Product Description

Arquitectura Viva 204 CULTURE IN THE GULF / Cultura en el Golfo

Arquitectura Viva 204 Cultura en el Golfo – Culture in the Gulf

We say Gulf to avoid calling it Persian or Arabian. When that placid world of pearl hunters, camel breeders and date growers became an oil lake, the old enmity between Arabs and Persians was expressed through the geopolitical conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. That tension extends the secular competition between the Al-Nahyans of Abu Dhabi and the Al-Thanis of Qatar, who of late have used culture and sports to promote their political agendas, and this context frames the two latest iconic works: the Louvre Abu Dhabi by the French Jean Nouvel and the Qatar National Library by the Dutch Rem Koolhaas. Abu Dhabi and the rest of the United Arab Emirates are closely connected to Saudi Arabia, while Qatar has followed its own path, favoring the ‘Arab Spring’ through the influential Al-Jazeera and establishing strong ties with the Iran of the Ayatollahs.

The religious and political clash between the two branches of Islam, Sunnis and Shiites, is reflected today in the diplomatic isolation of Qatar, which despite sharing with Saudis the Wahabite variant of Sunnism, is accused by Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Bahrein and Egypt of protecting terrorist groups and of becoming a vehicle for revolutionary ideas from Iran, country with which it shares the exploitation of natural gas sites in the Gulf. The air, sea and land blockade of Qatar, which has been formulating an ambitious policy independent from its neighbours – materialized in symbolic achievements like hosting the World Cup in 2022, which has meant building twelve new stadiums in the country – , has its latest chapter in the Saudi project to build a canal in its own territory aiming to boost touristic developments, but in the process also turning the Qatar Peninsula into an island.

In the campaign for media visibility between Abu Dhabi and Qatar, the recently completed monumental constructions in both countries play a symbolic role that one is tempted to associate with their respective strategic agendas: while the Emirate has played a conservative and traditionalist role, the friendly and ethereal curves of the museum in Saadiyat Island – ‘Happiness Island’ – speak a female language; and there is no better expression of the masculine assertiveness of Qatar than the hard edges of the library, that lifts its violent folds in the cultural district of Doha. I do not know if Rem Koolhaas is from Mars and Jean Nouvel is from Venus, but the poet Rafael Alberti titled Golfo de sombras (Gulf of Shadows) his book devoted to the female sex, and in the tangled sky of the Louvre dome many shall see Courbet’s L’origine du monde,a painting that will never be displayed in the Gulf.

CULTURE IN THE GULF
Nouvel in Abu Dhabi, Koolhaas in Qatar
Dossier: Steel

News
First Indian Pritzker
SANAA Canopies
Zaha Hadid Architects in Riyadh
Fondazione Prada Completed
Piuarch Hangars in Milan
Labics and Città del Sole
BIG, New Building in New York
Viñoly and Adjaye: Skyscrapers
Miyamoto House in Osaka
Fifty Years of the French May

Art and Knowledge
From Abu Dhabi to Doha
Two Examples:

Oliver Wainwright
Shade of Arabesques

Jean Nouvel
Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum
United Arab Emirates

Eduardo Prieto
Agora in the Desert

OMA / Rem Koolhaas
National Library
Doha, Qatar

Art / Culture
Jacobo García-Germán
Totality and Allegory
Vaquero Palacios at ICO

Vikram Bhatt
Variable Geographies
Balkrishna Doshi, Pritzker

Books
Adolf Loos, Deconstructed
Juan Navarro: the World Around
Humanitarian Spaces
Alternative Urbanisms
Publications Received

Technique / Construction

Pepa Cassinello
Innovative Alloy
Future of a Versatile Material

Media Library, Ghent
Condominiums, New York
Office Tower, Seoul
Architecture School, Stockholm
Mixed-use Tower, Pratteln
Apartments, Paris

Products

Luis Fernández-Galiano
Greeting from the Optimist

Arquitectura Viva 204 Cultura en el Golfo

CULTURA EN EL GOLFO
Nouvel en Abu Dabi, Koolhaas en Qatar
Dossier: Acero

Actualidad
Primer Pritzker indio
Las marquesinas de SANAA
Zaha Hadid Architects en Riad
Fundación Prada: fin de obra
Galpones de Piuarch en Milán
Labics y la Città del Sole
BIG, nueva obra en Nueva York
Viñoly y Adjaye: rascacielos
Casa Miyamoto en Osaka
Cincuenta años del Mayo francés

Arte y conocimiento
De Abu Dabi a Doha
Dos ejemplos:

Oliver Wainwright
Sombra de arabescos

Jean Nouvel
Museo Louvre Abu Dabi
Emiratos Árabes Unidos

Eduardo Prieto
Ágora en el desierto

OMA / Rem Koolhaas
Biblioteca Nacional
Doha, Qatar

Arte / Cultura
Jacobo García-Germán
Totalidad y alegoría
Vaquero Palacios en el ICO

Vikram Bhatt
Geografías variables
Balkrishna Doshi, Pritzker

Libros
Adolf Loos, deconstruido
Juan Navarro: el mundo alrededor
Espacios humanitarios
Urbanismos alternativos
Recibidos

Técnica / Construcción

Pepa Cassinello
Aleación innovadora
El futuro de un material versátil

Mediateca, Gante
Viviendas, Nueva York
Torre oficinas, Seúl
Escuela arquitectura, Estocolmo
Torre de usos mixtos, Pratteln
Apartamentos, París

Productos

Luis Fernández-Galiano
Salutación del optimista