Design: Claudio Baldisserri, Lorenzo Sarti, Silvio D'Amore, Alessandro de Laurentiis, Ottavia Sarti.

 

The flower of the desert

The project aims at symbolic representation of a great imaginary desert flower.
To withstand the torrid climate and the very strong sun it behaves in a way contrary to other flowers.
In daytime the petals are closed and begin to open up at sunset, remaining open and luxuriant throughout the night. At dawn they close and remain closed until the following sunset.
This movement coincides with the light that it propagates.
At sunset a vertical light is channelled towards the head of the flower.

At night it becomes radial, illuminating everything that surrounds it, whereas at dawn, once more vertical, it gradually weakens and switches off.
It originates from an elliptically shaped concavity partially immersed in water and delimited by green slopes.
From far off this "flower" should appear to rise directly from the ground.
The overall height, however, from base to summit, will be one hundred and seventy metres as requested.
Walkways suspended on the water and the slopes lead to the entrance, to the vertical distribution point and to the underground car park for 30 vehicles.
By night the petals are illuminated by LED lamps and reflectors aimed upwards and outwards.

In conclusion: we wanted to present a simple image, highly symbolic of this great new city in the desert.
The functional content - though carefully designed - was certainly considered secondary to the fascination and novelty which this image aims to represent and celebrate.