The Dune Bashing Arena outside Dubai is a half-buried remainder from another epoch, like an elephant tusk sticking out of hot sand, whitewashed by blistering sun. As if it were a second act, a modern interpretation of a Bedouin canopy protects the building like a carapace. One is always an archaeologist approaching a dig when walking up to the building.
But this is fundamentally an earthwork taken over by loosely guided, undogmatic action. Appropriated rather than carefully programmed to function as something.
The core intention of the design, however, fully condenses in the building’s roof: a huge public square, deliberately redundant in the empty desert, like a pun on space. It’s a huge and fully carpeted inclined plane that offers the best views of the dunes and the Dubai skyline that lies miles away. Especially at night. Whatever activities it may set in motion, they are equally unscripted. Equally public – and true public means unscripted, unpredictable and free.
