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As the designer of the infamous Dubai ‘Death Star’, there are few people in the GCC that won’t have heard of Hong Kong architect James Law.
The spherical eco-project – which contained its own river, waterfall and rainforest – was an early casualty of the financial crisis, but a similar project in Mumbai has ensured that Law’s reputation generally precedes him.
“Some people call me the Asian Tony Stark,” said Law, with an ironic smile, sitting in the lobby of Dubai’s Al Qasr Hotel, stirring his jasmine tea. “I have a lab not too dissimilar to his,” he continued. “We’ve got engineers and scientists all putting cool stuff together. My dream is to have the world’s most advanced factory and help solve the world’s problems.”
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Just moments earlier Law had presented a demonstration of a new intelligent mirror that he has designed and built in his Hong Kong lab. The Al Qasr could be the first hotel in the world to pioneer the product, which helps its owners keep fit, surf the web and keep in touch with friends. It is bold, but it is just the beginning.
“We built the mirror from scratch; we even made our own glass,” Law explained. “But we have a whole mish-mash of things we are working on around the world. I’m working on a new type of tile which can generate energy for the building, as well as a new module that can be added to seating, which allows you to be linked to the internet and communicate with your friends.”
Critics may ask what an architect is doing inventing stuff, but the name of Law’s firm – James Law Cybertecture – goes some way to explain it. “The company is full of architects, engineers, industrial designers, researchers, all working together with no differentiation with who is an architect and who is an interior designer or whatever,” he said. “We call ourselves imagineers now. We call ourselves cybertects, because it’s not just about architecture, it’s much more.”
The concept behind Law’s work is as epochal as it is controversial. He believes that it is not just our buildings that have to change in the 21st century, it is our cities and our very way of life which need to be considered by architects and designers. Cities should no longer be thought of as satellites, sub-divided by districts and buildings, but as part of an intelligent network – from the mirror that watches your weight, to the building with its own eco-system.
“Contemporary cities are very outdated things,” Law explained. “They are made out of concrete, steel and glass. They have traffic jams, and they’re not energy efficient. They have a lot of social and political problems.
“We have these really incredibly huge challenges to face – climate change, natural disasters, growing population, lack of food supply – and we need to create something new for the world, something more efficient, something different.
“It is our responsibility, as the designers and engineers of the future, to really look at the whole thing in a different light and move forward.
“A city should not be built as it was before, it should be conceived much more like a piece of technology. Like a circuit board, every piece of circuit is symbiotically linked to everything else, and everything has to work together like a piece of nature.
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