Award Cycle: 2017-2019 Cycle
Status: Shortlisted
Country of origin: United Arab Emirates
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Client: Alserkal Avenue LLC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Architect: OMA: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Design: 2015-2016
Size: 1,250 m²
Completed: 2017
Alserkal Avenue, a former industrial complex in Dubai has been transformed into a cultural hub. This project took four existing warehouses and reimagined them to create Concrete, a flexible, multipurpose space for artists and cultural events in the centre of the complex. In order to maximise the area for events, the services were consolidated at one end of the building. The entrance and events space, with a flexible floorplan containing four 8-metre high pivoting and sliding walls, are situated close to The Yard, the district’s main outdoor public space. The front façade has large-scale, translucent doors that open onto The Yard, forming a symbiotic relationship between indoors and outdoors and allowing activities to flow between both spaces.