design leaders architecture
2 University project, Saudi Arabia 3 Performing Arts Centre, Abu Dhabi 4 Emirates Towers, Dubai 5 Louvre Abu Dhabi 6 Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
2
GETTING THE BREAK
So how do non-starchitects receive commissions in the UAE? According to Lewis, relationships are key. “People need to understand what you’re about. We don’t expect people to know exactly who we are and what we do, so we spend a lot of time meeting people for coffee. You need to get out of the door and get your face on the brand – it’s not enough to just send emails or letters. If you want the small fire to become an inferno then you have to spend a lot of time and effort to make it happen,” he says. Lewis explains how the Ferrari World
project was won. “It was very unusual as there was no competition – it was a commission that arose off the back of our Yas Island master plan. In the master plan there was a a site called Ferrari World. “Aldar and Ferrari asked us to come up with
some ideas for the scheme. We put together a concept design presentation for a meeting in Italy, and thankfully our work was loved by Aldar and Luca Cordero di Montezemolo [chairman of Ferrari]. “We were at the right place at the right
time and managed to capture the interest of the key stakeholders. All of a sudden it became reality – it was a snowball effect – once it started moving people became excited about it.” Lewis believes that architects need to
make their own luck by having the right skills in the team. “There is an awful lot of luck involved, but it’s also important to have the right skill-set.”
A combination of good fortune and favourable circumstances also helped CR2 Architects win its largest commission in the Middle East, as Hickey explains. “We were lucky enough to receive a large-scale commission for a university project in Saudi Arabia. There was an odd series of circumstances that led to our appointment. It’s a key project and it should help us move forward.” However, he believes that it is crucial for the company to receive a similar commission in Abu Dhabi, and adds:
“If you’re lucky enough to get a good project in a prominent position then you can piggyback on top of that. Once you get a well-positioned project that people can notice and admire then you start getting phone calls.” Yet Hickey states that this is unlikely to occur in Abu Dhabi until the company builds up its name in the emirate.
“We have no expectations to get a major project in the centre of Abu Dhabi – our strategy is to work on smaller buildings and build up our reputation and develop relationships.” He continues: “I set up an office in London 25 years ago from scratch and I know how slow and painstaking
it is to build up a business. We were lucky – a developer came along and took a chance and we did a very large development in central London. After that the phone didn’t stop ringing.” Benoy’s Lewis agrees that a major project can act as a stepping stone for an architecture firm, and hopes that
Ferrari World will launch the company into the stratosphere of starchitecture. “It is definitely a step towards making Benoy a household name. I consider our firm to be the best retail architect in the market. We’ll see in time whether we are the best retail and leisure architect. We will feed off this project and it has projected Benoy to another
You need to get out of the door and get your face on the brand – it’s not enough to just send emails or letters. If you want the small fire to become an inferno then you have to spend a lot of time and effort to make it happen
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/jun-sep 2010
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