Apr 15, 03:12 pm
Article in The Superlative City publication
George has contributed to the publication The Superlative City Dubai and the Urban Condition in the Early Twenty-First Century, edited by Ahmed Kanna (Harvard University Press) with the article:
Dubai: Constructed Fantasy
In an article published in Bidoun Magazine, in 2005, I had noted that “If Rome was the Eternal City and New York’s Manhattan the apotheosis of twentieth century congested urbanism, then Dubai may be considered the emerging prototype for the 21st century: prosthetic and nomadic oases presented as isolated cities that extend out over the land and the sea” and that Dubai is becoming architecturally the ultimate fantasy city: impressive but not original and above all consumerable. Few years later this unconfirmed and partly exaggerated statement has edged closer to reality for this city that resembles fantasy and fiction.
The Superlative City
Dubai and the Urban Condition in the Early Twenty-First Century
Edited by Ahmed Kanna
In the last few years, the Persian Gulf city of Dubai has exploded from the Arabian sands onto the world stage. Oil wealth, land rent, and so-called informal economic practices have blanketed the urbanscape with enormous enclaved developments attracting a global elite, while the economy runs on a huge army of migrant workers from the labor-exporting countries of the Indian Ocean and Eurasian regions. The speed and aesthetic brashness with which the city has developed have left both scholarly and journalistic observers baffled and reaching for facile stereotypes with which to capture its city’s identity and significance to the history of urban planning, architecture, social theory, and capitalism.
In The Superlative City, contributors from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and colleagues from the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Denmark offer the most serious analyses of the city to appear to date. Remarkable aspects of Dubai, such as the size and theming of real estate projects and the speed of urbanization, are situated in their local and global architectural, political, and economic contexts. Planning tactics and strategies are explained. The visually arresting aspects of architecture are critiqued but also placed within a holistic view of the city that takes in the less sensational elements, such as worker camps and informal urban spaces.
www.hup.harvard.edu
www.amazon.com
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