The Louvre, Abu Dhabi Building, Middle East Architecture, Images
The Louvre in Abu Dhabi
UAE Art Gallery Building – design by Ateliers Jean Nouvel
30 Aug 2016
The Louvre
Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Abu Dhabi Louvre
The museum and the sea

All climates like exceptions. Warmer when it is cold. Cooler in the tropics. People do not resist thermal shock well. Nor do works of art. Such elementary observations have influenced the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It wishes to create a welcoming world serenely combining light and shadow, reflection and calm. It wishes to belong to a country, to its history, to its geography without becoming a flat translation, the pleonasm that results in boredom and convention. It would like to intensify the fascination of exceptional encounters.
Discovering an archipelago constructed on the sea is unusual. As is the fact that it is protected by a parasol creating a shower of lights. The possibility of going ashore or of finding a pontoon to access the shore on foot is equally extraordinary, as is being welcomed there as a visitor wanting to browse unique collections, linger in tempting bookstores, or taste local teas, coffees, and delicacies.

It is a calm and complex place. A contrast of a series of museums cultivating their differences and their authenticities.

It is a project founded on a major symbol of Arab architecture: the dome. But here, with its evident shift from tradition, the dome is a modern proposal.

A d...