I took the opportunity of travelling to Dubai on an office trip to explore for a few days all that I could from this exceptional location. Together with my wife, we visited several locations between Dubai City and Abu Dhabi. The overlaid of high-rise architecture surrounded by desertic barren landscapes creates a striking sci-fi looking landscape that captures the eye of every traveller that comes to this country- here you will see a small summary of what it was this trip and the places I visited Starting with the desert-scapes that captivated my eye.

The situation around this “war-zone-looking” picture represents a bit of the effect of adventure tourism in the area of Dubai. According to what the locals told us, this abandoned jeep belonged to someone that without experience driving in the desert, got stuck in the sand and left the car behind to avoid facing detention. It’s not allowed to drive in the dunes areas near Dubai city unless you are a trained and authorized tour guide.

This is the evidence that we were there! Carlos Bausa and Dirce Medina, Architects and part time Explorers :)

The images below depict the Burg Khalifa tower from different angles and locations around Dubai Mall. It was designed by the Chicago-based architectural firm of Skidmore. This building is at the moment the tallest building on earth with 828m. Its majestic shape stands out in Dubai sky-line, and is visible from any location around this city. Another of the projects I had the chance to see from close is the Apple Dubai Mall storefront, and its kinetic facade, composed by a series of intricated carbon fibre rod-made shading panels that open and close to provide solar protection from the harsh Desert Solar conditions. It was designed by Foster and Partners, and its facade was conceived and engineered within its internal division the “Specialist Modeling Group”. It was great to be there and see this project from close during its development by my team at the time, when I worked there.

The views from the Burj Khalifa are stuning. The images below shows the Fountain of Dubai Mall, in action during its show time, a choreograph where the water dances at the rithm of the music to entertain its visitors every 30 min. By night time the city is transformed ina world of vivid colours and lights.

Below you can find some of the shots I took within the Abu Dhabi Louvre Museum, designed by Jean Nouvel's architecture studio. It is quite an impressive multilayered structure, that seems to float weightlessly above the museum buildings.

As an architect self-trained in Computational parametric design and Environmental analysis I really enjoyed this shading system, and the kinetic facade of the Al Bahar Towers Responsive Facade, Designed by the architectural studio, Aedas.

Burj Al Arab is another of the buidlings that as an Architec I could not miss. This was one of the ones that inspired me the most back in the days when I was an architecture student. It was impressive to see this one in person and really enjoyed photographing it. The tower was designed by Tom Wright from WKK Architects

The Museum of the future was another iconic landmark of dubai’s skyline along its main Sheik Zayed Road. It was a must to visit it to enjoy this facade covered with the Arabic calligraphy that talks about the future. It was designed by Killa Design architects. As explained in the Architectural statement from […] the elliptical void within the upper structure represents innovation. This is done primarily by creating an empty space showing the unwritten future into which humanity, and the world can symbolically look towards […]

We had the chance to visit Behaa Headquarters designed by our office Zaha Hadid Architects (where im currently working as its Sustainability Team Lead) Behaa has been one of the most successful buildings in terms of sustainability targets, implementing different solutions to lower its carbon footprint and environmental impact

Opus hotel, it´s another of the buildings we visited from Zaha Hadid Architects, it´s inpresive silhouette and stunning carved interiors seem taken from a science fiction movie. It was really interesting to walk around its atrium and corridors to appreciate the details and design features our teams developed for the interiors.

Dubai Trip, November 2022