In an Ambitious Arab Emirate, Where Plans Are Afoot to Design a Dazzling New Capital City from the Sand up, Wide Angle Ventures inside a Sheikh's Palace and a Norwegian Architects' Practice to Observe the Unfolding of an Unlikely East-West Collaboration

Business Wire, July 16, 2007

The Sand Castle Premieres Tuesday, July 24 At 9 P.M. As WIDE ANGLE Continues Its Sixth Season On PBS

NEW YORK -- His Highness Sheik Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi of Ras al-Khaimah has a grandiose dream - a brand new capital in the middle of his desert kingdom. Once an outpost for pirates and the pearl trade, the United Arab Emirates is reinventing itself on a global scale, and Ras al-Khaimah, the northern emirate, wants a piece of the future. Following in the footsteps of its sister-state Dubai, this sleepy oasis plans to build itself into significance by commissioning world-renowned architects to invent a city on the sand dunes. And the ambitious plan must be delivered on a tight budget - for Ras al-Khaimah has hardly any oil.

The process of designing a city that will bring a sheikh's dreams to life becomes an intriguing, often humorous encounter between East and West. WIDE ANGLE captures this surprising chapter of the global economy's unfolding story in The Sand Castle, premiering Tuesday, July 24 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).

The Sand Castle follows a roller-coaster ride as the Norwegian architectural firm Snohetta makes its bid to design the master plan for Ras al-Khaimah's new capital. At the firm's headquarters in Oslo, charismatic head architect Kjetil Thorsen dumps a bag of authentic Gulf sand on the conference table and his design team races the deadline to imagine a city of the future rising from the dunes.

Standing between the architects and a contract to design the city is Dr. Khater Massaad, special advisor to the sheikh, an astute businessman with strong ideas about the impression Ras al-Khaimah's capital must make. While Thorsen and his team labor frantically to create one plan after another to satisfy Massaad, they ultimately lose the contest to the celebrated Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

But Snohetta isn't out of the picture. Although Koolhaas's firm OMA has won the contract for the city's master plan, the Norwegian architects are invited to submit a proposal for the capital's signature building - a vast convention and exhibition center. If they win this, it will be the largest commission they have ever landed - having already designed the 21st century library in Alexandria, and the new Oslo Opera House.

As the team sets to work, their challenge is to meld their own ideas about design with the decidedly different vision of their exacting clients. From the drawing boards of Oslo to the depths of the royal headquarters and into the minds of the Emiratis themselves, The Sand Castle charts an unfolding drama in which agents of East and West struggle to arrive at an architectural vision both worlds can embrace - and one that will ultimately fulfill a sheikh's bold dreams.

The Sand Castle was produced by Finn McAlinden and Arne Dahr, and directed by Eirin Gjorv.

After the film, WIDE ANGLE anchor Daljit Dhaliwal will conduct an interview with Afshin Molavi, a fellow at the New America Foundation, to explore the United Arab Emirates' rise as a major center of the global economy and a safe haven in an insecure region.

For additional information and photography, visit thirteen.org/pressroom/wideangle or pbs.org/pressroom.

Major funding for WIDE ANGLE is provided by PBS, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Bernard and Irene Schwartz, Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation, The Jacob Burns Foundation, Ford Foundation, Josh and Judy Weston, Rosalind P. Walter, and The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.

WIDE ANGLE is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York for PBS. Stephen Segaller is executive producer. Pamela Hogan is series producer. Andy Halper is senior producer.