Dubai Frame Design's Ethics Flouted, Opening Date Delayed

Dubai's aspirations are lofty, and you can see them in the city of skyscrapers vying to compete with US cities. The latest to draw comments and controversies is the Dubai Frame in the city.

The Dubai Frame has got into controversies. The New York Times wrote recently about the project with reference to the city's "entrenched system." It pointed out that outsiders tended to be open to maltreatment - right from professionals making blueprints to laborers building up strong foundations. It is a system in which "kinship can outweigh contract terms".

The Dubai Frame design is based on the 2008-09 ThyssenKrupp competition-winning design, which was drawn up by architect Fernando Donis. It is 150 meters tall, a Dubai Frame structure in Za'abeel Park. This has lured a lot of opposition over years, mainly from Donis.

"It's shocking," Mr. Donis said. "The Frame is mine, and they don't want to grant that it is mine. The infringement doesn't just victimize me. They have taken something from all architects - the protection of our ideas."

Filing a lawsuit opposed to the Dubai Municipality for stealing the copyright to his design and also for breaching the international UNESCO-UIA rules from the competition, Donis said that finally, they took it, built it and will earn good profit from it. However, they have not paid Donis or his team for it, he told Archinect in 2015.

The Dubai Frame was supposed to open earlier, but the date got delayed back to late 2017. Is the delay because of the later replacement of the Frame's shiny gold claddings, which is slated to involved two or three months, according to the Dubai Municipality Director General Hussain Nasser Lootah.

"It's not only because of the new [UAE Fire and Life Safety Code 2017] regulations, but we also want to give the frame a new look," Lootah said. What that "new look" would translate into, is, of course, a totally new concept - that we can only wait to see.