Dubai: A Metropolis of the 21st Century

Described as "the unofficial Middle East capital of the new Silk Road" (Elsheshtawy, 2010), and the "new global icon of “imagineered urbanism", Dubai is one of the cities with greater growth since last half of the 20th century.
The rapid growth of this city is due mainly to the visionary entrepreneur, Mohammed al- Maktoum (member of the Maktoum dynasty, which governs Dubai) and his entrepreneurial skills inherited by his father. (Davis, 2007)

Although Abu-Dabi contains most of the oil wealth from all the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is a better city to serve as a port and trading zone, so it became an important point of market exchange and investment. (Davis, 2007) In addition, after the bombing of the WTC in New York City, the fear of investing in the United States and in "petrodollars" led to oil investments to stay within the Emirates. (Davis, 2007)

All this led to a rapid growth and massive capital investment, which led to the rapid development of many architectural, urbanistic, and technological advances, and created a city full of Luxury, monuments, gigantism, and above all, spectacle.
But behind all of this imagery, is Dubai the perfect model of a metropolis that solves the urban problems of the 21st century?

Image 1. One street in Dubai in 1990 (left), and in 2007 (right)

Davis states that Dubai is the "..."perfected" synthesis of shopping, entertainment, and architectural spectacle on the most pharaonical scale "(Davis, 2007)."

Dubai has the highest tower in the world, the largest mall, the biggest airport, the largest artificial islands, the largest aquarium, and a dozen towers that exceed 300 meters in height. (Davis, 2006) All these have a trend towards gigantism and thus represent an image of luxury and grandeur. Davis expresses that architectural gigantism is not an economically sustainable strategy of development, and in Dubai, almost everything tends to massive height structures. (Davis, 2007) The architect George Katodrytis argues: "Dubai is a prototype of the post-global new city, which creates appetites rather than solves problems..."(Davis, 2007).

In a similar way to the times of the Nazi regime, in Dubai, its architectonic form is really the one that defines the city, and not its functionality, being both, as Davis says: “architectural megalomania.”(Davis, 2007) In the case of Germany, the neoclassical and colossal forms had the purpose of expressing the power of the Third Reich and intimidate visitors, (Diefendorf, 1993), while in Dubai; the forms are intended to express luxury and entertainment, to attract tourism and capital investment.

To understand one of the social and urban problems facing Dubai, it is necessary to realize that this city is managed by feudal absolutism. This means that the land belongs to the al- Maktoum dynasty. Saeed al-Muntafiq, head of the Dubai Development and Investment Authority says: "People refer to our Crown prince as the chief executive officer of Dubai. It's because, genuinely, he (at Al - Maktoum) runs the government as a private business for the sake of the private sector, not for the state." (Davis, 2007) This practically leads to a complete lack of regulations by the state and thus a social equality unbalance, since the only interest is capital investment and the people who can afford to consume. In other words, the city is developed for wealthy individuals and for those who contribute economically in the private sector, but lower social classes and workers do not live in the same conditions.

Image 2. The Satwa district

Davis states that Dubai's police "may turn a blind eye to illicit diamond and gold imports [...] but they are diligent in deporting Pakistani workers who complain about being cheated out of their wages... "(Davis, 2007)."
This shows how the "government" allows all acts that provide profit to the city and applies force to those that don’t.

Working conditions are also a problem in Dubai. Only in 2004, 880 workers died in construction sites because companies refused to give them safe working conditions, as they lacked as well in sanitation and supplies of the necessary quantities of potable water. (Davis, 2007).

A Dubai worker said: "I wish the rich people would realize who is building these towers. I wish they could come and see how sad this life is." (Davis, 2007)

This large life difference between social classes is very similar to that of the era of Industrial America in the 1800’s, where entrepreneurs and businessmen benefited enormously from industrial development, while workers suffered appalling working conditions due to lack of State regulations.

An example of this period is the Homestead Strike, 1889, in Pennsylvania, where one of the steel mills of entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie, went into strike due to low wages, poor working conditions, and long working hours.
Henry Frick, junior partner of Carnegie, sent the Pennsylvania military to fight the workers, which caused several deaths and injuries.

George Debold, grandson of one of the workers of the strike, says: "Carnegie knew what the conditions where like in the mills, he had visited the mills, he had been in Homestead, and so did Frick, and they knew what was going on and let it continue, because it simply benefitted its profits." (Davis, 1997).

A controversial element in Dubai in terms of urbanism and environment are the Palm Islands. These artificial islands, a project by Nakheel, are destined to inhabit 380,000 people in total (300,000 in Palm Jebel Ali), and 80,000 in Palm Jumeirah, (Elsheshtawy, 2010) being nearly Canberra’s population. One billion cubic feet of sand had to be moved in order for this project to be possible. (Davis, 2007) Tina Butler, marine biologist, established that one of the concerns that she had of this project was the negative impact that it would have on local marine life, and its threat to marine species. (Elsheshtawy, 2010) One of Nakheel replies was: “...it was found that little coral and few fish exist in the Gulf in the first place” and “that their projects’ impact is minor compared with most residential developments." (Elsheshtawy, 2010)

Image 3. The Palm Jumeirah

There were also concerns about the low number of basic amenities in the residential areas of Las Villas in the Palm Islands. To this, one of the Villa residents responded: "the reality for people living in the villas is that you have someone to do the grocery shopping for you, that is part of the lifestyle". Therefore, it can be said that the biggest artificial islands in the world doesn’t solve correctly one of the biggest urbanism issues; lack of accessibility in a community.

Although Dubai is for many countries and cities of Middle East a model to follow, in terms of urbanism it does not solve problems that have existed before.
Its focus on investment capital has raised different options in technology, construction and architecture, including the possibility of an indoor ski mountain where the outside temperature is 105 Fahrenheit, (Davis, 2007) but has also caused a very marked separation of societies of different economic levels. The trend toward luxury, gigantism, and monumentality, are directed toward a very limited social group, not to mention its negative environmental impact.

While al-Maktoum's trends are towards futurism, Davis sees Dubai as an event of the past: "(Albert) Speer meets Disney in the shores of Araby". (Davis, 2007).

Notes

Davis, R. (Productor). (1997). Andrew Carnegie: Prince of Steel [Film]. New York, US.

Davis, M. (2007). Sand, Fear, and Money in Dubai. In M. Davis, & D. Monk, Evil Paradises: Dreamwork of Neoliberalism, New York, US. Pp. 46-68.

Elsheshtawy, Y. (2010). Dubai: Behind the Urban Spectacle. Oxforshire, England: Routledge. Pp. 143, 147(2), 274

Images

The World’s Major Cities Then Vs Now. (s.f.). Recuperado el 2 de May de 2015, de Economy Car Hire: https://www.economycarhire.com/blog/2013/09/19/travel-time-worlds-major-cities-vs-now/

Dubai, It's Incredible. (s.f.). Recuperado el 2 de May de 2015, de Condo Hotels Dubai: http://www.condohotelsdubai.com/images/dubai-palm-island4.jpg

Elsheshtawy, Y. (2010). Dubai: Behind the Urban Spectacle. Oxforshire, England: Routledge. Pg. 38