Since initial plans begun by Sheikh Rashid to develop Dubai’s Jebel Ali port area in 1976, the growth of a concept currently transforming Dubai into one of the most recognisable cities in the world has taken on a snowball effect that shows no signs of abating.
Garnering praise and criticism in equal measure, Dubai has been described as ‘pioneering’, ‘a blank canvas for architects’, and ‘a city on crack’. Whichever side of the fence you stand the development of desert territory into a skyscraping utopia demands attention.
No stranger to growth of unusual proportions, throughout it’s 150 year history Dubai has fought hard for its current standing. Having been in constant demand due to its proximity to the Indian continent and its trading potential, it is this factor more than anything that has fuelled growth. And although the oil connection is something of a cliché, the discovery of oil in the region did cause the population of the city to increase by 300% between 1968 and 1975.

Cancel all preconceived financial models as Dubai is ignoring them all. Projects worldwide are being shelved in the face of the current credit crunch, whereas the demand for growth in the desert continues. A quick shortlist of planned and projects underway reads like an architect’s wet dream with a good number of them resembling the many lairs of varied Bond villains. We have OMA’s Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre, more commonly referred to as The Dubai Deathstar. Then there is the Hydropolis Underwater Hotel that has already passed two fictitious opening dates and is set to join us in 2009, resplendent with a fully retractable roof (above water), and oddly it’s very own missile defense system 60 feet below the waves. OMA are also constructing the Dubai Renaissance Project [DRP] which strikes a Modernist retort against the obsession with newness exhibited by other projects throughout the city. Probably one of the better looking of the projects set to take place, the DRP actually comes from the application of some architectural theory at last and attempts to answer the egotistical advances of many of the cities proposed and completed projects, claiming to “end the current phase of architectural idolatry”. Then again, how much of this can be taken seriously, whilst only half the size of the Burj Dubai, (standing at around 300 metres the DRP will be the same height as the Eiffel Tower) and an astonishing six times the size of Le Corbusier’s Unité D’Habitation, is in itself a monolithic structure.
The hugeness of proposed projects doesn’t end there, whilst the tallest man made structure trophy has already been won by the Burj Dubai, the Al Burj, centrepiece of the Dubai Waterfront will steal that title on completion, 30% higher than Burj Dubai, and 3 times taller than the Empire State building. It seems that if a tower were proposed with a viewing platform outside the Earth’s atmosphere then disbelief may actually be replaced with suspense.

So what conclusions can be drawn from looking at the construction of a Metropolis? With boundaries constantly shifting, questions are constantly reformulated. The sheer mind-boggling economics of the situation shows just how much it costs to build a city from scratch, but then why not? Tailor made cities are nothing new in the West, it’s just that nothing has as yet come close to matching the scale of Dubai. Yet in a world where consumption of resources is becoming a source of worry, Dubai certainly introduces questions on our need for luxury and entertainment. Regardless of your views on this, Dubai has a plan, and it’s going to do it anyway.