-fulfilling.

It is my opinion that society is becoming conditioned to accept mediocre as being good enough. Mediocre cannot challenge. Mediocre cannot threaten. It just fits in. Nicely. Society, particularly this society, likes mediocre

The WAF Awards are biggest architectural awards programme in the world, designed to celebrate the work, concerns and aspirations of the international architectural community. 

Aaref Hejres has ate, slept, dreamt and lived Bahrain’s innovative new self-contained city Diyar Al Muharraq since he took over the reins as the holding company’s chief executive officer two years ago. The trained architect tells Men’s Passion’s Eirian Hasler about his abiding passion for the ‘perfect’ city which his company is developing in Bahrain.

If it is possible to build a hotel of ice in a small village 200km inside the Arctic Circle, then you’d believe that anything is possible. 

What is architecture? Whilst you may think you know, your perception of what an architect is, and what he - or indeed she - does and how they do it, is about to change.

At the New York launch of the opening of the reservations list for the world’s first Dynamic Tower, to be built in Dubai, visionary Italian architect announced his audacious plans for the 420 meter tall, 80-storey tower.

Suprematism – an architectural language, injecting a new level of dynamism into architecture. Behind this concept of spatial exuberance lies a young Lebanese architect, Mounif Nehmeh, the co-founder and design principal of MNA Partnership architects. Most recently, Nehmeh has been involved in projects such as headquarters for major national and international companies, VIP private properties and private jets.

Architect Daniel Libeskind

“Architecture and the buildings I create are much more than a place, they are a destination meant to evoke emotion and to make you think about the world we all live in.”