Pad of the future
Inspired by the Apple iPod, The Pad is a prime example of the property industry’s advancement into a technology-driven era. Andre Cooray reports
The skylines of today are headed for a radical shake-up, and no city is pushing the envelope further in this direction than Dubai. Therefore it’s no surprise that this is where The Pad will be launched on completion next year. Residing here will literally be like living in a piece of (Apple) technology, and the tower will sit atop a specially designed docking station angled at 6° to ensure it truly looks the part.
The slim tower, with its sleek metallic surface, targets people whose lives revolve around technology, loyal Apple users and those who are technologically young at heart.
Owned by Dubai’s Omniyat Properties, and designed by Hong Kong’s James Law, The Pad will offer up more than 267 residential units spread over 23 floors. The apartments are described as intelligent, and with good reason. For starters digital messages can be broadcast at the entrance of each, and a resident’s customised iPod can be programmed to lock and unlock the front door. Inside, people can listen to their favourite tunes anywhere in the apartment from a central iPod dock. What’s more, artwork can be projected onto walls from a user’s online database.
Law is known for combining groundbreaking engineering with innovative technology and multimedia in projects such as The Egg in Mumbai. And true to form, each unit at The Pad will have a virtual reality wall linking it to any location around the world, in case residents get bored of the existing views of the Burj Dubai Tower and Dubai Creek. Other features, now synonymous with the architect, include bathroom monitors (mirrors that transform into screens) that will enable residents’ to check on their health. Also, there are interactive video devices that will allow occupants to chat with ‘life-size’ friends and family members projected onto the living room wall. Pad apartments will even boast revolving 360° living rooms.
“This is part of the ‘cybertecture robotics system’,” says Law, chairman and chief cybertect of James Law Cybertecture International Ltd. “Simply put, it is a platform that can be programmed to rotate into various positions and is designed to have semi-partitioned areas. This works particularly well with Middle Eastern users as their lifestyle demands male-female separation during a function. Also when it’s time for daily prayers, the platform orientates itself towards Mecca automatically.”
The Pad’s ultra-modern swimming pool cantilevers 15 meters off the building’s podium, and has iPod docking stations that pump music into the water. The spa area features digital-water environments, an oxygen bar (serving up fresh oxygen), and ‘napshells’ which are hi-tech lounge chairs enabling users to enclose themselves in a self-programmed virtual environment.
The cost of building The Pad is estimated at €600 million. There are one- and two-bedroom apartments available, as well as studios and lofts.
“I was always interested in encapsulating a lifestyle as a product and vise-versa. The end result to be achieved predominantly was to do with enriching and enhancing the physical limitations of the built environment, and this is done through technology,” says Law, who believes that there will be further evolutions in the integration of buildings with technology, once more ‘hybrid systems’ such as The Pad become available.
Apple has been wowing us for years with its creative and uber-cool designs, and The Pad is Law’s way of paying homage to one of its most popular innovations. One can only wait and see if the tower can stand the test of time, something most electronic gadgets (even Apple-made ones) fail to do. Perhaps in the future, buildings will have the power to upgrade themselves.
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