Archinect had the opportunity to speak directly with designer Fernando Donis about how he ultimately didn't get paid for his work due to a fraught contract signing process, his open letter to Dubai Municipality, and his advice to architects thinking about entering future open design competitions. 

Archinect: What happened exactly with the contract signing process?

Fernando Donis: Initially we received a written promise that we would develop the project with appointed consultants and local architect. They were pleased by our resume as I had finished eight years collaborating at OMA with the last years specifically leading Middle East projects.

However we received either vague or unfair draft contracts. If we wanted to discuss our involvement we would receive another confusing contract. I attach the latest version of their draft contract. As you can see from Clause Six, they asked us to relinquish any rights to the project. If we signed we would lose any involvement or ability to be part of the process. Also, they would not allow us to publish the project or say it was our design in any form - Clause Five. Moreover, Clause Three shows the very limited involvement we could have had. And Clause Nine is almost like not having a collaborative contract. 

They infringed on the UNESCO copyright for the first time in history. As you know these competition regulations have protected the intellectual copyright of architects and many important competition projects. Our competition would be the first time any party infringes on these respected regulations.

By not signing the contract we thought we could either negotiate a proper involvement or they would not use our project. At the end they took it, built it and will profit from it, without having involved us nor paid us.

A: What has the response been, if any, to your open letter?

FD: We drafted an open letter to the Sheikh in the hopes of raising awareness about the situation and eliciting a more collaborative response from the client. In the end the National Newspaper published a story about the situation and we again hoped this might raise awareness and higher authorities would react more positively. That was not case. The UIA-UNESCO also tried through a letter to Dubai Municipality, as did the government of the Netherlands. Still we had no response.