Artificial

THE QUESTION OF THE ARTIFICIAL: Dubai: Between the real and the artificial

Marina Carretero

THE QUESTION OF THE ARTIFICIAL

Dubai has experienced a tremendous growth over the last 30 years. It started with the oil industry, but today it only records a 6% of its total revenues. The rest is built in tourism and business.

From the 70´s until 2008 Dubai was growing unconsciously creating new buildigns, hotels, luxury apartments etc. The discovery of the oil in the area of the Emirates made it possible.

It became a “theme park city” until today when nobady wants to lose the opportunity to enjoy that theme park, what has made Dubai one of the greatest tourism economy. Nowadays is no longer about oil, but about what the world is expecting.

The world economical crisis has made Dubai make a step back in their growth and rethink their expansion.

Today Dubai is a city in the middle of the desert with extreme temperatures and some skyscrapers in the seaside. Something like this is what the developers planned for Dubai, the only change is that every single building in Dubai has something else.

Aereal Image of Dubai, 1950

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DUBAI: BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL

In the urban plan for Dubai, -that has passed from 40,000 inhabitants in 1970, to almost 2,000,000 inhabitants in 2011-, Dubai passed from being a mere 40,000 port city to a 2,000,000 global city. A global city in which each building, has to be the best in one or another way. This urban planning is competing with the existing city of Dubai, the city of the 1950´s. It was a typical Arab city, with mixed uses urban planning, working classes and majority of local inhabitants. The new urban development has become Dubai in the opposite of that. Today Dubai is a fake city, the city of consumption and parade. In Dubai wins the one that seems to be the best and this of course related with money, the best car, the best dress… But, all of this comes from what we have seen before, it comes from the people “in charge of the city”. The urban planning of the city is nothing but artificial, it is creating a new society that has nothing to do with the society that used to live Dubai as it was. It is a Guinness World Records city. It appeals to the image, to the picture of the city and to its meaning.

Aereal Image of Dubai´s urban plan.

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THE QUESTION OF THE ARTIFICIAL

There are several examples of this, such as the the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa building, with 890m high, or the most luxury hotel the Burj Al Arab, with 7 stars, or the biggest indoor ski center, the biggest aquarium… Everything in Dubai ends with –st.

The main problem with this is that they are creating a city for –st people.

They have created a city from scratch, and above all, arguing the sustainability in all their construction development. How can a fake island be sustainable? How can the construction of a 890m high building –in the middle of the desert- be sustainable?

But the real question is: What is behind all that big façade?

People from the rest of the world are destined to Dubai by their companies in exchange of lots of money. The truth is that these people after a couple of years begin to feel the pressure of the city, to live it and they start to notice the “behind the scenes” part of the city.

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DUBAI: BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL

All that theme-park-related architecture has an end. And it is not only denoted by the geographical issues but also by other trends that go further than that. Despite all, the palm islands are nothing but concrete filling the sea, and the Burj Khalifa a mega structure designed to catch the attention of potential tourists all around the world. From our point of view, it can be interesting all those things, but the thing is what happens inside all that?

There are three main types of inhabitants living the daily life of Dubai: locals, expatriates, and construction workers. Between the two first and the third, there is a big difference, not only social but also geographical. While the rest of the people is living in “the heart” of Dubai, construction workers from India and other poor neighbor countries are living in the “dark side”.

This part of the city is nothing but the preexisting city. Nowadays it has become the shadow of the city. Working camps and market are “built” in this part of the city, where this people come from their countries to work in really bad conditions.

Comparison between old and new Dubai.

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THE QUESTION OF THE ARTIFICIAL

On the other side, the “new city” is inhabited by locals and other foreign people focused on their business. The distinction here is not about money, or bad conditions, but about mixture of cultures and laws. While local people are having all the rights possible in their country, foreign people have nothing. There is a continuous fight between these two parts of Dubai´s inhabitants. Locals are proud of have reached that point, while foreign people starts to get annoyed by the artificiality of the city. I would describe this point with Koolhaas words, while talking about Junkspace: “is like being condemned to a perpetual Jacuzzi with millions of your best friends”. It can be nice at first, but you cannot resist there forever. There is a point where the Jacuzzi stops being something amazing and relaxing and starts to be something annoying and dirty. Same happens with luxury in Dubai. It is somehow like being in the Cavern once you know that the objects are nothing but shadows (Plato, myth of the cavern). It is an artificial reality in where –knowing the real life- is impossible to stay.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Dubai is a pathetic excuse for a "develop-

you bunch of losers, instead of thanking god that you

ing country"; it takes two steps forward

are living in our land you post those silly comments and

and one step back!!! Dsicrimination is at

stories, please guys get a life and use your brains for

its peak here along with the lastest

once in your life. We got the cash and you got to work

development of disregard for expatriate

otherwise get the hell out of Dubai and go back to your

labor rights.

country and start begging you rotten creatures. You

3:37 AM

people could've been homeless without Dubai. Dubai made you. Dubai fed you. Dubai made you look like

Blog Debate between locals and expatriates

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humans.

11:48 PM

DUBAI: BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL

It is interesting to observe Dubai´s change over the last 50 years, and get to know the different modes of artificiality they have used. Today is still present the “old” city we talked about before, and the difference is huge. We could say that through a generative mode of artificiality, they have generated what we know today as Dubai. They have created something completely new for the rest of the world. The entire city has become a monument that everybody would like to experience, but hard to live. Fake environments and buildings create this parade in the middle of the desert.

To sum up, I will finish with two questions from Koolhass´ “Theory of Bigness” applied to the urban plan and city of Dubai:

Is it what you see what you finally get?

Is Dubai´s impact independent to its quality?

Comparison between old and new Dubai.

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Theory and Culture in Architecture V Ie School of Architecture & Design Fall 2011