Starchitecture Projects Shift From Dubai To Abu Dhabi

While Dubai struggles to climb out of the economic recession, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has been making headway, at least in terms of fiscal health and architecture. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have often been seen as ‘competitors’ or at least diverging in terms of their approach to city-building.

The fruits of Abu Dhabi’s conservative attitude towards culture, investment, and development are starting to outshine the glitzy and hurried manner in which Dubai came to the world stage. We previously highlighted the work of Asymptote and Reiser+Umemoto, who have recently been finishing up The Yas Hotel project for Abu Dhabi.

Another noteworthy project, designed by RMJM and ADNEC, is The Hyatt Abu Dhabi (also known as Capital Gate Tower). This 525 foot hotel is angled in such a way that it leans 18 degrees and is very reminiscent of something that would be seen in Dubai in that it was built to claim the title of being ‘the most dramatically leaning building in the world’, surpassing the Tower of Pisa, which has a 14 degree bend. Maybe the two cities are not so different after all!