My architectural fantasies: Burj Al Arab

"A building becomes iconic when its form is simple and unique. If you can draw a building with a few sweeps of the pen and everyone recognises not only the structure but also associates it with a place on earth, you have gone a long way towards creating something iconic” "

Thomas Wright

There are few buildings that did become the symbol of a city and even of a country. The Pyramids of Giza, the Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Parliament (Big Ben) in London, the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Colosseum in Rome, the Opera House in Sydney and more recently the Beijing stadium, belong to this select group of buildings whose very image evokes the country where they are standing.

In 1994 a group of young British architects led by Thomas Willis Wright received the commission of their lives: to design a building that would become the symbol of a city, Dubai, and a country, the United Arab Emirates. The client was none other than the actual ruler of Dubai, His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. At that time few people were aware of the existence of the emirate, but it was the Burj Al Arab, the Tower of the Arabs, the one put Dubai on the map.

culled from architecturalmoleskine.blogspot.com