DUBAI OPERA HOUSE

We are surprised the closest architect Zaha Hadid has reached our radars is metonymic Dongdaemun World Design Park near the Teardrop post. This is an example of Zaha's work. This is her firm's recently-announced Dubai Opera House.


The reason I find this most amazing? Most of the popular buildings being built now, like Burj Dubai, Chicago Spire and almost any Gehry project is that it stands out from its surroundings.


See a city of bricks and glass? Throw a building that's all curved metal. Why put up a building when you could put up a building that twists? but there's something dreamy about Hadid's projects where she embraces the surroundings. Look at this project again.

This looks like a pile of sand dunes to me. It is being built on a new island off the city of Dubai (new islands are so the rage these days).


Inside this project, we find a 2,500-seat opera house, an 800-seat playhouse, arts gallery with 54,000 square feet of space (5,000 square meters), performing arts school and a themed hotel. Of course, everything's state of the art, as is the norm in Dubai these days. The island:
Here's the entrance to the opera house.


The interior will be just as amazing.



I can't get over how elegant and appropriate this project is. It's like an eroded mound sticking out of sand dunes. Jaw on floor.


Here are some more photos for your digestion. Construction on the island started in 2006, but we'll keep tabs as this project develops and is completed at an un-announced future date.