io9
This gleaming hunk of urban development is about to rise on an artificial, perfectly square island off the coast of Dubai. Engineers in the coastal country are already adept at building islands — Dubai possesses three artificial island developments, including one made of house-sized islets that form the shape of all the continents of the world. With this new development, architect Rem Koolhaas will design an entire city that reflects his futurist philosophy about the "generic city." That glowing ball you see will be a city unto itself. See inside it below.
Those tubes are escalators connecting different living areas to each other.
Koolhaas says he's using this 6.5-mile square mini-city to launch a critique of generic cities filled with acres of sameness. He wants this city to look like a cross between the supergeneric urban spaces of New York and the superfantastical, weirdly-shaped buildings for which Koohaas is known. According to the New York Times:
The core of the development would be the island, which would be divided into 25 identical blocks. Neat rows of towers — some tall and slender, others short and squat, depending on the zoning — line the blocks, as if a fragment of Manhattan had been removed with a scalpel and reinserted in the Middle East.It also brings to mind a gated community writ large. These gleaming towers on their isolated island have only a few tiny bridges to the outside world. People could live their entire lives here, keeping all the poverty-stricken masses at bay. As the Times architecture critic Nicolai Oroussouff says, "Think of George A. Romero's 2005 flick, "Land of the Dead," with its menacing corporate masters peering down on a world of faceless zombies." We are.The monotony is broken by mixed-use structures whose immense scale and formal energy draw on mythic examples from architectural history. A spiraling 82-story tower might have been inspired by the minaret of the ninth-century Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq; a gargantuan 44-story sphere brings to mind the symbolic forms of the 18th-century architect Étienne-Louis Boullée.
City on the Gulf [NYT]
Comments
that blast came from the death star, that things opperational?!
you don't know that, that shot could have come from the grassy knowl
This is pretty much Dubai all over: though an Islamic country you can pretty much do whatever you want so long as you can afford to pay the bribes. Which is why Michael Jackson now lives there. it's a Randian's dream come true. That it's creepy as hell is just bonus points,I guess.
@Gyrus: I don't think you know what folks who agree with Rand want, if you think corruption is their dream come true.
wow, a relevant Romero reference, although my understanding is the foreign workers in Dubai aren't treated with nearly as much respect as zombies. and Gyrus, I think you mean it's a Ballardian nightmare come true
ooohh - how about the original Metropolis - with the great unwashed masses laboring in subterranean manu-factories, toiling while their 'beneficent' overlords gaze from luxury and opulence on high. Where is their robot 'Maria' to guide them to rebellion and glory?
Dubai is not worthy. Although I love the buildings, the government needs to be cleaned up. And so does ours. And it will be once our new President is in place. One can hope.
That spherical building is the laser cannon that writes "DUBAI" on the surface of Mars, for ever and ever.
If even half of all of this gets built it's going to make for some great disaster tourism when the oil money runs out.
(Of course getting there may be a problem.)
@kstop: It will be fascinating to watch what happens when we develop cheaper, cleaner fuels enough to bring them mainstream. Maybe those "few tiny bridges" have a self destruct sequence to finish the seperation in such a case.
@Huxleyhobbes: on the contrary, having spoken with numerous Randians, I'm convinced corruption is the only way to get what they want. They'll simply rationalize it away as being Bold or Utilitarian or some such nonsense.
Rybanis, why not the Moon? Especially since it's right there for everyone to see. Maybe some big arabic script spelling out We Love Oil and Ala!. And then some nice Christian group could add some of their stuff...Before you know it, the Moon's surface could be little more than a palimpsest for advertisers.
Am I the only one to wonder what will happen to Dubai if it ever gets hit by an earthquake? All those buildings erected on fill dirt don't stand a chance...
@Gyrus: have you considered corruption isn't actually what they would want and you just didn't understand them?
corruption is evidence of a system not working so it wouldn't make sense for it to be anyone's dream come true. as long as someone is dreaming why not simply dream of a system where corruption is no longer necessary and/or possible. i have a hard time believing that all 'Randians' are by their nature illogical, perhaps a great many are but every single one seems like a stretch.
@Gann: Optimism is a wonderful thing, beautiful and delicate like a freshly-budded little daisy.
reminisent of "metropolis" the 1920's film. mans future will have to have a way to separate it self from the hordes of human trash that may be the collapse of humanity unto itself.-blurey
@kstop: absolutely! in 50 years(?) or so, Dubai will resemble one huge run-down mall after the off ramp has been re-routed.
It will be even better when its under 10 feet of water!
Hoo-Ray for melting ice caps!
@Sumone989: Then it will be PERFECT for a Bioshock sequel! (she said, summing up the thread)
@designguybrown: ("Where is their robot 'Maria' to guide them to rebellion and glory?")
Unfortunately she was not properly clothed, and after being seen consorting with strange men she was summarily stoned to death. 0_o
Well, this would make a great setting then for a post earthquake/ post peak oil/ post global climate change adventure story as the grandkids of oppressed contsruction workers race through the semi-collapsed and flooded towers of Dubai looking for the long ago hidden new fuel formula as various other factions (old Islaam, new Turkish secular Islaam, radical Randites, etc) chase them on neo-steampunk green powered vehicles. Add in the old hermit with the secret past and you got the next blockbuster movie/novel/anime/ comic book.
I'm contimually amazed at the abuse the UAE gets around here, and note that there was no such flack in the article about the Chinese soccer stadium from yesterday. Is the PRC somehow a more enlightened nation than the UAE? I see no evidence that it isn't worse.
Have the people badmouthing the UAE ever been there? If so, I'll gladly shut up, as I've never visited.
Until then, however, I can't really think of any good reason for the disproportionate anti-UAE sentiments. I'd like to think it isn't driven by bigotry, but I'm a pessimist...
I always like to see people trying to develop their countries, even if I wouldn't want to live there, and the UAE seems way better than average to me.
-Kle.
@Klebert: Yeah, I'm not sure what the source is of the UAE-bashing. I'm certain that most people don't know the difference between the UAE and Iran.
amazing what oil and slave labor can accomplish these days. playgrounds for the rich?
Looks a lot like the Death Star....
What is next?
designer planets?
maybe?
Pimp my Planet.... I should copyright that.
I would encourage people to read up on the UAE and the cases of human trafficking and lack of any real major freedoms in terms of press or politics. If a fancy glossy coating for foriegn tourists and corporations can wipe all that away, then there is not much more to be said.
Having been to China multiple times I can say that it is not perfect as well, with the constant corruption and the digital divide seriously fragmenting the country.
In both cases you can look to greed and control as the roots of the problem.
Its all well and good to see countries try to improve themselves, but if it is only on the surface or for a select few then it is merely a facade.
Of course they make for perfect backdrops for future dystopic visions.
@Cantonkid:
China's improving it's record, and so is the UAE. They're both much nicer places than they were 50 years ago... 100 years ago, the UAE didn't even exist.
I'm just saying people should cut them a little slack - change doesn't happen overnight, and unlike a lot of countries, they are changing for the better.
They just seem to get a disproportionate amount of hate.
-Kle.
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