Shared Futures: The Sheikh Zayed Line and The Irrigated Desert
阿联酋的建筑时装美学
历史背景
阿拉伯联合酋长国与中国，长久以来丝路两端遥望。过去数十年前，两国经济与城市经翻天覆地发展，开始反思和变得成熟——重新审视根源，以此催化未来创作。转变反映出中国和阿联酋日益重视将有形与无形文化遗产，融入当代设计的论述。传统工艺与人工智能互动，刺绣加上演算法，古城空间逻辑启发数码制作和参数设计。由此诞生新的现代性——不是从外部输入，而是内部自发，全球视野与文化深度之间取得平衡。
文化交流
「共融之路」现代中阿文化交流精神，当代协合作如何将祖传技艺与物料，转化为未来创意的动态框架。加拿大迪拜大学建筑与室内设计学院(Canadian University Dubai's School of Architecture and Interior Design)与艺术家Charlie Koolhaas合作，示范跨文化对话，如何转化文化地理为感官体验。城市与自然环境在演变中，扮演了核心角色，代表了记忆、符号和生活实践，连接了生态与文化，设计既是一种演译，也是一度桥梁。
融合丝路元素系列
两款设计组合呈现,形成对立的对话:倒映与根源、天空与土壤、现代与坚持。谢赫扎耶德路的反射表面,呼应中国水墨画的宁静倒影;灌溉的几何精准,对应中式设计的严谨秩序。这种「实体刺绣」象征阿联酋人的智慧——作为游牧民族的后裔,学会在干旱景观中繁荣发展。本系列揭示了雄心勃勃的城市如何通过共同的想像、生存与设计行为相互联系,展现出现代创造力源于尊重文化根源,同时拥抱技术创新。
设计理念
《谢赫扎耶德路》与《灌溉的沙漠》，形成对立对话：倒映与根源、天空与土壤、现代与坚持。谢赫扎耶德路的反射表面，呼应中国水墨画的宁静；灌溉几何精准对应中式设计的严谨。建筑化为纺织品，地理化为图案，反映世界上最雄心勃勃的城市，可通过想像、生存与设计连结起来。
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
University: Canadian University Dubai, School of Architecture and Interior Design
Designers: Charlie Koolhaas, Artist
国家：阿联酋
设计师：Charlie Koolhaas艺术家
Historical Context
The United Arab Emirates and China represent two civilizations that have long looked toward each other across the trade routes of history. After decades of unprecedented economic and urban acceleration, both nations have entered a more introspective and mature phase — one that reconsiders origins as a catalyst for future creativity. This shift reflects the growing awareness in both China and the UAE of the importance of embedding tangible and intangible heritage within the contemporary design discourse. Traditional craftsmanship now dialogues with artificial intelligence, embroidery meets algorithm, and the spatial logics of ancient cities inform digital fabrication and parametric design. The result is a new kind of modernity — one that is not imposed but emerges from within, balancing global ambitions with cultural depth.
Cultural Exchange
The Belt & Road Fashion Gala captures the spirit of modern Sino-Emirati cultural exchange, demonstrating how contemporary collaboration can translate ancestral practices and materials into dynamic frameworks for future creativity. This partnership between the Canadian University Dubai's School of Architecture and Interior Design and artist Charlie Koolhaas exemplifies how cross-cultural dialogue transforms cultural geography into sensorial experience. Urban and natural contexts play a central role in this evolution, acting as repositories of memory, symbols, and lived practices, forming an ecological and cultural continuum where design operates as both translator and bridge.
The Fashion Collection: Architectural Memory and Landscape as Skin
The collaboration manifests through two complementary designs that embody the intersection of photography, architecture, and fashion. The Sheikh Zayed Line features an abaya printed with Al Attar Tower's photograph, capturing Dubai's architectural evolution where global modernism merges with regional form. The Irrigated Desert adopts the qipao form, printed with images of irrigated desert plants—geometric rows of green life sustained by drip-feed hoses. The silk satin fabric references China's ancient silk-making heritage, while photographic details of scorpions recall their role in Chinese medicine. Together, these designs translate the Silk Road's historical exchange of materials, knowledge, and aesthetics into contemporary wearable archives, transforming architecture into textile and geography into pattern.
Design Philosophy : Reflection and Root
Presented together, *The Sheikh Zayed Line* and *The Irrigated Desert* form a dialogue of opposites: reflection and root, sky and soil, modernity and endurance. The reflective surfaces of Sheikh Zayed Road resonate in the mirrored calm of Chinese ink landscapes; the geometric precision of irrigation parallels the disciplined order of Chinese design. Through this collaboration, architecture becomes textile and geography becomes pattern, revealing how the modern world's most ambitious cities remain bound by shared acts of imagination, survival, and design.