Buro Happold engineering landmark classical museum project
Design work is just starting on one of the most innovative, exciting and challenging museum projects to be built anywhere in the world in recent times. Buro Happold has been appointed to provide a full engineering scope of services.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi project was born out of an inter-governmental collaboration agreement between Abu Dhabi and France last spring, to hold exhibitions from the Louvre and its partner group of museums in Paris under a ten-year loaning agreement. The new museum is currently in the preliminary concept design stage, and will house art ranging from Islamic and Asian collections to the European Masters and works of antiquity.
Buro Happold selected for its holistic and environmentally responsible approach
“Buro Happold was selected because of its holistic approach to engineering, its track record as an environmentally responsible and responsive organisation and its appreciation of the project’s standing within the social, architectural and aesthetics fields,” said Lee Tabler, CEO of Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) – the company which has created the famed Cultural District of Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi which will house the museum. Buro Happold will be working closely with award-winning Paris-based architects Ateliers Jean Nouvel (AJN). AJN’s daring and inspirational design involves housing a ‘museum city’, resembling a traditional Arab city, under a domed canopy.
“It is a very challenging project,” said Hala Wardé, partner architect at AJN. “The Louvre Abu Dhabi is part of a wider, very ambitious project, for a cultural district being developed by the TDIC on Saadiyat Island. It will contribute greatly to making Abu Dhabi a global cultural destination.”
The architectural design will make a major contribution to the project. “It’s particularly exciting to have the opportunity to make a mark on the development of architecture in the 21st century,” said Wardé.
A ‘museum city’ will be housed under a domed canopy
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is one of four iconic buildings planned for Saadiyat Island’s Cultural District, which will also include the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum and a performing arts centre. The Cultural District is in itself part of a 30-year development plan for the island, which will be linked to Abu Dhabi city by two major new bridges.
Buro Happold has been appointed as multi-disciplinary engineer on the Louvre project, providing structural, building services, civil, marine, geotechnical, façade, fire, security, acoustic, lift and ICT engineering. The practice will work in conjunction with AJN and the French museums agency (Agence France Musées) for the Tourist Development & Investment Company (TDIC) of Abu Dhabi.
Buro Happold: designing in sustainability
“It’s a fantastic project, and we are extremely proud to be involved,” said Buro Happold’s project director Tim Page. “It involves a series of interesting challenges in our core and specialist disciplines, in terms of ensuring a sustainable design. We will work to the spirit of the American LEED green building rating system – while designing a building with high “wow” content in the tidal inshore zone of an island in the Arabian Gulf, which needs to withstand high ambient temperatures, airborne sand, humidity and salinity.”
The elegant shallow domed canopy will be183 metres in diameter and supported on five perimeter piers. The design of its outer cladding will allow for the sun to pass through, creating a play of light on the buildings and courtyards below, with varying contrast of light and shade from place to place. The aim is to create localised areas of shaded microclimate, with an ambient temperature in which visitors can browse the external exhibitions of sculpture and art: a test for the services engineers.
The majority of artworks, however, will be housed in strictly controlled conditions of temperature and humidity within internal exhibition spaces; though some will be visible through panels as visitors enter the museum. The complex will also include workshops, an education centre, restaurant and café facilities, and of course extensive back-of-house support facilities.
“We are exploring the incorporation of a wide range of passive energy systems,” said Tim, “for instance to assist natural cooling to the buildings and external public areas, as well as to optimise the use and reuse of water, and to reduce energy demand and consumption across the project. The Buro Happold team contains cutting-edge expertise gained on our earlier and ongoing involvement in a number of museum projects in difficult locations, ranging from the Gulf and Egypt to the Far East and the UK.”
The museum will appear to be floating on the sea
The civil and marine engineers will face considerable challenges too, as the museum is designed to look as if it is floating on the sea – it will in fact be built on piles, founded at around 18 metres depth on rock in the littoral (tidal) zone of the island’s western shoreline. An outdoor piazza will feature steps leading down to the sea, and the complex will boast a series of seawater pools and lakes as part of the landscaping.
“We also have to design for the building to withstand a dust-laden, highly saline and humid atmosphere,” says Tim: “As diurnal temperatures rise and fall, the air alternately takes up moisture from the Gulf and then deposits it as dew. Airborne dust levels can also be extreme, especially during the occasional desert sand storms which occur in this part of the world.” Buro Happold is working with sub-consultants Transsolar of Stuttgart on climate engineering aspects of the design.
There is a model of the museum and the other Cultural District projects on display in an exhibition devoted to Saadiyat Island in the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Construction is due to start on site late next summer. It should open to the public in 2012.
Project team:
Client: The Tourism Development and Investment Company of Abu Dhabi
Architect: Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Paris
Buro Happold services: Structural, building services, civil, site traffic, marine, geotechnical, fire, security, façade, ICT, vertical transportation and acoustic engineering
Ends
Note to Editors:
Buro Happold
Press office and practice information at www.burohappold.com. Images available on request.
For more information, please contact:
Jenni O’Connor
PR Officer
Tel +44 (0)1225 320600 ext. 2937
Fax +44 (0)8707 874148
Email jenni.o’connor@burohappold.com
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976. We now employ over 1,700 staff in 21 offices worldwide, and our aim is to produce high quality engineering design in concept, in detail and in execution, on time, to programme and delivering excellent value for money. Our distinctive culture and ethos is still based on the same principles of care, value and elegance that were established when the practice was founded.
We offer structural, building services, civil, infrastructure and façade engineering, as well as a broad range of specialist consultancy services including sustainability, ground and environmental engineering, fire and security design, health and safety management, inclusive and urban design, project management, and specialist CAD and computer simulation provision.
