Description: In the book Al Wasl Plaza: Dubai Expo the architects, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture highlight the inspiration and innovation of the design of Al Wasl Plaza.
The book explores each aspect of the project including the garden, the trellis, three office buildings, and two hotel buildings, all of which serve to define the center of Expo 2020. The book is essentially divided into three phases of design. The first phase focuses on the inspiration and conception of the project. Architectural studies, sketches, and models show the process that led to the final iconic form. The second phase introduces each of the parcels including the garden, trellis, offices, hotels, the Leadership Pavilion, and the Arrivals Plaza. Each chapter illustrates the design process, architectural details, and the development of the technical systems. The third and final phase summarizes the construction process, sustainability achievements, and looks to the future to reveal the District 2020 legacy master plan concept by AS+GG.
Brief description: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) is dedicated to the design of high-performance, energy-efficient, and sustainable architecture on an international scale. The firm approaches each project, regardless of size or scale, with an understanding that architecture has a unique power to influence civic life. The firm strives to create designs that aid society, advance modern technology, sustain the environment, and inspire others to improve the world through a holistic, integrated design approach that emphasizes symbiotic relationship with the natural environment--a philosophy coined as "global environmental contextualism." This approach, which takes into consideration building orientation, daylighting, generation of wind power, solar absorption, and a site's geothermal properties, represents a fundamental change in the design process, in which form facilitates performance. It's predicated on the understanding that everything within the built and natural environment is connected, and that a building's design should stem from an understanding of its role within that context--locally, regionally, and globally. Such a pluralistic approach acknowledges the interaction among building systems as well as between those systems and the natural environment and seeks to improve each individual system's performance. AS+GG's practice includes designers with extensive experience in multiple disciplines, including technical architecture, interior design, urban planning, and sustainable design. Architects also have expertise in a range of building types, including supertall towers, large-scale mixed-use complexes, corporate offices, exhibition facilities, cultural facilities and museums, civic and public spaces, hotels and residential complexes, institutional projects, and high-tech laboratory facilities. The firm was founded in 2006 by partners Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill, and Robert Forest. Today there are 100 employees in offices in Chicago and Beijing.