Never liked the design. Hate the outcome. Any thoughts?

Ferrari Excitement Deflates

ok yes the ferrari thing is pretty lame, but what also find pointless is another blog reposting the same projects from dezeen or archdaily...

Oh yea....it is a repost from carformance...didn't know that. it is a reaction blog i guess... dezeen is the best

bwaahahahaahaaaa!!!

it's so bad i kind of like it... it's gone over the edge *at a 124 mph!!*

None of you guys live there and what was there before was nothing but dirt and sand. So why the big fuss?

The UAE hardly has any history.

I will try to keep taste out of it. But I think this is one of those projects that will look much better ground level than it does by air.

My only other concern/criticism is the irresponsible nature of the whole thing from two perspectives:

1) Water supply. The ground water supply of Abu Dhabi is completely exhausted.

With population and development increasing, there isn't much you can do to stop water consumption. Wait... there is... STOP COVERING like what 300 acres of land in manicured grass!

If I remember right Abu Dhabi sits on an "island" in the Persian Gulf which was a higher salinity than regular ocean.

If Abu Dhabi doesn't watch out, there last remaining groundwater reserves are going to start pulling in salt and the whole island will be essentially worthless at that point. A drought is one thing that can be easily solved by restriction and non-use, salt water intrusion is permanent.

This whole park says to me "fuck you, we'll do what we want."

2) Social stability.

Theme parks require tons of low wage workers. Low wage workers need access to housing and transportation.

Let's build a theme park requiring thousands of employees who make shit pay... and then encircle it in expressways!

I find it mostly humorous that a car-oriented theme park is serviced by thousands of non-driving workers who are bused in, forced to walk to "nowhere" and can't afford to drive.

Even if they could afford to drive, the parking requirements are going to start swallowing up that pretty park.

Also, this is designdummy spam... which I don't mind. But don't use new accounts to link to a single blog entry.

bitch

yes, it looks better from the ground level. i didn't get too close to give a clearer account but from the distance, it looks like an elevated part of the terrain (the dust and haze rendered the scenery monochrome).

Abu dhabi has plans to fully rely on recycled sewage water for the complete irrigation of its farms and green scapes within a couple of years. this, in tandem with its other plans to conserve energy and render itself "greener" (in the ecological sense, rather than the literal which might defeat the purpose of the figurative). simply pronouncing judgments without appreciating the developing nature of the country makes one a bit of a hater.

uae is one of the most socially stable countries in the region. this facet does not contradict the fact of dire conditions that labourers and many blue collar workers live under. However, common to both rich and poor expats, asian or western or arab: people come here to make more money than they would in their home countries. i have spoken to laborers, taxi drivers, waiters..etc...who claim that they make 5,6,7,8,..10..times what they would back home. Furthermore, the clearly delineated hierarchy, economic/professional/national/social, is undisputed and goes largely unchallenged. people want to keep their jobs...this is not a city for the display of power struggles. having said that, the country is also exhibiting a will to improve on the 'human rights' although one wonders how much action foregrounds the intention (noting that they failed to sign up to UN human rights charter items such as that which deals with homosexuality) . i can tell though, as an instance from a first person account, that safety on construction sites as well as the mitigation of their environmental impact are improving.

there is a sense that abu dhabi is in the process of growth and will undergo extraordinary change. let me be clear, i don't like abu dhabi per se ...but there is so much money being spent on procuring international expertise be it in the fields of construction, educational, energy conservation, transport and infrastructure...etc that one must appreciate the position and speed of the emirate in its chosen trajectory of development.