A matter of light.

What firstly and most impresses about the Louvre Museum in Abu Dabhi, undoubtedly, is the gigantic shell that covers the whole space; the enormous carapace act as a parasol for the overall complex and creates a rain of light by letting it pass through its structure. Conceptually related in a way to the same idea of the former project, but architectonically resolved by distinct means and manners using a physical structural alternative.  

 

Jean Nouvel originates a projects that becomes the end of an urban promenade along the coast and into the sea, a haven of coolness and freshness, a warmly shelter of light during the extremely sunny days of the year. It is aesthetically designed in consistence with its role as a sanctuary for the most precious works of art. 

 

Although incorporated with a shift from tradition, the project is founded on a major symbol of the arabic architecture, the dome. However, because of its complex appearance and structure, this dome is here a modern proposal. Its design is obtained by a randomly perforated woven material that somehow resembles to the heterogenous arabic scripts, providing shades punctuated by burst of sun. The dome gleams during the day hours under the strong sun of Abu Dhabi as the zenith light impacts on it; at night, the protected landscape covered by it becomes an oasis of filtered luminosity.  

 

The shell is designed to be 180m in diameter with an horizontal, perfectly radiating geometry which lattice allows the pass of the sun and moon rays, the rain and the wind. As the CNN explains in a short documentary of the building recorded during its period of construction: “It is an extraordinary design because it has some 7800 pieces or so called stars to have that light effect and it will never be sealed, open here even, to contemporary art.”

 

By the use of this architectural element, Nouvel wishes to create a welcoming atmosphere of tranquility serenely combining light and shadow.