8 Years in 3 Minutes

Nouvel's ready-made icon is made up of a series of stacked boxes below a layered dome composed of 7,850 unique metal stars meant to create a moving "rain of light." The opening of the long-anticipated project was not revealed until September of this year, when the Louvre released photographs both outside and inside the building. This short film, courtesy of EarthCam, reveals the earthwork, structural engineering, and other feats of construction that went into making the Louvre Abu Dhabi a reality.