22 January 8, 2016 Culture

Dubai Frame: Iconic structure for UAE city

N.P. Krishna Kumar long steel bridge at the top level. One of the main features of the “The bridge serves as a viewing building will be the Exhibition Hall deck or an observatory and will showcasing facts, photos and arte- provide uninterrupted views of the facts. ‘New Dubai’ and ‘Old Dubai’, and up “The concept reflects a journey esidents and visitors can- to 300 visitors shall be allowed on through time, starting at the mez- not miss it. Set in the the viewing deck at a time,” Fouad zanine level, where visitors enter midst of the city, Dubai said. into an immersive experience rep- Frame, a giant structure There are many technical de- resenting the past. Projections, mist shaped like a picture tails and elements that make Dubai effects, smells and motion create Rframe, is the latest iconic edifice ris- Frame a fascinating structure. the immersive mood setting of the ing in the glamorous emirate’s sky- “The functional requirement of space,” Fouad said. line. space in each floor within the con- “The Past Gallery embodies the The 50-storey structure frames crete legs is to accommodate two idea of the project and tells the sto- views of the city, allowing visitors lifts for the vertical movement of ry of the evolution of the city and its to see Old Dubai from one side and people and a staircase for emer- history. It shows the old city, using the New Dubai skyline from another gency access and egress. Parts of the most new and updated means from its strategic location in Zabeel the floors at different levels are also of projection and presentation that Park. used for housing MEP (mechanical, contributes to the creation of a fa- Dubai Frame is expected to be electrical and plumbing) equip- vourable environment that devel- visited by an estimated 2 million ment,” she said. ops and comprehends the renais- tourists a year. But those who wish sance taking place in Dubai.” to go up the structure for the breath- Dubai Frame, a giant “The final experience,” Fouad taking views need to wait until well structure shaped added, “is on the other side of the into 2016. mezzanine level and it represents The $43.6 million Dubai Frame like a picture frame, the Future of Dubai. The concept project, the construction of which is the latest iconic of this gallery is to depict Dubai 50 began in 2013, will be opened to the edifice rising in the years from now by creating a virtual public by August 2016, said Shaza metropolis through interactive pro- Fouad, an architect in the General glamorous emirate’s jections and virtual reality technol- Project Department, the engineer- skyline. ogy. ing support section of the Dubai “The visitors will exit the eleva- Municipality. The Dubai Municipality architect tor onto the mezzanine floor to pass The plot area for Dubai Frame is also gave details of the external through a vortex tunnel with spe- 24,220 sq. metres, while the built- cladding feature and the special cial lights and sound effects.” up area is 10,835 sq. metres. The cleaning mechanism involved. The idea, Fouad said, “is to create Dubai-based Al Rostamani Pegel “Composite panels with special an illusion of time travel through a LLC is the main contractor and the copper colour, along with solar warp vortex and arriving into the design consultant is Arcadis (Hyder photovoltaic panels will be used city 50 years ahead. An immersive A perspective of the Dubai Frame. Consulting), which also designed for external cladding. A building ‘Virtual Metropolis’ with scenes landmark buildings and spaces in maintenance unit shall be used for depicting the city’s evolution after and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), position Dubai as the “first choice” the city, including Tow- cleaning the façade, which will be 50 years, how people would travel, the number of tourists for 2014 was for the international leisure and ers, and Downtown running on rails and tracks on the live, etc.” 13.2 million, a growth of 8.2% year business traveller. Dubai. roof of the towers and bridge. When Dubai’s tourism officials over- on year. The giant building has a simple it is not in operation, the cradle and all are targeting 20 million visi- Tourism is a central pillar for eco- N.P. Krishna Kumar is a form with 150-metre long concrete the machines will be hidden inside tors annually by 2020. According nomic growth and diversification Dubai-based contributor to The (core) legs connected by a 93-metre- lower floor pits,” she explained. to Dubai’s Department of Tourism for the emirate and the strategy is to Arab Weekly. Zuqaq al-Blat, symbol of one man’s quest for an Arab renaissance

Gareth Smyth south, past Zuqaq al-Blat’s Sunni mosque, built around 1860 and now next to “the Ring” highway. As Zuqaq al-Blat developed, lead- ing Beirutis — mainly Orthodox djoining Beirut’s down- Christians and Sunni Muslims, re- town, the quarter of flecting the city’s make-up of the Zuqaq al-Blat is a maze of time — built mansions with views crumbling old buildings, of the sea, city and port. To the west noisy thoroughfares and (now Hamra, Verdun and Sanayeh) alleyways.A Hezbollah and Amal were sand dunes. posters reflect a Shia population Still today some alleyways lead to that arrived from south Lebanon overgrown gardens recalling Zuqaq in the 1980s, fleeing Israeli invad- al-Blat’s heyday. But most villas are ers to take up unofficial residence dilapidated, including the home of in an area depopulated early in the poet Bechara el-Khoury (1885-1968), civil war due to the proximity of the entered by dual curved staircases dividing mainly Chris- from a garden and with both storeys tian east Beirut and mainly Muslim ringed by a gallery. west. Perhaps neglecting Boustani’s ide- The streets are busiest up to 9am as is more serious than neglecting and again after 3pm, reflecting the buildings. “Forgetting” his school number of schools. This is a clue to may reflect later suspicion of some- Zuqaq al-Blat’s place in the history one who converted to Protestantism of Lebanon and the Arab world. and was “close” to Westerners. But Barely 200 metres from down- in reality Boustani was ahead of any town is a yellow, ramshackle build- missionaries in calling for educating ing that once housed Al-Madrasa women, a clear separation of the ju- Al-Wataniyya (the National School), diciary from the executive and equi- which Boutros Boustani opened in Dilapidated but inhabited building, Rue Hussein Beyhum, Zuqaq al-Blat. table tax collection. 1863 to foster citizenship regard- Nora Boustani, a descendant less of sect. No plaque marks this, Mount Lebanon between 1840 and opened in 1883. in 2005 when the German Orient and former Washington Post cor- nor recalls that Zuqaq al-Blat was in 1860, when 20,000 died. Abd al-Qadir al-Qabbani in Institut, based in a refurbished local respondent, told The Arab Weekly the late 19th century a centre of the He took up journalism, publishing 1878 founded in Zuqaq al-Blat the mansion, published History, Space that Boustani’s message is more vi- nahda, or Arab cultural renaissance. Nafir Suriyya (“The Horn of Syria”) Makassed (Islamic Benevolence) and Social Conflict in Beirut: The tal in 2016 than ever. Boustani was part of a move- under the pen-name Muhibb al- society, which pioneered education Quarter of Zukak el-Blat. The book “Plurality of beliefs and religious ment to revive the Arabs through Watan (“he who loves his country”). for Muslim girls. In Zuqaq al-Blat detailed history, demographics and diversity are threatened in our part knowledge, equality and freedom. At a time when many Christians in today, some older residents still call surviving old buildings. of , where to varying de- He “laid down the fundamental Mount Lebanon spoke Syriac as a the Hariri Foundation School “the grees the struggle for a secular kind tropes… found in virtually all Arab mother tongue, Boustani saw Arabic English school” because it once The Zuqaq al-Blat of citizenship and the freedom to reform discourses in later decades,” as a means to bring together every- housed British mission schools. story starts at its worship freely without dictates or wrote Stephen Sheehi, associate one in the Levant. But 19th-century Zuqaq al-Blat north end, today’s constraints is coming into sharp fo- professor at the University of South Boustani wrote a dictionary, Al- was not just about educating chil- cus,” she said. Carolina, in 2004. Muhit, and an encyclopedia, Dairat dren. It buzzed with literary and Riad Al Solh Square “Boutros Boustani articulated his In a 1993 paper for UNESCO, Khalil al-Maarif. He published a periodi- political salons. It was home to in- in downtown. ideas at a specific point in time. Had Abou Rjeili stressed Boustani’s con- cal al-Jinan. All used an Arabic he tellectuals like poet-cum-politician his advice and recommendations viction that education could over- revised to express modern scientific Hussein Beyhum. Among teachers The Zuqaq al-Blat story starts at been heeded, we wouldn’t be in come the ignorance he believed and literary concepts. in Boustani’s school was Nasif al- its north end, today’s Riad Al Solh such a mess.” opened citizens to both sectarian- The National School was short- Yaziji, a Greek Catholic who helped Square in downtown. In 1830, this ism and undue foreign influence. lived, closing during or shortly Boustani found the Syrian Associa- was the site of Bab Yacoub, a gate Gareth Smyth has covered Middle Born in 1819 to a Maronite family in after the 1875 cholera pandemic tion for the Sciences and Arts, and in Beirut’s city wall. Here began Eastern affairs for 20 years and Al Dibbiyah, a village in the Chouf and Boustani died in 1883 but oth- whose son Ibrahim simplified the the first paved road zuqaq( al-blat) was chief correspondent for the south of Beirut, Boustani was hor- ers were inspired. Madrasa al-Sul- Arabic font for typescript. outside the wall and this named a Financial Times in Iran from rified by communal massacres in taniyya, the Sultanic High School, Interest in Zuqaq al-Blat revived quarter soon stretching a kilometre 2003-07.