dezeen had it a week ago, and I thought it gets a bit boring to post OMA stuff all the time. But somehow nobody jumped on it and I think this 2006 (?) project is really worth mentioning.
No doubt, its great they are using the possibilities in all those arab countries to realize the wet dreams of the 70s. But somehow one would expect something new.

On the other hand, maybe this does mean, that OMA is really getting rid of that avantgarde-trauma to produce something new ALL THE TIME. I actually find it comforting to see that we might surpass this obsession and finally move beyond the anyway strange contemporary concept of avantgarde (sorry for misinterpetation, Miguel!). More towards a refined architecture, even a paradigm, a settled style that would allow to develop something refined, learn from projects instead of starting over and over again. An architectural canon! ;-)
Well, maybe just a (strange) dream. probably this would be horribly boring… But how much great architecture is produced anyway? We could have hobbies, earn some money, go on holiday…
It also reminds me of an article in the DesignObserver on CCTV, that toms pointed at in an earlier post.

‘In the end, all the political discourse and self-serving manifestos mean little. We are left to judge this building as a piece of architecture built in 2007, in a climate of growing awareness of sustainability. Building a project of this scale with so much extra steel to support an aesthetic expression seems like a missed opportunity, if not something completely bordering on civic negligence, especially in China, one of the countries which necessarily must embrace sustainability soon. Imagine if Koolhaas had used this opportunity to build the lightest, most green building in the world? Imagine if he had marshalled all of his rhetorical verve and diplomatic savvy to argue for the critical importance of such architecture? Instead of responding to fortune cookies, Rem Koolhaas could have changed the world.’

more pics on
OMAweb
and the press release on:
dezeen 1/2 and dezeen 2/2.