6 ms·

The Ain Dubai, the world’s largest broken Ferris wheel

39 points by Stratoscope 3y ago

Stratoscope 3y ago
https://wapo.st/3pEt4TA https://wapo.st/3pEt4TA (good for two weeks from now) https://archive.is/ouqaz https://archive.is/ouqaz
weekay 3y ago
Long story short it’s still a mystery why it’s broken and what caused it.
- nashashmi 3y ago
  Some say it is because of equipment failure, ground settlement, wind vibrations, and/or some combination of the three. But no one knows for sure.
  - mikequinlan 3y ago
    I suspect that somebody knows for sure, they just aren't announcing it to the press.
    - nashashmi 3y ago
      I suspect the problem could be multifaceted and they are continuing to explore the situation. And of course stamp out responsibility. Public relations and communication is not a concept in this part of the world. Which is why we won’t be learning anything until the problem is completely gone.
sandworm101 3y ago
I bet that is has very little to do with safety, or even economics. Middle east megaprojects serve royal purposes. They give jobs to the sons of elite families. (Yes, in this context I do mean only the male children.) It keeps them engaged as "developers" doing things like soliciting bids on giant buildings or launching media campaigns, which is much less of a threat than them stewing at home or in the desert thinking up ways to overthrow kings. But once a project is built and the ribbons cut, the cool-factor ebbs away pretty fast. Every rich guy wants to be the first to build or do something big on day one. Few hang around to run the theme park come days two through four hundred. So the big thing is built. Time to tear it down and start building the next project. The process is the purpose and the goal.
- a_shovel 3y ago
  The problem is that tearing it down would be a huge embarrassment to everyone involved, especially if it was closed due to safety. Leaving it SBNO indefinitely makes it an eyesore, but lets them avoid assigning blame like a demolition would force them to.
  - zucked 3y ago
    I don't quite understand, though - is there a certain length it needs to exist before it can be torn down without judgement? The article mentions the Dubai Pearl, which broke ground in the early oughts finally being demolished. Admittedly, I don't know as much about the individual emirates as I could, but Dubai seems like the most reckless of the bunch. The Palm, the (World) Islands, it seems like they're just throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks. I wouldn't touch anything there with a ten foot pole, investment-wise.
    - sandworm101 3y ago
      >> certain length it needs to exist before it can be torn down without judgement? It comes down for scrap the day after the last creditor gives up trying to get a return on their investment. So long as a foreign investor is holding onto their note, unwilling to sell for pennies on the dollar, the project will remain in perpetual limbo. But eventually all the property rights will be bought back by whatever prince started the cycle. Then it can be pulled down and a new eyesore commissioned.
- TheSpiceIsLife 3y ago
  Sounds unsurprisingly similar to the promotion incentives at a Alphabet.
- NickC25 3y ago
  Precisely. The whole point of these massive projects in Dubai, Qatar, Saudi, etc... is effectively make-work for those who might have the ability to one day overthrow the king....and to make it appear to the populace at large that yes, the ruling families are living super lavishly, but they are* trying to improve the country as a whole to attract FDI, international companies (and universities), etc.. all to improve the country's international image. *I mean that as loosely as possible. Most middle eastern kings don't give a damn about the general population as long as their power isn't threatened. Disclaimer: my dad was recruited by the Neom project in Saudi but turned it down. We have a family friend who was high up in the project and said it was effectively a massive pay day for consultants who did nothing besides wax the egos of Saudi princes who want to look good. The project is ambitious as hell and may or may not ever get finished. All that said, the Saudi princes who want to look good don't actually do anything. Much like how the military is staffed by sons of elite families, they aren't educated to actually do what is necessary, because they grew up with beyond-fuck-you-money and never actually had to do any work.
josefresco 3y ago
"“I think the sheikhs wouldn’t want to move it, so as not to lose face,” said Oleg, a Bluewaters resident. “It is after all, a landmark, so I imagine it will remain here.”" I don't' get this. Leaving it up as a monument to their engineering failure is better than taking it down and replacing it with something new?
- tomcam 3y ago
  Downvotes not necessary. This is a legitimate question. And the answer is, yes, leaving it up is better than taking it down. Not losing face publicly is their most primal urge. Americans are far more pragmatic and willing to admit a failure. This whole face-saving thing might as well be a culture from another planet if you were raised in America.
seydor 3y ago
Who cares. The whole of Dubai is a hodge-podge of "structures" to make the local rich people feel accomplished and tourists who view it as a giant mix of disneyland and vegas. I actually wonder how those beachgoers can stand the july temperatures, it must be 40-45C now? Once the novelty of supercar leases and fancy restaurants wears of, they are going to have to ramp up the prostitution to keep bringing in rich wannabes
- biggoodwolf 3y ago
  As opposed to where? At least they're trying, rest of the world has not build meaningfully either in quite a long time. Maybe only China
  - seydor 3y ago
    Nothing that is architecturally meaningful has been built in dubai. the heyday of architecture and capitalist megastructures is long gone, even though some interesting stuff is being built here and there, including china. Attention has shifted away from buildings and cities (i guess because people travel so much more) and into the virtual world.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 3y ago
    I was surprised how well it is working. It's probably a less than 6 hour flight for 2/3 or 3/4 of the world population.
  - vkou 3y ago
    > At least they're trying, rest of the world has not build meaningfully either in quite a long time. Some of the rest of the world builds meaningful societies/economies. Ones that won't explode into civil war the moment that the firehose of oil is tapped out. I understand that parts of the Middle East are trying to do that as well, but it's not clear what the effort results in.
  - malermeister 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_Baltica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_Baltica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen
scifi 3y ago
A colleague built a building in Abu Dhabi about five years ago. He is still trying get a street address assigned to the building. Navigation instead works based on landmarks. So is someone asks the address you say the 'white building behind the BMW dealership'. I have a feeling that's why no one wants to teardown landmarks.
13of40 3y ago
> more steel than the Eiffel Tower I hate to nitpick, but the Eiffel Tower is made of iron, not steel. Doubtless, some of the remodels have probably introduced steel, but not in the main structural part.
- vlabakje90 3y ago
  If we're nitpicking, that fact doesn't make the first statement untrue.
- pyinstallwoes 3y ago
  Anything that is interesting about that in significance perhaps?
louwrentius 3y ago
There is one interesting detail: “ Germany’s Technical Inspection Association, or TUV, confirmed that it was involved in the Ain’s construction but had withdrawn its certification for the structure. The group, which tests and provides independent safety certifications for a variety of technical systems, gave no further comment, saying it was bound by a nondisclosure agreement. ”
- Animats 3y ago
  That really says it. No public info about what the problem is, though. Here's the designer's LinkedIn.[1] [1] https://ae.linkedin.com/in/darren-brooke-88299130 https://ae.linkedin.com/in/darren-brooke-88299130
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jbverschoor 3y ago
Interesting timing for me. I just read about Malaya buildings 3 and 4, which have been declared unsafe, and everybody got a 30 day notice bc the only option is to demolish

39 points by Stratoscope 3y ago

https://wapo.st/3pEt4TA https://wapo.st/3pEt4TA (good for two weeks from now) https://archive.is/ouqaz https://archive.is/ouqaz

weekay 3y ago

Long story short it’s still a mystery why it’s broken and what caused it.

nashashmi 3y ago
Some say it is because of equipment failure, ground settlement, wind vibrations, and/or some combination of the three. But no one knows for sure.
- mikequinlan 3y ago
  I suspect that somebody knows for sure, they just aren't announcing it to the press.
  - nashashmi 3y ago
    I suspect the problem could be multifaceted and they are continuing to explore the situation. And of course stamp out responsibility. Public relations and communication is not a concept in this part of the world. Which is why we won’t be learning anything until the problem is completely gone.

sandworm101 3y ago

I bet that is has very little to do with safety, or even economics. Middle east megaprojects serve royal purposes. They give jobs to the sons of elite families. (Yes, in this context I do mean only the male children.) It keeps them engaged as "developers" doing things like soliciting bids on giant buildings or launching media campaigns, which is much less of a threat than them stewing at home or in the desert thinking up ways to overthrow kings. But once a project is built and the ribbons cut, the cool-factor ebbs away pretty fast. Every rich guy wants to be the first to build or do something big on day one. Few hang around to run the theme park come days two through four hundred. So the big thing is built. Time to tear it down and start building the next project. The process is the purpose and the goal.

a_shovel 3y ago
The problem is that tearing it down would be a huge embarrassment to everyone involved, especially if it was closed due to safety. Leaving it SBNO indefinitely makes it an eyesore, but lets them avoid assigning blame like a demolition would force them to.
- zucked 3y ago
  I don't quite understand, though - is there a certain length it needs to exist before it can be torn down without judgement? The article mentions the Dubai Pearl, which broke ground in the early oughts finally being demolished. Admittedly, I don't know as much about the individual emirates as I could, but Dubai seems like the most reckless of the bunch. The Palm, the (World) Islands, it seems like they're just throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks. I wouldn't touch anything there with a ten foot pole, investment-wise.
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    >> certain length it needs to exist before it can be torn down without judgement? It comes down for scrap the day after the last creditor gives up trying to get a return on their investment. So long as a foreign investor is holding onto their note, unwilling to sell for pennies on the dollar, the project will remain in perpetual limbo. But eventually all the property rights will be bought back by whatever prince started the cycle. Then it can be pulled down and a new eyesore commissioned.
TheSpiceIsLife 3y ago
Sounds unsurprisingly similar to the promotion incentives at a Alphabet.
NickC25 3y ago
Precisely. The whole point of these massive projects in Dubai, Qatar, Saudi, etc... is effectively make-work for those who might have the ability to one day overthrow the king....and to make it appear to the populace at large that yes, the ruling families are living super lavishly, but they are* trying to improve the country as a whole to attract FDI, international companies (and universities), etc.. all to improve the country's international image. *I mean that as loosely as possible. Most middle eastern kings don't give a damn about the general population as long as their power isn't threatened. Disclaimer: my dad was recruited by the Neom project in Saudi but turned it down. We have a family friend who was high up in the project and said it was effectively a massive pay day for consultants who did nothing besides wax the egos of Saudi princes who want to look good. The project is ambitious as hell and may or may not ever get finished. All that said, the Saudi princes who want to look good don't actually do anything. Much like how the military is staffed by sons of elite families, they aren't educated to actually do what is necessary, because they grew up with beyond-fuck-you-money and never actually had to do any work.

josefresco 3y ago

"“I think the sheikhs wouldn’t want to move it, so as not to lose face,” said Oleg, a Bluewaters resident. “It is after all, a landmark, so I imagine it will remain here.”" I don't' get this. Leaving it up as a monument to their engineering failure is better than taking it down and replacing it with something new?

tomcam 3y ago
Downvotes not necessary. This is a legitimate question. And the answer is, yes, leaving it up is better than taking it down. Not losing face publicly is their most primal urge. Americans are far more pragmatic and willing to admit a failure. This whole face-saving thing might as well be a culture from another planet if you were raised in America.

seydor 3y ago

Who cares. The whole of Dubai is a hodge-podge of "structures" to make the local rich people feel accomplished and tourists who view it as a giant mix of disneyland and vegas. I actually wonder how those beachgoers can stand the july temperatures, it must be 40-45C now? Once the novelty of supercar leases and fancy restaurants wears of, they are going to have to ramp up the prostitution to keep bringing in rich wannabes

biggoodwolf 3y ago
As opposed to where? At least they're trying, rest of the world has not build meaningfully either in quite a long time. Maybe only China
- seydor 3y ago
  Nothing that is architecturally meaningful has been built in dubai. the heyday of architecture and capitalist megastructures is long gone, even though some interesting stuff is being built here and there, including china. Attention has shifted away from buildings and cities (i guess because people travel so much more) and into the virtual world.
- B1FF_PSUVM 3y ago
  I was surprised how well it is working. It's probably a less than 6 hour flight for 2/3 or 3/4 of the world population.
- vkou 3y ago
  > At least they're trying, rest of the world has not build meaningfully either in quite a long time. Some of the rest of the world builds meaningful societies/economies. Ones that won't explode into civil war the moment that the firehose of oil is tapped out. I understand that parts of the Middle East are trying to do that as well, but it's not clear what the effort results in.
- malermeister 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_Baltica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_Baltica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen

scifi 3y ago

A colleague built a building in Abu Dhabi about five years ago. He is still trying get a street address assigned to the building. Navigation instead works based on landmarks. So is someone asks the address you say the 'white building behind the BMW dealership'. I have a feeling that's why no one wants to teardown landmarks.

13of40 3y ago

> more steel than the Eiffel Tower I hate to nitpick, but the Eiffel Tower is made of iron, not steel. Doubtless, some of the remodels have probably introduced steel, but not in the main structural part.

vlabakje90 3y ago
If we're nitpicking, that fact doesn't make the first statement untrue.
pyinstallwoes 3y ago
Anything that is interesting about that in significance perhaps?

louwrentius 3y ago

There is one interesting detail: “ Germany’s Technical Inspection Association, or TUV, confirmed that it was involved in the Ain’s construction but had withdrawn its certification for the structure. The group, which tests and provides independent safety certifications for a variety of technical systems, gave no further comment, saying it was bound by a nondisclosure agreement. ”

Animats 3y ago
That really says it. No public info about what the problem is, though. Here's the designer's LinkedIn.[1] [1] https://ae.linkedin.com/in/darren-brooke-88299130 https://ae.linkedin.com/in/darren-brooke-88299130

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

jbverschoor 3y ago

Interesting timing for me. I just read about Malaya buildings 3 and 4, which have been declared unsafe, and everybody got a 30 day notice bc the only option is to demolish