Arch2O.com

Arch2O.com - Architecture & Design Magazine
When you walk into the recently-inaugurated Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, you?ll be immediately welcomed by a million bundles of light which are shed by the museum?s meticulously-engineered dome. Inspired by Arabic culture and architecture, the dome was no easy job to make or construct! Here is the complete story.
Conceiving the dome’s design
The dome?s design took Ateliers Jean Nouvel more than a year to prepare. The firm has worked closely with BuroHappold Engineering to create the magnificent structure.
The designers wished the dome to be anything but ordinary. ?Initial studies related to geodesic approaches, based on triangles, and orthogonal approaches, an approximately square grid,” stated the Associate Director at BuroHappold, Andy Pottinger. “But all of the designs studied clashed with the architectural base pattern of four triangles surrounding a single square.” Photography: Luc Boegly & Sergio Grazia
The designers? trials to design the dome were unsatisfactory. Therefore, they decided to go back to square one and give triangular and square patterns a try. “Instead of adding long straight lines we added further squares and triangles and the result is what you can see above the Museum today,” Pottinger explained.
Cladding
The cladding of the dome comprises eight layers, all of which have star-resembling patterns. Each layer of cladding is shifted from the layer beneath to ...