Spring 2020 Issue
Dubai is set to host Expo 2020 in October – the biggest World Expo ever staged. It will have three main themes: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability. British involvement in the event is significant. Architect Norman Foster has been enlisted to create the Mobility pavilion, while London-based Grimshaw Architects is responsible for designing the Sustainability pavilion. Dubai’s hotels are almost fully-booked from October 2020 to January 2021. The UAE hopes to showcase its alternative energy advances by unveiling the world’s largest solar power project, which is expected to generate 1,000 megawatts of energy. Some 192 nations are due to take part in Expo 2020. Among the exhibits on display will be a “future of flight” installation – an interactive experience involving the fuselage of a faster, lighter aircraft without windows, with noisecancelling sound shrouds, the brainchild of the Dubai government-owned airline, Emirates. The IMF expects Expo 2020 to have a positive effect on the UAE economy, helping it overcome concerns about volatile oil revenues. The UAE is the only country to have a Ministry of Happiness. Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, has pledged to make the UAE “among the best (countries) in the world” by 2021. He recently said: “I want Dubai to be a place where everybody from all over the world meets each other, to just love it.” He initiated the UAE Vision 2021 a decade ago, explaining at the time: “Today our economy consists of a non-oil GDP of 70 percent. We will build an economy that is independent of oil and market fluctuations alike.” The project calls for a shift to a diversified and knowledge-based economy. Mohammed wants to focus on health, economy, security, housing and education, “a fundamental element for the development of a nation, and the best investment in its youth”.
The rulers of the UAE know that the secret of success is to never rest upon one’s laurels. The Sheikh is clearly determined to make sure that his grandson will never have to exchange his Bentley for a camel. i 39
Cover Story
At 2,720ft (830m), Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower is the highest building in the world, a gleaming, space-age spike of glass, steel and concrete which dominates the “City of Gold”. It is an emblem of the UAE’s stratospheric expansion over the past half-century. Completed in 1311 AD, England’s Lincoln Cathedral was (for more than 200 years) the world’s tallest man-made structure at 525 ft (83m). For King Edward II, it was an edifice dedicated to the glory of God, and a symbol of his growing power and confidence. Three years later, near a village called Bannockburn, rebellious Scots delivered a painful reminder to the king that power and ambition involved more than the ability to erect a tall building.