Urban Frame

© Vincent Appel

The metro rail viaduct is a relentless frame foregrounding the entire Eastern elevation along Sheikh Zayed road.

© Vincent Appel

Traveling down Sheikh Zayed road, the elevated rail is a subtly wavering datum line through which all the architecture East of the highway is cropped.

© Vincent Appel

Though the choice to elevate the line will produce a more dramatic experience for those traveling on the train, the space below the line has been left unresolved.

© Vincent Appel

While one of the most sophisticated fully automated metro rail designs in the world, the speed and haste of contruction has led to a series of compromises. Even though laborers work three shifts 24 hours a day, the entire contruction process itself could be greatly expedited were it not for simple logistical issues. Transporting workers to and from the labor camps to job sites remains incredibly difficult. The urgency to begin construction hastily rushed the construction of the 10 step by step launching overhead gantries used to extrude the metro rail and months were spent retrofitting the machines on site.

© Vincent Appel

As iconic as the metro rail will be, the orange and white buses which transport the construction workers to and from the labor camps are the most common form of mass transit at the moment in Dubai. The presence of these buses with barred windows will most likely remain even after the metro rail is completed, as the monthly fare is being priced to exclude the 1.2 million construction workers. A similar strategy was implemented on Sheikh Zayed road to relieve traffic by implementing an overtly high priced toll.


© Vincent Appel (unanticipated intersection of metro line and pedestrian bridge.)


© Vincent Appel