Name game for new London buildings is not always a sign of towering wit

Hussain Sajwani, Damac’s founder and chairman, said the very British trend of giving buildings quirky nicknames can create confusion in the market. Stephen Lock for the National

From the Gherkin to the Cheese Grater and Walkie-Talkie, some of London’s most famous skyscrapers have equally well-known nicknames.

And the latest planned addition to the UK capital’s skyline already has a merry moniker – much to the displeasure of the Dubai-listed developer behind it.

Last month, the property firm Damac launched Aykon Nine Elms, which will mark its first development outside of the Middle East. You can call it a lot of things: Tall – due to the planned 50 storeys; glamorous – thanks to its Versace interiors; even expensive, given the smallest apartments launched at Dh4 million.

Just don’t call it by its nickname, Jenga Tower, Damac executives urge.

Hussain Sajwani, the property firm’s founder and chairman, said the very British trend of giving buildings quirky nicknames can create confusion in the market. “The best name was the one my mother gave me,” he said.

Aykon Nine Elms, which is due for completion in 2020, was dubbed Jenga Tower by the UK press before the site being acquired by a company controlled by Mr Sajwani. The alias refers to the tower’s overhanging blocks, which resemble the wooden bricks in the popular game.

"In Jenga, you pull one and it falls down. We don't like that," Niall McLoughlin, Damac's senior vice-president, told The National at the launch of the building.

Mr McLoughlin acknowledged there could be advantages to building nicknames if they are indicative of the public’s strong affinity with a building, but he said the Jenga Tower sobriquet “dilutes” Damac’s marketing message.

Some branding and architecture experts, however, say building nicknames – a trend that has never taken off in the UAE, despite its myriad towers – are a great, free way to promote a building.

“It’s branding ‘by the people’ rather than ‘from the developer’ – and that’s priceless,” said John Brash, the founder and chief executive of Brash Brands, which has an office in Dubai.

Mr Brash’s branding agency is working on three building-naming projects around the world – and the potential for nicknames is something it factors in as part of that process, he said.

Quirky nicknames in London and other UK cities are typical of the British love of “slightly irreverent humour”, Mr Brash said.

“Why doesn’t it happen in the UAE? Maybe because that particular brand of humour is less common here, and because we’re more comfortable with using the names our buildings are given,” he said.

“The Burj Al Arab will always be the Burj Al Arab to us, whereas if it was in London it might end up being known as ‘the big sail’.”

Kevin Mitchell, interim provost at the American University of Sharjah, said building nicknames commonly arise from one of two things – public affection, or contempt.

“The degree of affection or contempt is often revealed by how long the name lasts in the collective memory,” said Mr Mitchell, who also teaches in the university’s College of Architecture, Art and Design.

Mr Mitchell pointed to two nicknames he was particularly fond of in the UK, both for buildings designed by the late British architect Denys Lasdun. They are the New Court at Christ’s College, Cambridge, known as the Typewriter due to its staggered terraces and boxy windows, and Lasdun’s pyramid-like student housing at the University of East Anglia, known locally as the Ziggurats.

While those examples reflect the visual appearance of the physical buildings, in the Arabian Gulf the names given to real-estate developments are often chosen at the design stage, before construction has begun.

“Throughout the Gulf, building names are often part of marketing strategies to sell off-plan property,” said Mr Mitchell. “The names applied to real-estate projects are intended to evoke exclusivity or conjure up idyllic images that may not represent the reality of completed buildings.”

Yasser Elsheshtawy, associate professor of architecture at the United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, said another reason nicknames had not taken off in the UAE was that there was not a “homogenous” culture, so humorous building names would likely get lost in translation.

Buildings here are often named after people, cities or countries – and so giving them nicknames could indicate “a lack of respect”, he aid. “In the UAE I can’t really imagine a building being given names like that. I think culturally it would be a little bit difficult.”

Another reason is the sheer number of new towers in the UAE, said Mr Brash.

“The UK only has a handful of iconic contemporary towers, while we have hundreds. It would be a challenge to nickname them all, and to make those names stick,” he said. “Even if you think something looks like a giant shisha pipe, there is probably half a dozen other towers that do too.”

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