Sheikh Tarek is truly a visionary in development, a pioneer in Smart Cities concept and design. He created Al Noor City more than 20 years ago which was the inspiration behind most of the actual Smart Cities development worldwide.
Sheikh Tarek is from a great Family who has contributed a great deal in the developments in Saudi Arabia, and various places including Dubai.
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Today, Sheikh Tarek beleives in the future of Africa, he consider that continent as a fantastic land of opportunities.
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Al Noor City is his vision for modern way of life, close to human and respecting nature's laws. Al Noor City will bring Africa in the 21th century with the right direction.
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Vortex Tower is the starting point of Al Noor City program.
VORTEX TOWER TEAM
OWNER
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When ever I am thinking of a project, I want to be sure it will play a major role in the economy of the place where it will land.
It has to be Iconic, a certain size and reflecting today's humans and market needs in order to success.
A tower is always a starting point of something else, a bigger vision that will change the perception of the country, bring prosperity and employment.
As a developer, I concentrate more on the long term vision than just building an other nice tower.
Africa is moving fast, it is already the land of unlimited opportunities for developers, investors and entrepreneurs.
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The Vortex Tower, part of my Al Noor City program, is definitely the right vehicule to carry our vision. Development is not limited to one project, when we start we never stop. Our mission is to bring added value to that beautiful place respecting human and nature's law.
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H.E. Sheikh Tarek M. Binladen
Chairman - Owner
MED LL Dubai
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More about Sheikh Tarek : www.tarekbenladen.com
H.E. Sheikh Tarek M. Binladen
PROJECT MANAGER (Concept & Design)
Amédée Santalo is concept designer, the originator of the project and the project Manager.
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During a conference about water (Paris-2015) I saw an impressive image of a Vortex, its energetic power and the perfection of its shape and proportions. The image of a huge tower immediately came to my mind. To make a tower symbolizing the energy of a whole continent, people that would be caught by this vortex to meet in the African city of the future inspired me a lot.
Without hesitation I went to Pininfarina’s headquarter in Torino (Italy) to present a 3D model of the vortex. The concept held the attention of Pininfarina’s team, a company that sits at the top of the of Design and Architecture’s world, the beginning of the adventure starts at this moment. We are in 2016 when we started our roadshow in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania).
Today, African Vortex Tower is a part of a huge development project, Al Noor City (by MED LLC). It is surrounded by 2’500 hectares of master plan, is on the way to be setup set up in Africa.
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More about Amédée Santalo: www.amedeesantalo.net/about
Amédée Santalo
THE ARCHITECT
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PININFARINA : Design & Architecture
1930 - The foundation
On May 22nd Battista “Pinin” Farina founded Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in Turin. The company was designed to build special car bodies for individual customers or in small production runs. The Corso Trapani plant had 150 employees on a covered area of 9250 square meters. In June, the following news appeared on an automobile periodical: “And now the popular nickname “Pinin” used by the whole of the Turin motoring world when talking about Battista Farina, was officially about to become used throughout the country, as a result of the recent Company changes which led to the founding of S.A. Carrozzeria Pinin Farina“. At the Paris Motor Show Pinin Farina exhibited Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Isotta-Fraschini and Fiat cars. The Lancia Dilambda, the first official Pinin Farina special, appeared at the 1931 Concours d’Elegance at Villa d’Este. His first accomplishments in the 1930’s included the Hispano Suiza Coupé and the Fiat 518 Ardita.
In the Thirties the car was a good that was reserved for a minor élite, almost a plaything for a narrow circle of bold, blasé youngsters. Yet Pinin felt sure that these unlikely, noisy jalopies, which also happened to be expensive, would change quickly to become outstanding and entirely respectable tools of individual mobility. One of the early ads says: “Luxury and grand luxury cars”. Cars were destined to ruling houses, diplomats, maharajahs and even some Middle East sheiks who were beginning to collect some of the first oil royalties, for actors and actresses, more foreigners than Italians. Pinin wrote: “In September I sold a Dilambda spider cabriolet to the Queen of Romania, I began to have some of the nobility amongst my customers”.
Pinin immediately embraced the cause of modernity and aerodynamics. In his view, it was the most natural way (in so far as it was the most respondent to the “nature” of the object) of solving the problem of the autonomous and original formal identity of cars. Aerodynamics, he was to write in his memoirs, was the “form of speed”. At the 1935 Milan Motor Show Pinin exhibited the Alfa Romeo 6C Pescara Coupé aerodinamico. One year later, the Lancia Astura Cabriolet tipo Bocca: elegance and craftsmanship for a small series of streamlined, richly finished cabriolets which introduced the unprecedented notion of the legitimacy of making a certain number of replicas of a custom-built model. Then the Lancia Aprilia Aerodinamica was built, a revolutionary berlinetta where an astonishing Cx of 0.40 was intuitively and empirically achieved. Aerodynamics was no longer a symbolic element, a metaphor of speed; it had now become a real standard of efficiency.
Pininfarina - Architecture
