This Blooming tower mixes various references to the history and culture of the city of Dubai with a strong concern for sustainability into a coherent structure that owes as much to history and tradition than to the newest technologies.
The tower is made of a light structural metallic frame on which are attached hundreds of articulated sails that can freely blow in the wind, or can be set. It gently sits on a circular, slightly recessed garden from which emerges a grass-covered podium containing the children’s library and the conference spaces.The shape of the tower expresses a deep anchorage in Dubaï’s culture and history, and an affirmation of the momentum towards the future.
The sails forming the shell give the tower an ever-changing and vibrating silhouette that reflects the quick-paced change of the city surrounding it. During the day, these sails serve as efficient sunshades. At dusk they slowly open up, like night flowers blooming, to collect dew from the air during the night. At dawn, when the first rays of the sun appear again, the sails retract back to their closed position. The water collected will serve for the daily usage of the tower and its visitors. A new cycle starts over.
The vibration of the sails also serves as a source of natural energy through the piezo-electric effect.Thus, like a living organism, the tower follows the alternating cycles of nature and draws its resources from it.
The synthesis of all these elements strongly resonates with various aspects of Dubaï’s culture. The sails are a clear reference to the city’s strong bounds to the sea. Their shape and color are reminiscence of the boutre’s sails, desert tents, etc. The way water and energy are collected are applications of green building. But they also remind us that Dubaï always drew its wealth from nature (pearls from the sea then oil from the ground).
These concept and ideas are materialized in a simple, elegant yet very distinctive and unique shape, making it an iconic landmark that epitomises Dubaï’s pride of his past and its faith in the future.
