# UK architect calls Dubai buildings 'terrible'



## Bahraini Spirit (Dec 14, 2002)

Hi, well i tink the title is self-explanatory so here you go, enjoy:


Dubai's new building shave been labelled 'terrible' by renowned British architect Sir Michael Hopkins, a report said.

He was quoted by a Gulf News report as saying in a British architecture journal that the city was uninspiring architecturally and a difficult place in which to produce good design.

Sir Michael's comments appeared in Building Design, which also reported criticisms of Dubai's architecture by George Ferguson, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Sir Michael came face to face with local architecture after designing 60 villas in the Emirates Hills in Dubai. He is also reportedly designing a 65-storey offshore building in Dubai, the report said.

'In Dubai, it is really hard because not only have you got this terrible stuff going up around you, but it is very hot and there is very little to deal with architecturally,' he said.

'If you haven't got a building next door that needs to be preserved, there is not that starting point. It is very hard. You have to start with the sun in the desert as a reference point.'

Ferguson was also similarly downbeat about Dubai's architecture. 'Hopkins is absolutely right. Dubai is a model of unsustainability. It is exciting for all the wrong reasons. Dubai is like a great theme park,' he said.

However, Christopher Ellingham, managing director of Dubai-based design firm DRU Gulf, said it was unfair to say the standard of local architecture was poor. 'These people should look at what's being created in their own backyard because there's as much bad architecture in the United Kingdom as there is here,' he said. 'There are some pretty awful buildings going up along Shaikh Zayed Road, but there are also some extremely nice ones there,' he said. 

He said some of the new buildings were 'iconic', singling out the Burj Al Arab, which he described as 'a world beater'. 


Robert Punchard, a director of John R Harris and Partners in Dubai, agreed. 'I understand [that] things could be better, but there is good and bad everywhere,' he said.


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## ahmedr (Feb 1, 2004)

There's already a thread for this: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=180688


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## Bahraini Spirit (Dec 14, 2002)

aha, sorry bout this, didn't expect it to be there.


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## DubaiCanadian (Dec 31, 2004)

No offence, but the last people on earth that get the rights to judge buildings are the British! This guy has no clue what he's talking about... Maybe he wants Dubai to build low rise, brown, victorian, fungus infected, ugly brown squares!!!!!!!!!!! 

THAT AINT' HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS ARTICLE CARRIES ZERO CREDIBILITY...


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## DUBAI (Aug 24, 2004)

> Maybe he wants Dubai to build low rise, brown, victorian, fungus infected, ugly brown squares!!!!!!!!!!!



why dont you get your fat ugly canadian head and shove it back into that ice swamp that we have to put up with owning. 

:skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: 

im not one to usauly get this angry. but this guy is a joke. 
perhaps its bulldozer under another new name.


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## SA BOY (Mar 29, 2003)

well its true, Id take the crass, brash architecture here any day over anthging to come out of the uk ever. Next thing he will be critisizing Shanghai, Honkers etc.
Jelousy breeds contempt


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## DubaiCanadian (Dec 31, 2004)

I BET HE DISGNED ONE HUGE TALL BORING BROWN BRICK BUILDING, FOR THE BURG AL ARAB, AND DUBAI REJECTED HIM.... HAHAHAHA

AND HE'S PISSED, BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T EVEN GIVE HIM A CUUUUUUU P EFFFF TEAAAAAAAAA FOR HIS BORING EFFORTS


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## DUBAI (Aug 24, 2004)

ok aside from the fact your last post didnt make any sence.

i wasnt defending british arictecture, quite the opposite if you look on the majlis thread. but theres no need for that discontented frenchboy to start being nasty about the country that owns his.


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## DubaiCanadian (Dec 31, 2004)

Not only do the british have no sense of architecture in their bones, they also are the most ignorant of all human beings!!! If claiming to own us (canada) shouldn't you at least know that we are multicultural and not all French...you ignorant BIGOT! And if the people of Canada had a choice the worthless Queen who never worked a day in her life would never be on our coins!!!! But that's just something the british know how to do is claim things that aren't theirs!!! You seem to have a chip on your shoulder...could it be because the American's tell British to bend over and you guys ask for how long???? GET OVER IT!!! Last thing...for your information one of our largest group of immigrants seeking a better life in Canada are the british...hmmmm, wonder why??? Ever hear of a canadian immigrating to Britain for a better life? HELL NO! Hey shouldn't you be at a pub right about now? Oh yeah you don't have enough time since they close so BLOODY EARLY!!! Hey, I don't blame you for being miserable, I would be too if the Queen shoved taxes so high up my ass that I can't even afford a piece of gum! We canadians feel so bad for the british that we send a portion of our taxes your way to help the queens subjects screw with you.


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## DUBAI (Aug 24, 2004)

well firstly please stop ranting and eating at the same time, your flobbing maple syrup all over the forum. eugh!

are where to begin. lets start with your inferiority complex. obviously somthing about the uk thats troubleing you. i would diagnose it as jealously, but it seems to be less interesting than that. guess it must be the 'rebelious teenager' phase, trying to lash out at the mother land. awe. the shame. well you can go to britain and visit if you want, actualy i doubt canada has developed passports yet, but when they do please 'pop over' to the *real* london. not that mini recycling centre with a sign saying london attacked to the top. 
as for the tax situation. im quite happy, i dont pay them yet, and the govt are giving me a free laptop. fir doos. im from dubai anyway so dont let that puzzel you too much. speaking of americas though, did you know the yanks and brits were planing to occupy canada? if you turned traitor or wimped out.. which beeing quite french might just have happened.

well whats to say about that eh?

eh?


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