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.
THE CONCEPT - A world first in Architecture
Picture by Pininfarina ©2016
Breaking the codes in architecture
The extreme simplicity of its shape gives an elegance never equaled this tower of 650 m.
A line of perfect proportions (Golden Ratio), repeated 7 times around a central axis to form 7 petals at its base. Each petal will host and represent a luxury sector.
The secret of this masterpiece of architecture lies in what it shelters in its atrium.
Business towers inside the tower, surrounded by a white marble village entirely dedicated to the world of luxury. A unique concept, never seen in architecture.
At the ceiling of the atrium (200 m) starts the tower. There will be offices, a 7-star hotel and infrastructure for radio and TV studios.
There will also be spaces dedicated to the promotion of art and culture, a conference center and a spa.
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The vortex, a real energetic force, symbolizes the energy of a whole continent to build together the world of tomorrow. A project that unifies the 54 African countries and puts more than one billion people in motion.
Where the design comes from ?
2015 -
During a conference about water (Paris-2015) I saw an impressive image of a Vortex, its energetic power and the perfection of its 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.
The Sheikh was terribly seduced by the concept and asked me to find the best Architectural firm for such project to materialize this beautiful idea into an iconic tower.
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. Pinifarina's Architect made from a nice concept a real piece of Art.
-Amédée Santalo-
2016 -
We are in 2016 when we started our roadshow in India first then East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania).
Today, Vortex Tower is a part of a huge development project, Al Noor City by MED LLC, Sheikh Tarek's vision for durable development. It is surrounded by 2’500 hectares of master plan, shaped like a flower, is on the way to be setup set up in Africa.
This iconic project will drive the eyes of the world on this beautiful continent, uniting the 54 countries and the 1.2 billion inhabitants around a long-term vision.
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2017 -
Concept & Design of the surrounding (Master Plan) by Amédée Santalo
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2018 -
Land investigation in East Africa
Incresing our team