TRUNK TOWERS

DONALD TRUMP’S LATEST PROJECT IS PALM JUMEIRAH‘S NEWEST ICON

TALL ORDERWind engineers add safety and comfort to supertalls

GOING FOR GOLDBeijing’s new buildings for the 2008 Olympic Games

and images © John Robertson ArchitectsAll sketches

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Architecture has always been my great passion in life. It’s as

much a hobby as it is a business, so it’s really no hardship to work

long hours and devote your life to it. From an early age I enjoyed

drawing buildings and working with Lego and things like that. It

sounds strange but it‘s always been what I wanted to do with my

life. I suppose the more I’ve gotten into it, the more I’ve enjoyed

it and the more I see and study buildings, I feel my own work

improves and matures.

I was 36 and I decided that if I didn’t start at that age, I prob-

ably would never do it, and I also felt I had suffi cient clients and

supporters who would back my own practice. I joined with John

Hurley [in 1993]—we were called Hurley Robertson Associates.

John sadly passed away [in 2004] so I continued under my own

name. Today we’re about 55 people, and we’ve got our main offi ce

in central London. The majority of our work is in central London

although we’re just opening an offi ce in Abu Dhabi, and we have a

representative in Dubai.

We’re working in India for a developer called ANC Infra-

structure and Developments. They’re an Indian developer who

JOHN ROBERTSON, CEO AND DIRECTOR OF JOHN ROBERTSON ARCHITECTS, ON CONTEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE AND THE

UNIQUE APPEAL OF ABU DHABI

1/ THE ATRIUM AT 10 QUEEN STREET PLACE2/ JOHN ROBERTSON

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has done a lot of work in Dubai and we’re

working in Chandigarh, Delhi, and looking

at something for another owner-occupier

in Kolkata. In truth we’re more in India

than in the Middle East right now.

Our work will grow in the Middle East.

The diffi culty we’ve had is that developers

are not particularly interested in commis-

sioning a London-based architect until we

have our offi ces open.

About a year and a half ago. It was

really a reconnaissance trip for us to gain

a little bit of exposure to the Middle East

market and so we could understand what

was involved. It’s looking very positive.

You hear different things about the

Middle East market. It is competitive, and

we are interested in that side of it. We’re

not afraid of that.

There’s obviously a lot of work on and

we want to position ourselves in the same

way as we have in London, as being a niche

practice that produces very high quality

work and takes on projects we think we

can deliver extremely well.

That’s been the success of our work

in London and Europe. We don’t go for

volume, we go for individual projects for

corporate and developer clients who relate

to our work and understand our work. That’s

what I’m keen to try and promote in the

Middle East.

What I’m interested in doing is trying

to produce architecture that really relates

to context and most importantly, has some

sort of reference to the Arab world.

We’re not just producing what I call

imported Western architecture. It’s got to be

that subtle blend of work which we can bring

to the market. That seems to be getting a

good welcome. We’ve been invited by quite a

3/ ENTRANCE HALL AT THE DAILY EXPRESS4/ THE ATRIUM AT 16–18 FINSBURY CIRCUS5/ MASTERPLAN FROM CHANDIGARH

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I’M INTERESTED IN PRODUCING ARCHITECTURE THAT HAS SOME SORT OF REFERENCE TO THE ARAB WORLD.

JOHN ROBERTSON, JOHN ROBERTSON ARCHITECTS

number of clients to submit RFPs and we’re

getting a lot of interest from some of the

major developers in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for

our delivery service. These are the reasons for

wanting to get involved in the Middle East.

The other area we specialise in is pro-

ducing energy-effi cient offi ce buildings.

If it’s a speculative offi ce block, we’d put

more effort into how its space is planned,

how the core works, how the building grid

works, whether the fl oor plate is effi cient,

rather than whether it’s an iconic symbol.

I call it an empiric approach—it’s a

scientifi c base to the way buildings are

planned. We put a lot of effort into making

the fl oorplans effi cient, making sure the

column grids are orthogonal and we try to

design the building from the inside out,

rather than the outside in.

We’re intending to open in Abu Dhabi

and make Abu Dhabi our base. We have

quite a lot of interest from developers in

Dubai and had indifferent success about

winning some of the bids and getting a

presence. I feel more confi dent that for the

next generation of the work in the Middle

East, Abu Dhabi, rather than Dubai, will

be a centre that’s more in sympathy for the

work we want to do.

Everyone says they want iconic build-

ings, but the whole of Dubai, for example,

is full of iconic buildings. The result is that

they’ve created an architectural landscape

of no context.

Abu Dhabi is more contextual. If you look

at the buildings built in the 1970s oil boom,

they’ve built the city within an American-

style grid system so the traffi c seems to move

more freely, the boulevards are wider, the

cornice is attractive.

Abu Dhabi has learnt some lessons from

Dubai and has laid out a more coherent

masterplan wherein architects can work in

defi ned plots and produce buildings that

relate to the city in its context. Ultimately,

that makes it more of a coherent city to live

and work in, rather than Dubai, which is

very fragmented.

I feel that [Dubai] lacks an overall coher-

ent masterplan as to what the city is to be

about in 20 or 30 years time.

What interests me about the Middle

East is the challenge of ‘condensing’. Euro-

pean cities have developed over thousands

of years. Cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi

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WE’RE NOT AGAINST ICONS BY ANY MEANS. BUT WE DON’T THINK EVERY BUILDING NEEDS TO BE ICONIC.

JOHN ROBERTSON, JOHN ROBERTSON ARCHITECTS

are evolving over 20 or 30 years and

we’re interested in seeing how we can

help contribute to producing a contex-

tual masterplan both at the macro scale

for the city but also at the micro scale for

our buildings.

It’s the creation of context that inter-

ests me. It’s not just about producing

tall buildings or iconic buildings, it’s

about the spaces between buildings, the

landscaping—what I call the ‘sticky people

places’, where people meet.

These are the issues that are important

ones for architects to try and grapple

with. It will take time for these issues to

fully evolve.

We’re not against icons by any means,

there’s a place for icons in a city. But we

don’t think every building needs to be iconic.

If you look at European cities, their success

is that they have a lot of good ‘background’

buildings, both historical and modern.

It’s the relationship of these buildings to

one another and the landscaping, and to

what I call the ‘people places’, that makes

the cities liveable and enjoyable places to

be. Of course, if you add in some fantastic

iconic buildings, then you have centres of

attraction and architectural inspiration

that makes the city the rich city that it is.

If you go to Florence or Venice you have

some great Palladio churches in among

some very low-rise buildings. It’s that

blend that I think is something that needs

cultivating in the Middle East. I think the

preservation of any of the historic buildings

like at Bastakiya and trying to relate build-

ings of size and scale to their surroundings is

important.

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10 QUEEN STREET PLACE,LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

John Robertson Architects (JRA) is an award-winning firm ofBritish Architects that specialises in undertaking major officeand residential buildings for corporate and developer clients.

JRA is expanding its architectural operations in the UnitedArab Emirates and is opening an office in Abu Dhabi toservice current projects in the region. The practice is bringingits experience of delivering major projects and its commitmentto a high-quality service to the UAE and is offering its servicesthroughout the Gulf region.

JRA’s portfolio of projects now covers city and urbanplanning and highly complex projects including headquartersoffice buildings, waterfront developments and major mixed-useschemes. The firm is working on a major new sustainableoffice and residential development in the South Harbour inCopenhagen for Danish developer Nordkranen and on a120,000 sqm business centre in Chandigarh India for ANCAN Infrastructure Developers. Further projects are underwayin India and Pakistan.

Within Central London alone the firm has completedabout 150,000 sqm of office space for developers, fundsand corporate end users. In addition to its work on majoroffice schemes the practice has completed more than1,250 homes in London in last fifteen years.

JRA offers a fast, reliable and professional service to ourclients that adds significant value to their property assetsand investments.

If you would like further information please contact:

John Robertson RIBA111 Southwark StreetLondon SE1 0JFUnited Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 7633 5100Mbl tel: +44 (0) 7785 997045e-mail: john.robertson@jra.co.uk

Max Skjöldebrand RIBALevel 41 Emirates TowerPO Box 31303DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesTel: +971 (0) 4 319 7835Mbl tel: +971 (0) 50 528 9146e-mail: max.skjoldebrand@jra.co.uk

www.jra.co.uk

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