Vertical Village
BackProject type
Hotel, high-rise, urban planning, mixed use
Status
Design
Location
Dubai, U.A.E.
Time
2004
Size
390,000m²
In collaboration with
Brad Pitt
Vertical Village is a residential, hotel, and entertainment development that harnesses the most powerful renewable energy source in the desert: the sun. Arranged to reduce solar gain and maximize solar production, the buildings are massed as self-shading slabs at the north end of the site on the east-west axis to reduce low-angle sun penetration. At the southern end of the site, a vast array of solar collectors is optimally angled toward the sun, facing the main public strip as a potent gesture of the development’s sustainable aspirations, which are confirmed by its LEED Gold rated performance.
The solar roof behaves much like a leaf, with veins that divide the solar field into serviceable units and also transport energy, in this case hot water, back to the building where the energy is used to significantly reduce the need for air conditioning and to provide hot water.
Beneath the roof lies an urban-scale entertainment district of cinemas, restaurants, shops, and a theater. The scale and degree of privacy transitions from the main entertainment strip to the south and the residential and hotel towers to the north.
The sculptural, inclined, sliced wedges of the residential and hotel buildings give each building a unique, identifiable appearance, and together form a distinctive skyline that shifts as one drives by. As one approaches the complex, the spaces between the slabs are revealed, then meld together, disappear and reappear, creating a theatrical effect, a subtle and poetic reference to the entertainment functions within the complex.
Founding Partners
Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz, Thomas Willemeit
Project team
Alex Jackson, Anja Frenkel, Assaf Ruder, Bernd Wölfel, Carsten Dankert, Carsten Gauert, Constanze Stark, Gunnar Krempin, Helena Westerlind, Julia Borchers, Justyna Mintus, Markus Fix, Markus Lager, Michael Cornelsen, Monika Berstis, Natalja Kopycko, Nikolas Krause, Olaf Dittmers, Oliver André Claußen, Paul Mandler, Peter Tycho-Axelsen, Sebastian Nastke, Sebastian Scherer, Stefan Neudecker, Stefan Ritter, Stefanie Götz, Steffen Ell, Stephen Molloy, Sven Fuchs, Sylvain Rocher, Taras Breker, Thorsten Moschüring, Till Mache, Tobias Krauth, Victoria Menor-Torres, Yosi Segas, Yuna Yagi
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