NOOR ISLAND PROJECT. SHARJAH
Nature back to the city!
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Green condensed urban biotope with architectural highlights
Once an abandoned and karstified small island in the inner-city lagoon of Sharjah City, a metropolis of millions, 3DELUXE transformed it into an urban oasis with a natural biotope, exceptional architecture and pavilions, artworks, play facilities, night lighting, a beachfront restaurant and much more. The newly created unique biotope with local plant species improves the urban climate, contributes to the decarbonization of the city and surprisingly now hosts more than 100 bird species (!), which is unique in this area.
An oasis of peace & tranquility amidst a sea of high-rises.
3deluxe’s Al Noor Island Park is its answer to the global challenge of creating new urban spaces that are both inspiring and thought-provoking, that include electronic media in their design and that still take their location and its culture seriously. And the result, on Noor Island, is a 21st century landscaped garden where technology meets nature, light meets shade and the modern meets the traditional in a complex spatial experience.
Consisting of three interlocking segments, the roof covers an area of 800 square meters. Visitors find themselves standing inside an organic shell on tree-like steel columns with nine support points around the periphery. It is reminiscent of the cocoon spun by a butterfly. The steel supporting structure is secured by a continuous, 3D edge girder, which absorbs the strain on the roof, and by a network of nodes and triangular connections. The challenge with the steel elements, which were calculated using the finite element method (FEM), was to systemize the 4,000 individual nodes theoretically required in such a way that ultimately only 600 were needed to achieve the correct balance between variation and effectivity. The load-bearing steel structure and the aluminum petals, which are only 3 mm in thickness, converge at every node, adopting a large number of different angle brackets at several levels. Thus a flickering roof of petals emerged, beneath which connections and screw joints run invisibly.
Light is of central importance in Arab culture, and as such particular attention was paid to harmonizing the different shades of gold and degrees of luster in the various materials, thus creating a congruent whole. The challenge here was that the various parts, with their different coatings and colors, have to withstand sun and salt water, in other words, maritime conditions. The steel supports were varnished in a special hue, the nodes powder-coated and the flowers anodized.
In the evenings the building is orchestrated in a special way – the individually controllable LED lamps integrated in the nodes galvanize the supporting structure. Patterns of light make their way across the façade and the pavilion suddenly resembles a swarm of butterflies coming together in ever-changing rhythms before drifting apart again.
| Type | Urban development |
| Service phases (HOAI) | LP 1 to LP 5 |
| Location | Khalid Lagoon, Sharjah City, U.A.E. |
| Year | 2015 |
| Status | Completed |
| GFA | 24.000 m² |
| Client | Andre Heller, Artevent GmbH, Austria |
| Contracting authority | Shurooq, Sharjah Invest & Development Authority, U.A.E |
| Pavilion construction | Waagner Biro Gulf L.L.C., Dubai, U.A.E. |
| Roof construction | seele middle east FZE, Dubai, U.A.E |
| Interior works | Candido Hermida, Spain |
| Media technology, lighting | HB-Laserkomponenten GmbH, Germany |
| Planting | Green Works, L.L.C., Dubai, U.A.E. |
| Photography | Torsten Seidel, Fernando Guerra, Sascha Jahnke, Stephan Lauhoff, Joaquín Busch, Björn Asmussen, Christian Bauer |
»Fascinating [...] Highly recommended to visit if you want to escape the busy city life. I recommend to anyone who wants to relax in the middle of nature!«
TRIP ADVISOR MEMBER RIYA C – January 23, 2023
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