A new concept for the central located park named Capital Garden is to be found. Due to its core location, this project has the option to be a cultural and economic heart of one of the most important capitals of the Middle East.
The designated mixture of an ultra compact built-up development and an extremely attractive open space for the population should transform the existing Capital Garden into a place of identification, vitality an not least a maximum creation of value of investment.
Description
Capital Garden is one of the oldest remaining green areas in Abu Dhabi. Since the city in its current form was only developed in the 1970s without any special historical or conservational value, however there is a certain idealistic value due to the central situation, and the relatively high age of the trees of approx. 30 years.
The project area is situated right in the middle of the center of the capital Abu Dhabi, surrounded on three sides by three lane roads, and at the south by a service road. The surrounding land development is typical for Downtown Abu Dhabi: constructed on an equally sized square raster, there are multi-storey buildings of between 50 and 100 meters height (the majority being around 90m). Opposite of the northwest corner stands the outstanding tower of the Abu Dhabi National Bank with a height of approx. 175 m. Looking at the plot from a larger perspective it is located in the center of a imaginative central quarter. Limited in the West by the 2008 finished Central Market project (souq like mega shopping mall with three business towers of 200-300 m height), and in the East by an adjacent small parceled retail and office quarter.
This design competition shall bring forward a concept, which will focus all relevant city centre functions on theoretically possible 2 millions m² floor areas and on a relatively compact area and which is supposed to become a main magnet for Shopping, Business, Entertainment, Culture and Recreation. The concept is to bundle the center effect here to the maximum and to therewith reinforce Abu Dhabi, being capital of the emirates, as a globally acting metropolis as well as strengthening it as a future tourism destination.
There is no fixed spatial program as the basis to the competition. The only condition is a maximum economic use on the one hand (Retail, Entertainment, Office, Hotel, Apartments...) and a maximum creation of publicly usable green/open spaces on the other hand (in the existing area or in a newly created; in, above, below buildings...). The weighting of the individual uses is left to the participants. To be considered is an appropriate number of parking bays related to the uses and a replacement building for an existing small mosque (approx. 200-400 m²). Over the next years it is planned to build an overhead light rail that is circulating the city centre. This will run parallel to the northern project boundary on a height of about 5,0m above the median of Khalifa Road. This monorail can already be considered within the concept for Capital Garden.
Further attention is to be directed on the special climatic conditions. Maximum temperatures in the summer of over 45° Celsius, air humidity partly over 90%, occasional sandstorms lead to the fact that free spaces appear unattractive in the summer months at least during the daily hours, and public life takes place only after sunset and during the winter months. Both (buildings -) technical and organizational, sociological solutions are desired.
That planning framework is to be seen in the plans. It is left to the authors to preserve or replace the existing buildings at the eastern edge of the site. The surrounding of the plot can be partially exceeded (e.g. over bridges or tunnel to the neighboring blocks). The height is to orient itself at the average height of the surrounding land development = 90 m. Maximum permissible height for multistoried buildings in Abu Dhabi town center is 300 m. The maximum expansion into the depth is not to amount to more than 10-20 m, because of the difficult building ground, nevertheless exceptions are possible.
Participants
Invited are students and graduates of the fields of architecture and landscape architecture. Entitled to take part are students starting from the fourth semester as well as graduates without permanent employment, who received their diploma in 2005/2006/2007.
As a proof a copy / scan of the current inscription certificate and/or diploma document is to be submitted along with the documents.
A participating team must consist of at least one partner of the discipline architecture or landscape architecture. It is strongly recommended to constitute a group of each a member of the discipline of architecture and landscape architecture. The participation of further students/ graduates from the fields of civil engineering/ air condition technology/ energy engineering/ building-/climatic technicians or further disciplines like arts, graphic, media communication design, etc... is expressly desired.
There is no restriction for the competitor's nationality.
Jury
Dipl. Ing. Landscape Architect Daniel Wolf (I-CON, Abu Dhabi)
Dipl. Ing. Architect Klaus Kehrbaum (kehrbaumarchitektenBDA, Augsburg)
Dr. Wolfgang Bachmann (Chief editor ‚baumeister', Munich)
Times & Dates
Publication of competition papers / begin of competition: 01/05/2007
Publication of questions and answers: 01/08/2007
Submission of competition entries by email or upload: 30/08/2007
Evaluation/ judgment: Sept. 2007
Notification of Winners: 30/09/2007
Notification of other participants, Publication of results: 15/10/2007
Prices
1. Price: 3.000 Euro
+ flight to Abu Dhabi with overnight stay for 2-3 participating persons to the price awarding ceremony
2. Price 2.000 Euro
3. Price 1.000 Euro