Sorry, Dave

Dave Leaning (see below, Ex Marine), is only two weeks behind schedule, not two months.

Allez, allez, Dave – if I had a cow bell, it’d be jangling!!

Architectural oasis

On a recent trip to Abu Dhabi, taking a break from the air-conditioned malls and oven-like stamp-sized beaches, I visited the uninspiring monolithic mountain of marble that is the state-owned Emirates Palace Hotel.

A weirdly unspectacular place, clad in the requisite Gulf garb of gold leaf and crystal, the Palace is not too far in design from its neighbours, which happen to be real palaces. Domed and resplendent, the Palace looks bloated and heavy compared to more modern designs further down the (beautifully re-straightened…and re-re-straightened…) corniche.

The best part of the EPH is, however, done very well. It’s a temporary museum showcasing the development plans for the now world-famous construction site that will one day soon be Saadiyat Island. Billed as a ‘cultural capital’ of the Gulf, Saadiyat combines vast amounts of housing, office space and retail and leisure spaces with the eponymous jewels of the crown – a handful of theatres, museums, galleries and concert halls that rival the very best in the world.

A small corner of the hotel (about the size of St Pancras, then), is devoted to the Island and the architectural vision, ideas, boundaries and horizons that have been flipped, molded and entangled by the commissioned team of uber-architects. Reading like a who’s who of the uppermost echelons of architecture, the practices that are shaping this desert land are the world’s biggest, best, most daring and most sought-after. Not to mention most expensive. Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Tadao Ando – all masters of form and design. It is spectacular seeing how the desert seascape has been shaped and nurtured by each of these finial-dancing artists (who happen to be architects). Standing side-by-side, the Louvre, Guggenheim, Performing Arts Centre, Maritime Museum and Sheikh Zayed National Museum will form a seafront unlike any in the world.

White elephants or well-timed answers to a cultural vacuum, we shall see, but in the meantime they are guranteed to generate interest, not least because of the team behind the plans.

What really struck me, though, was the use of ecological imagery and natural design in the plans. Lush, verdant strands of imagination are mixed with images lifted from the comfortingly familiar pages of a well-thumbed GCSE biology textbook. Essentially informed by the building blocks of nature, the staggering complexity of the natural form is translated into futuristic visions of dwelling and social space, so that succulence is transplanted into an arid region.

Helices of plant structure blend with a filigree of cellular-looking latticed roofing and the ultra-modern liquid-mercury-in-a-wind-tunnell giant structure of Hadid’s PAC is reminiscent of both the Terminator and the brittle sponge of a bone – at once urban and organic. I know it’s a cliche, but the juxtaposition of the two seem to work strikingly well and is set off by the bland monotony of the backdrop – scrubby sun-scorched coastal desert.

This is yet another commercial project in a region where liquid gold has made a thousand Midases of a few Bedu. But putting my overpowering questions of sustainability aside, this is possibly the most exciting project the region has ever seen. The proof will be in the pudding, but it is safe to say the plans are more spectacular, more expressive and more imaginative than the building in which they are housed could ever be – many times over.

Ex Marine races against time on trek to ski the length of Norway

A former Royal Marine who planned to cross-country ski the length of Norway by April is two months behind schedule. The epic trek is taking Dave Leaning across over 2600km of tundra and ends at Europe’s most northerly tip, Nordkapp, 500km into the Arctic Circle.No stranger to extreme conditions, Dave, 28, has served on the front line in Afghanistan. Swapping sand for snow, the trek has been an enormous challenge.Severe storms, disorientating ‘whiteouts’ and injuries have added to the journey. Now Dave is up against a growing pressure – to chase the snow before the spring thaw.

Relying upon the kindness of strangers, the Reading resident has had to seek refuge and warmth from locals along the way, most of whom have never heard of anyone attempting a similar expedition. Their generosity, Dave says, has got him through some of the tougher times – and he’s only just half-way.

Having lost comrades to landmines, Dave is raising money for the Mines Advisory Group, an international mine clearance charity.

Read Dave’s diary, watch film clips and track his progress at http://www.skinorway.org.uk.

Post-haste

This is a story of a tortoise and a hare.There have never been more old people in the UK. The tell-tale vase-shaped population chart is widening at the top. Of all the population trends, including ever-present immigration concerns, surely the most pressing but woefully under-addressed is that of the booming golden generation. Set to continue, silver-surfers’ numbers are on the up: according to government statictics, there will be 10.5 million people over the age of 65 by 2011. That means that by 2017, for the first time ever, there will be more people over the age of 40 than under 40.

In the same breath (when indeed old age is mentioned in hushed whispers), we are consistently (and correctly) warned, educated and frightened into envrionmental compliance: reaction to the very real and uncompromising climate crisis. One of its more likely effects, as many an ecologist, historian and anthropologist will tell you, will be the down-scaling and reigning-in of our lifestyles.

To cut a long story short, the rise of the local is an inevitability. Concommitant with strong relationships and understandings at a global level, our local environs will be more fundamental to the sustainance of modern life than ever before.

So, if there are more old people than ever before and if old people use the post office more than any other group, yet there are less post offices than ever before in an era when we are being told to ditch our cars, walk more and shop locally… why are we shutting so many post offices?

Now is a time more than ever to strengthen their presence. Beacons of community, hope and trust, they must surely be one of life’s bricks that pensioners, many of whom live alone, can rely upon for social interaction in a non-intimidatory place where so much is catered for. They are small, easy to reach, hard-working and most importantly, local.

Technology – the hare in our tale – and centralisation, pooled efficiency, power through size and all of those other economic sensibilities may hold answers in the short-term, but are palliative at best. It is surely better to lick a stamp, say good morning to another human and receive a card in the mail than it is to be another number, an electronic account, alone.

Long may our local post offices, like our old friend the tortoise, slowly march on.