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ATELIER JEAN NOUVEL TEXT BY MARIA VITTORIA CAPITANUCCI

LOUVRE

ABU DHABI

It seems to rest on the water, conceived for penetration and cross- ing not only the largest museum on the Arabian Peninsula, but
ing by canals and narrow openings in which the transparency of also the destination point of an urban seaside promenade. In keep-
light and the sparkling of the sea are in total symbiosis with the ing with this aspect, in February 2018 the museum launched the
architecture, become a substantial part of it. Opened in Novem- “Highway Gallery,” the world’s first street art gallery that stretch-
ber 2017, this Louvre in the Middle East has been designed by the es for 100 kilometers along the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway, urging
great Jean Nouvel, Pritzker Prize 2008—the Pulitzer of architec- motorists to tune in to local radio stations to listen to the introduc-
ture—and narrates the encounter of multiple cultures in the age tions provided by the curators for each work of art presented on
of globalization. The project is surprising for its quiet impact and big billboards. An introduction to the Louvre Abu Dhabi which
simultaneously remarkable structural tension, touching down on thus also becomes a “public” garden on the coast, a cool haven of
the desert and marine landscape of the Emirates like a pale con- escape from the bright sunlight and—in the evening, with its rig-
temporary spaceship, with the curve of the roof enhanced by an orous aesthetic—a glowing sanctuary for precious works of art. A
utterly oriental pattern to soften the profile. A statement of intent landmark in the territory with its sweeping honeycomb dome with
and autonomous interpretation formulated by Nouvel, who in this a diameter of 180 meters and a circumference of 565, the museum
complex chooses the horizontal, stepping back from the vertical is a work of very advanced structural engineering, composed of
dominant of many recent projects in this problematic and fasci- as many as 7850 stars in eight layers of steel and aluminum, for a
nating Arabian land. The Louvre Abu Dhabi has the exceptional weight that reaches almost that of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The
virtue of being accessible from the sea or from the shore, becom- roof symbolizes Arabian culture, while also functioning to filter

24 Architecture Protagonist Protagonist Architecture 25