This Day, That Year – January 1

This day in history we feature the Dubai Frame. It is an observatory, museum, and monument in Zabeel Park, Dubai which was opened on this day in 2018.

Trivia – Dubai Frame

The Dubai Frame holds the record for the largest frame in the world. The building has a height of 150.24 meters and a width of 95.53 meters. The building mainly serves as an observatory, providing views of old Dubai in the north and newer parts in the south. The project idea was initially conceived by Fernando Donis, and selected as the winner of a design competition by an international jury. The designer has alleged that he had his intellectual property stolen and was denied credit for the design. The final project was completed by Hyder Consulting, part of Arcadis NV, and Al Rostamani Pegel was its principal contractor. It opened in January 2018.

Related read – Dubai ranked fifth globally in the UN E-Government Survey 2022

The design was selected as the winner of the 2009 ThyssenKrupp Elevator International Award from 926 proposals. Participants from all over the world were invited to submit an emblem that would promote “the new face for Dubai”. It is near the Star Gate of Zabeel Park and stands at 150.24 m (493 ft) tall and 95.53 m (313 ft) wide. The Dubai Frame is created out of glass, steel, aluminum, and reinforced concrete with designs of the logo of Expo 2020 embedded on the outer facade. It is positioned in such a way that representative landmarks of modern Dubai can be seen on one side, while from the other side, visitors can also view older parts of the city. An observation deck spans the top of the frame, with glass-bottomed floors looking down almost 150 meters onto the building’s lower span. The lower span contains a museum showing the history of the city, and a video exhibit predicting the city’s future. Landscape design done by Architect Hoseein Shabani as freelance architect of MIRAK landscapes and irrigations. The concept of combination of modern and traditional Dubai’s Culture has implemented by architect. The ThyssenKrupp Elevator Architecture Award is an international architecture competition first held in 1988 and sponsored by one of the world’s leading elevator companies. An international panel of judges selected the winning idea from among 926 design proposals to create a Tall Emblem Structure for Dubai. The original jury consisted of 11 international architects — a former and current chairman of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the regional chairman of ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Dubai Municipality’s director general and Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum were listed as ‘honorary’ jurors.

Source – Wikipedia