The audacious architecture of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi

May 2018

It's the month of Ramzan in Abu Dhabi and the days in May in this desert metropolis are warm.  But we are from Madras, toughened by our summer and humidity, so nothing to complain about!

It is graduation time at NYUAD and we are here for Commencement, as they call it.  (Commencement of what, I wondered.)  Saadiyat is where NYUAD is located, and unlike most university neighourboods, Saadiyat is very tony, very upmarket and planned as an art and culture enclave, with the the Rafael Vinoly designed NYUAD campus the first occupants of the island, back in 2014!  With its high line, covered walkways, it is a pretty cool building in terms of design and architecture.

And I am pretty sure the head gardener is from Madras - Copper Pod, Neem, Bougainvillae and Nandivattal are in profusion as we walk through the common areas that have a much greener look than when we were at Marhaba four years ago. 

The red vented bulbuls and doves were present across the campus.

So the Neem flowers even in the desert!

And so we have the privilege of visiting the Louvre in Abu Dhabi.

The day turns out to be cloudy, and we see the dome and complex on our way in to Saadiyat island.   While the Louvre has opened, a Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim is also on the drawing board

Our first glimpse of Jean Nouvel's "floating dome", some 7,500 tonnes I had read!

The 8 layers of the dome create more than 7,000 "stars" of sunlight, filtering the desert sun.  All through the museum we would have glimpses of the water.

OK, so I did peek out of every window and was thoroughly distracted from the art treasures.  I am a sucker for water views.

And I have to say that for once my son showed remarkable patience with his malingering and wandering mother! 

There were windows like this one everywhere.  The architecture does make this museum experience quite different from any other and the outdoor spaces so beautifully include the waters of the bay on which AD is located.

The starry roof, in the day.  When the sun is strong, there will be sunbeams of lights making patterns on the floor - we missed that experience as it was a cloudy day.

This was my favourite view and space

The roof, within the rxhibit area of the museum.

Ai Weiwei's magnificent "chandelier" the Tower of Light, with the roof above

Two tons and almost 35,000 crystal make this art nstallation!

Its a great story in itself - inspired by a Communist Russian ideal Tatlin monument, "Ai’s sculpture reads this history from a Chinese context: Monument to the Third International in the guise of a crystal chandelier speaks of the gap between the Chinese Communist Party’s ideals and the elite’s taste for opulence in real life."

I Read all about it here:  The story behind Ai Weiwei's Fountain of Light at Louvre Abu Dhabi

Up-close

The Abu Dhabi skyline

Sunset views

I wondered whether we would visit AD again.  Maybe not.  But then again, who knows?

(More on the eclectic and somewhat quirky art and museum collections in a  later post, hopefully.)