The Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral 1854 by Wilhelm Heine

More recently, Macau’s other houses of worship have undergone their own transformation creating a new explosion of coloured lights across the night sky. Huge casino franchises from Las Vegas and Australia have built enormous gambling palaces which since 2007, have raked in more revenue annually than the entire Las Vegas Strip.

Literally standing out from the crowd, not only because it doesn’t have a casino, is the newly opened Mandarin Oriental Macau, part of the One Central mixed use development designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

With subtly angled bay windows scattered across the facade, the passing clouds emulate the broken reflections dancing on the rippled  lake, set in motion by the wakes of a dozen distant dragon boats warming up for the afternoon’s tournament.

Usually wishing for less clouds in the Asian skies, I found myself that evening in the the perplexing position of wanting just a few more to bring a certain spontaneity to the unfolding scene. Evidently, the local deities were all too busy with requests for guidance from the blackjack tables to intervene on my behalf. The wind dropped, the surface of the lake turned to glass and well, I guess I can live with that….

For the past several years, the morning rush hour traffic in Dubai has consisted mainly of the ubiquitous white buses used to transport the army foreign workers from their modest camps out onto the city’s building sites.

Though obviously slowed a little by the stalling of new developments, there are still a huge number of sites running at full speed. Even after officially opening in January, the Burj Khalifa is still inhaling thousands of workers every morning via an ant’s trail of blue, beige and yellow overalls, snaking out of the carpark entrance and across several intersections to the drop off point a few blocks away. By 7.00am, all the hired help is inside at work, the traffic changes to upscale sedans and shiny 4WD’s, all carrying the suits and ties of corporate Dubai.

Ready for Your Close Up, Your Highness..

Further away from the tower, the silky reflections help define the shaping of the stacked forms. adding to the overall feeling of verticality.

It is only when you get close up to the base of the tower that you can really appreciate the complexity and richness of detail in the facade. The individual reflections off the stainless steel elements and their reflection in the glazing, all contributing to an almost liquid appearance as the sun clips the horizon.

Just finishing up around the base of the tower are the 11 story office building to the west and residential clubhouse to the east. These smaller buildings, shaped to fit within the swirling geometry of the site plan, are enlivened by the addition of delicate sunscreens.

Excellence in Architecture

Merit   UC Merced Science + Engineering Building   EHDD

Merit   Poly International Plaza, Guangzhou     SOM

Merit   2010 Post Street     Kennerley Architects

Citation   Tea Houses    Swatt I Miers

Citation   Mission Bay Block 27 Parking Structure    WRNS Studio

Historic Rehabilitation

Merit    Piers 1,3 and 5    Tom Eliot Fisch

Interior Architecture

Merit    Honighaus   Ogrydziak/Prillinger

“Erm… is that a question” I replied, puzzled by the idea that anyone would prefer the lower option.

After all, I’d chosen this particular hotel in Hong Kong for the sole reason that it offered a rather splendid view down the fragrant harbour towards two of my favourite charges. The International Finance Centre by Pelli Clarke Pelli in Central and across in Kowloon, Kohn Pedersen Fox’s International Commerce Centre.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t quite what I had hoped but rather mundanely, more what I had expected. Still, a little ray of sunshine managed to creep down along the waterfront, shifting the tones in my favour on an otherwise gloomy outlook.