阿聯酋的新奇建築
摩天樓旋轉360度
在慣於創造奇蹟的阿聯酋首都杜拜，即將動工的「時光寓所」大概是奇蹟中的奇蹟了。這座大廈最神奇的地方是它能做360度旋轉，是世界首座乙太陽能為動力的整體旋轉大廈。
大廈外部有清晰的時間座標線與地面和墩座的12小時制時鐘相呼應，這樣整座大廈就像個巨大的時鐘。負責設計大廈旋轉系統的工程師尼克•庫珀說：「這是一座公平的大廈，任何人在任何時間段內的視野範圍都一樣，沒有哪個房間視野最好。」
 時光寓所(Times Residences ) 完工後的模擬圖 |
Rotating tower to be solar-powered
By Robert Ditcham, Staff Reporter
Dubai: Dubai's latest mind-boggling project will be yet another global first - a fully rotating tower powered by the sun.
Project engineers say the Dh400 million Time Residences tower in the City of Arabia master development will turn through 360 degrees, its rotation mechanism driven by stored solar energy.
The project, which will put 200 apartments onto the market, is another addition to Dubai's list of world exclusives which will include the world's tallest tower, biggest mall and largest man-made island - even a collection of dozens of man-made islands dubbed The World.
In July, Dubai-based High Rise Real estate launched the Rotating Tower, a Dh175 million project in Jumeirah Village South featuring four rotating penthouses and a rotating villa with its own car lift.
Dubai Property Ring, developer of the 30-floor Time Residences, says it has gone one step better by launching a fully rotating structure.
"We didn't want to build just another building or tower, we wanted to create something unique - a precious place to live - a genuine contender to be one of the great buildings in the world," said Tav Singh, director of Dubai Property Ring, the Dubai arm of UK-based property investors UK Property Group.
Singh said the company plans to build 23 more rotating towers in each of the world's time zones with finance provided by investors linked to the company.
The Time Residences tower will include one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as duplexes and penthouses. Singh said unit prices have not been released, but sales are expected to start in March 2007. Buyers' payments will be held in an account managed by Dubai Property Ring and Colliers International, master agents for the project.
The project is the company's first foray into property development, forcing it to take on the services of established names in their respective fields.
The tower was designed by UK architecture firm, Glenn Howells Architects (the company behind the Birmingham Rotunda in the UK) and Palmer and Turner, the master developers of City of Arabia.
"A distinctive time line runs down the building that meets 12 o'clock markings on the ground and the podium, allowing observers to use the building as a fully functioning time piece - it's unique, it's ambitious and it's an honour to be involved from the start," said James Abbott, senior architect at Palmer and Turner.
Dubai's Kulkarni QS will manage the project, while the task of rotating an 80,000 tonne tower through 360 degrees over a seven day period has been handed to Nick Cooper, managing director of Bennett Associates, the British engineer who designed the drill machine that bored the English Channel Tunnel.
Cooper said state of the art bearing systems at several points in the tower will allow a power plant to rotate the base of the tower at 5mm per second using only 21 electic kettles' worth of solar power.
Construction is expected to start in June next year with projected completion in the first quarter of 2009.
The project will also be showcased at this year's Cityscape from December 4-6 at the Colliers International stand.
 杜拜的水下大都會 Hydropolis Hotel 模擬圖 |
水下旅館佔地最大 杜拜的建築不但能擎天，還能入海。在不遠的將來，杜拜將出現一座水下豪華飯店。
這座名為「水下大都會」(Hydropolis Hotel )的豪華飯店將由三部分組成：用於接待顧客的地面站、隧道和飯店主體，總共擁有220個房間。除此之外，「水下大都會」還將成為世界上規模最大的建築之一，其總佔地面積為260公頃，與英國倫敦的海德公園相當。
飯店的設計師約希姆•豪塞爾(Joachim Hauser )表示：「『水下大都會'並不是一個單純的規劃，它是一件充滿激情的建築。飯店位於海面下20米的地方，總造價約5.5億歐元，預計將在2007 年底開放迎客。」
$550M Underwater Hotel
Launched in Dubai by JACK LYNE, Site Selection Executive Editor of Interactive Publishing
DUBAI, Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates — You may soon be able to sleep with the fishes in the Middle East - and in luxury, which you might well expect when you're paying as much as US$5,500 for a day's lodging.
No, it's not some demented landlord's warped reworking of The Godfather script. Instead, it's the $500-million Hydropolis Hotel (
http://hydropolis.com ) now being launched in Dubai, the capital city of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates.
The project is nothing if not ambitious. Constructed from a combination of concrete, steel and clear Plexiglas, Hydropolis will be the world's first underwater luxury hotel. It will offer 220 suites, all sitting on the Persian Gulf floor 66 feet (20 meters) below the surface.
"I am sure that this project will create an international sensation and will also be the beginning of a new era in architecture," Joachim Hauser, the German architect and investor who's spearheading the project, said at last month's project announcement in Dubai.
Covering 27 acres (10.8 hectares), the project will feature architecture that's nothing if not attention-grabbing. The design includes three linked elements: a wave-shaped 333,333-sq.-ft. (30,000-sq.-m) above-ground "land station" and the jellyfish-shaped 833,333-sq.-ft. (75,000-sq.-m.) underwater hotel, linked by a submerged transparent train tunnel that's 1,700 feet (515 meters) long.
Among the project's other unusual architectural details are the hotel's two translucent domes, which will house a concert auditorium and a ballroom that break the water's surface, with the ballroom featuring a retractable roof. And that's not to mention the hotel's bubble-shaped suites, with clear glass comprising both the sleeping areas' walls and each room's bathtub.
"Hydropolis imparts a unique impression of distinctiveness and exclusivity, an attraction that does not diminish after a first phase of curiosity," Hauser said in his press conference presentation. "Guests from all over the world and from all cultures will be attracted by a multitude of offers, which simultaneously address mind, body and soul in an unparalleled manner. It is the dream of all humankind to live in and explore the sea."
 Al Reem 島上的「美腿」大廈（The Legs)完成模擬圖 |
大廈有兩條「美腿」 由
Aedas 設計，坐落在阿聯酋Abu Dhabi 的Al Reem 島上的「美腿」大廈（The Legs）可以被視作是對傳統高層建築施工和結構侷限的挑戰。
該項目由一座五星級飯店、酒店公寓、住宅樓和辦公室組成。酒店公寓（service apartment）和飯店都需要較高的樓層來提供視野，但同時需要大堂和娛樂設施。辦公室和住宅作為項目的資金來源將位於較低的樓層。
在設計中採用了高速電梯，將客人帶入到一個空中大堂系統以及較高樓層，並送到他們自己的房間。項目追求的是兩個基本原則：創造出兩條性感漂亮的「腿」，彎曲交錯在一起。一條「腿」高330米，飯店位於其頂部。兩條「腿」的中部用一座天橋連接，將上層的大廳也連接起來，形成結構上的輔助支撐。看上去這兩條「腿」伸向了天空，擺脫重力的束縛，不但對Abu Dhabi來說是獨特的，就算整個阿聯酋地區也是獨一無二。
The Legs, Middle East "The Legs" was conceived to challenge the convention of high-rise construction and structural limitations which has restricted its own evolution. The project consists of a 5-star hotel, service apartments, residential and offices. The service apartment and hotel both wanted to have the higher floors for views but also can share the lobbies and amenities. The offices and residential components are the financial base for the project which could occupy the lower floors. It was decided that express elevators could take guests up to a sky lobby system for the upper components and then could transfer to their own cores. The design utilises a system called 「an exo-skeleton」. This structural approach is based on a tube and uses the skin of the building as the structure and thereby not dependent on the core. The project pursues these two basic principles to produce two legs which bend and sensually interlock around each other. One leg reaches over 330m with the hotel on top. Both legs are organically contained with a structural stocking and linked discreetly in the centre with a sky-bridge connecting the upper lobbies as well aiding the project structurally. The result is two legs which reach into the sky and seem to defy gravity, creating a project which is not only unique for the Middle East but for the entire region of U.A.E.
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