Johnnycab Anyone: Exploring Masdar 2014

Masdar, the city itself is a series of car parks, augmented with lush planting, many of the car parks seem to be closed off, probably because they are already full. Eventually a car park with vacant spaces does present itself, so having found a space, it is off in search of the Personal Rapid Transport, the PRT, from images in the Masdar Brochure these seem reminiscent of the JohnnyCab from the 1984 movie Total Recall. Walking towards the buildings sitting on the concrete podium, there is no sign of a Johnnycab or a terminal where to meet them. 

The first building is the Siemens building, one of the major players in the work of Masdar, some of there projects are not in the UAE, in fact one of them is the London Array, the world’s largest wind farm located outside the Thames estuary. A lot of suits seem to be heading that way, to the Seimens building, not the Thames Estuary, and it seems a bit of a closed shop. So I head up through the covered plaza onto the raised podium into the Masdar Institute, which is a university campus acting as a satellite to Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT). The campus forms the heart of the city the buildings designed by Foster and Partners, in fact the entire master plan for the city is devised by Foster, an experiment in achieving a zero carbon city in probably one of the most difficult climatic conditions on Earth.

The campus comprises laboratories researching advances in renewable energy: Solar, Wind, Tidal. The Knowledge base which is the university Library, Student accommodation, in the distinctive red precast blocks that look as though they have been sculpted out of clay and fired to become terracotta. Some of the screens are adorned with UAE flags as students try to assert their identity on the development. At podium level, there are signs of a village coming to life, posters on the inside of the storefront glazing announce the arrival of Organic Cafe, and other restaurants. One that is operational Caribou Coffee, a lively environment with students and tutors sitting outside enjoying coffee and pastries in the external environment where in the car park the temperature registered 34 degrees Celcsuis, the shaded courtyards really do make a difference. The courtyards shown bare in the brochure are occupied with shrub planting and trees and are alive with the sound of birds singing.

Wandering through the network of courtyards, considerably cooler than outside, the view up between the buildings, a narrow alley with a jagged top, solar panels on the top of the buildings serve the dual function of generating power and reducing cooling load through preventing direct solar radiation from landing on the roof. Steps lead down into a sunken courtyard, shaded by planting, is what looks very much like a PRT terminal, the automatic doors open to a large concourse space that is covered in plastic sheet, looking very much like work in progress, that will make this a major PRT terminal in the site.

Driving around the development, past the solar farm with the vast array of all of the different solar panels available from all manufacturers around the world to the Masdar Office, a kind of portakabin security office, with a solitary security guard who wants to direct me back to the Masdar Institute, I was expecting a visitor centre, probably something akin to the Crystal at Royal Victoria Dock in London, a venue where it is possible to see a model of the master plan and to understand progress that is being made. I suppose for now we have to be content with the website. 

Crazy From the Heat - Dubai 2014

Life in the street takes on a different intensity than the uptown areas, here the traffic is slow, there is a constant stream of people walking, milling around, buying, selling. This area of city is absolutely alive! the road arrives into Bastikiya, the old part of Dubai, situated along the creek. Historic buildings are restored and are enjoying a new lease of life as heritage hotels, restaurants, one of which has a camel standing outside, a stuffed one admittedly, next to a chalkboard sign advertising healthy camel burgers. Wandering through the narrow streets, punctuated with wind towers on the corners of blocks, it is easy to see that Masdar City, although distinctly modern has its roots in the historic Arabian city. In a courtyard, another camel, happily alive and resting on the ground, well groomed and in traditional dress, as though ready to head off on an expedition across the desert, I wonder if he knows his friend has been converted into burgers. 

Across the road, past the iron railings of the rulers court, and there is the creek, the old port made famous to the international audience by Michael Palin on his TV series ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. Slightly less busy with working dhows now, well they are working, but earning their living in a different way, many are floating restaurants, others are what is termed pleasure craft, taking groups of tourists around the Creek. A boat trip is a great way to view the city, a pink jellyfish pulsates near the surface as the boat heads out from the jetty, and heads upstream on past the Dhows that are floating restaurants, heavy timber built vessels, varnished, with windows set into what would have been the cargo hold, then a kind of verandah created on the deck.  The creek is actually quite a wide waterway, probably akin to the River Thames as it passes through Central London, although here the south bank and north back are reversed, South being the Jumeirah side is a park, with the palaces, and the quayside is lined with palm trees, North being the Sharjah side, which has a far more of a working feel, concrete blocks tell of a city largely developed in the 1970s following the formation of the UAE. Glass towers form the later additions, and compared with Dubai these are relatively small scale, in the order of 20 - 30 storeys. Above the blocks and towers the flight path into Dubai International Airport is drawn by a constant stream of planes descending and eventually disappearing beneath the blocky skyline. 

As the boat takes a leisurely cruise, the sun begins to set creating silhouettes of the towers around the business district, Burj Khalifa now completely visible for the first time today, glimpsed between passing the dhows, and once again Big Ben, or rather its replica tower, the name Big Ben actually refers to the Bell within the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, better known as the Houses of Parliament. But here it is a prominent silhouette on the Dubai skyline. At the Creekside Park, cable cars transport visitors over the treetops, giving them a view of the private yachts moored along private pontoons. Passing beneath the highway, the boat can go no further, as the creek is crossed by a floating bridge that blocks the way and the creek becomes more of a shallow lake. Traversing the North side of the creek gives a different perspective, the layering of the city becomes apparent, boats against trees, against 1970s blocks with their roof mounted neon signs, against the 2000s glass towers against the setting sun. A working dhow passes by with the sound of its thumper diesel engine carrying across the waves, along with the splashing of a constant jet of water that is used to cool it.

The sun glints off the glass facades of the blocks, and the skyline on both sides starts to form dramatic silhouettes against the yellow sky, blocks, signs, minarets, giant golf balls. The water is absolutely alive, water taxis dart across the creek, whilst others take groups of visitors on tours, filming the entire experience on iPads, others plugged in to their phone trying very hard not to notice life going on around them.  Heading downstream images from Calvino’s Invisible Cities form in the mind, only the gondolas are dhows, and this is no longer a working waterfront, more of a museum waterfront. Cormorants roost on the top of red pilings. The names on some of the hotels tell a story of a different time before this young nation was formed, the George Hotel a clear example. 

Back on dry land and wandering through the souk on the museum waterfront, vendors selling trinkets to tourists, silks, watches and the standard issue T shirt thats says ‘I love Dubai’. The narrow streets go the Souk are enclosed by a roof supported on timber pointed arches, associated with a completely different architecture in Europe. On the quayside more of the restaurant and hotels in the restored buildings, along with museums, galleries and a ‘Traditional Architecture House’ new interventions besides the block paving, are tented shade structures, playgrounds and street lighting, and occasionally Burj Khalifa appears in the distance, a reminder of how much Dubai has transformed from its origins in a fishing village on the creek.

The full story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris - Do We Need ARCHITECTS?

No crocodiles but we do have sharks - Bangkok 2004

The drive from the airport to the centre of Bangkok, is via an elevated motorway, lined with billboards, billboards and more billboards, the sky is a light grey, heavy with moisture, not rain but humidity, which added to the grey of the concrete, the grey/silver of cars and minibuses gives the sense of entering a very grey city, up in the distance in the haze the blocks also appear grey. 

Then when the taxi turns off the motorway, colour is everywhere! City taxis in red, blue, green, yellow...usually in combinations. Tuk tuks, that I have become so accustomed to in Colombo are everywhere, usually painted blue with elaborate designs worked into them. The sound not so much a tuk tuk, because they have all been converted to run on methanol as opposed to two stroke oil, and the locals call them ‘boom booms’ on account of the deeper engine sound. Buses look like US army jeeps, because that is what they are, or at least were, now converted into buses, chrome front grille, wheels, and blue bodywork with  designs similar to that of the tuk tuks. 

Streets are very busy and very clean, lined with trees, and Buddha Statues, sometimes in a glass case, standing guard on the entrance to shopping centres. 

Overhead the metro system, concrete legs carry the trains above the traffic, sometimes to two levels, and a constant stream of people efficiently negotiate the network of stairs, bridges and walkways to be able to get to them without having to contend with the eight lanes of traffic below. The trains, completely obscured by advertising, glide along effortlessly over the slow moving traffic.

Heading into Silom District, the street scene takes on a ‘Blade Runner’ feel as buildings lining the street are buried beneath an array of air conditioning units, signs, and cables, that are everywhere strung between buildings across the side streets. White tower blocks pop up from behind the street edge, hotels, and residential towers, some with colourful balconies as though to try to brighten up the grey sky. 

Along the street edge the pavement is shaded, protected by a green fabric sheet, that obscures any views of the traffic, market stalls line the way, with vendors selling anything with a designer name on, expertly crafted locally and sold for a fraction of the price. A turn to the left and the whole scene is magnified in a huge hot indoor market, stalls arranged so tightly that there is barely any room to walk between them, this place is huge, crumbling brick walls, corrugated asbestos sheet and very dirty roof lights resting on rusted iron trusses, and support columns barely visible behind all the market stalls, selling a rich variety of fruit, vegetables, spices, chillies...carcasses hang on meat hooks whilst below water can be seen gurgling below a cast iron grating in the ground giving off a slightly pungent smell suggesting that it is not rainwater. The concrete floor off the market is damp, is that humidity, or does the drain back up every now and again? Difficult to tell, all the while trading continues regardless. 

From the 11th storey window of the hotel the city seems absolutely alive, the sounds of car horns, tuk tuks, and buses is muffled as the windows don't open in this air conditioned block. the sun makes its first appearance of the day, just a brief appearance as it drops beneath the cloud to cast silhouettes against the blocks. No towers in the park here, just towers planted on top of the historic fabric. Pockets of historic fabric are visible here and there, densely packed enclaves of timber framed, timber clad houses and shops with clay tiled roofs, threaded in among the trees, next to a forty something storey block. White towers, glass towers, some tall, others not so tall march across the urban plane as the tide of progress threatens to engulf the old city.

The next morning, met in the hotel lobby by a very enthusiastic tour guide it is off to the Golden Temple, with a compulsory visit to what I can only describe as a tourist trap. Outside identical minibuses line up, and groups of tourists are escorted into a kind of jewellery store, a women’s pearl market, with a side room where the men are deposited to drink Singha beer whilst the women make up their mind if they are going to buy anything. All around this octagonal space are aquariums or is it aquaria? No larger than what somebody who likes to keep tropical fish would have it their home, located behind the counters above the process of hard selling that is going on. In the aquaria, are angel fish, brightly coloured residents of coral reefs, and sharks! No word of a lie, two baby sharks about eighteen inches long, frantically trying to find a way out of a fish tank that can be no more than four feet long and two wide/deep. Maybe it is to remind the men that are patiently waiting, trying not to drink to much beer before lunchtime, that at least they can get out eventually. 

Every visit to a place of interest is combined with somewhere that is geared to relieving tourists of their newly changed currency. Floating village combined with orchid farm. Heading out of the city Khlong Latmayom Floating Market we cross the river...and our tour guidetells us that there used to be crocodiles living in the river but now it is too polluted.  The highway abruptly ends, concrete and tarmac become red dirt track, roadside cafes and car showrooms give way to coconut groves and paddy fields, to arrive at a red dirt parking lot with a neat line of minibuses, to board a boat, a long narrow boat like gondola with an old car engine and a long shaft with a propeller to make it work as a marine engine. 

Zooming along the waterways we pass dwellings that are erected on the river, permanent dwellings, concrete base resting above the water on piles that are driven down through the river bed. There are the local population washing clothes, pots, pans cleaning their teeth in the water, the same water that we were previously told is too polluted for crocodiles.

At the market, as the name suggests the produce is sold from boats, the usual market produce fruit, spices, along with the obvious ‘stuff’ to sell to tourists, T shirts and souvenirs to tell you that you have been there.  A brief visit to a floating restaurant, and it is back on the speed gondola past the houses, to the minibus. The journey back to the city involves a snake farm, just what we are expected to do with them I don’t know, stir fry one for dinner perhaps, take one home and keep it as a pet maybe, and finally a wood carving studio. All around the studio among the life size carvings of elephants, try fitting one of those in your suitcase, local people, men and women are seated on the floor carving tableaus depicting scenes usually comprising elephants and jungle, carved in integrate detail, using nothing but their legs to hold the carving steady whilst they work on them. 

Back into the city, the first of many visits to the tailor shop in the shopping centre at the base of the hotel and all too quickly it is the taxi journey back to the airport, colours disappear and it is back to grey cars, grey sky and grey towers silhouetted against the afternoon sun, that is somewhere above the clouds.