On Street Level: Random Thoughts on our Urban World

Anyone even a little bit familiar with Dubai knows about the insane amount of new developments going on in the city.  Any picture of the city showcases a skyline full of cranes.  There is of course a lot of controversy surrounding the city whether it comes from it’s mistreatment of it’s working class (generally Indian construction workers) or the growing divide between the ex-pats and the locals.

But I want to touch on another bit of controversy.  Certain new developments have sparked controversy in the city for one reason are another and I thought i’d bring to light a few of them:

1) The revolving apartment tower

http://wcbstv.com/national/dubai.david.fisher.2.756027.html

The first question that comes to my mind is whether such a structure is actually safe.  And why test it out on such an enormously tall structure first.  There have already been safety concerns over some of the other new developments happening in Dubai and this one would likely top the list.

2) Replicas of some of our greatest structures

http://burjdubaiskyscraper.com/2006/al-bawadi/al-bawadi.html

This project takes what Las Vegas has done to the extreme.  I really don’t find anything wrong with creating a mock of such things as an English village (like at Disney World), but this takes the whole thing one step further.  This whole project reaks of inauthenticity and is a very poor use of money for such novelties.

3) The World

http://www.theworld.ae/

This is perhaps the most famous of the three projects.  For those not in the know, the project is essentially a series of islands off the Dubai coast in the shape of the world.  The trouble with this one is the potential environmental impacts it has on the ecosystem in and around Dubai.  One has to wonder given Dubai’s reputation with other projects, whether such a project may have these adverse side effects.  Time will tell since this project is going ahead.

To some people, Dubai may be cutting edge.  To others, it’s just tacky.  But as a whole it has sparked a lot of controversy with it’s people and it’s surrounding environment.  As amazing as these projects sound, one has to wonder at what cost building such things will have?