makeshift

08.09.08
Arriving in Dubai - 'The Fun is Building'*

I begin my descent to Dubai International Airport. Surprisingly, the plane is only half full which seems at odds with Emirates grand expansion plans. I have two seats to myself but still I can’t sleep. A battle for window space erupts as people struggle to get a look at the wealth of new islands being birthed out of the sea off the shores of Dubai. As if to confirm busyness, a small dredging boat arcs a ‘rainbow’ of sand onto one of the smaller islands; my guess: somewhere in the region of the ‘new’ South Africa. Is this a show, akin to a water fountain display, saved for each new plane full of passengers? This is the first, and last, view I get of ‘The World’ as it is far too exclusive for me to warrant a closer glimpse. I wonder if, from land, it would ever look as spectacular anyway? I touch down. I am welcomed into an air conditioned, airport shopping emporium.

Welcome to a strange paradise.

I pass through an endless arrangement of air conditioned comfort, along travelators, down escalators, airport/hotel pickup and eventually to the door of my hotel. At last I am outside. I am whacked by a wall of heat. This place is hot. It's already 37 degrees centigrade and it's only 8:00am.

My first impressions of Dubai are formed from stolen glimpses out of the Taxi window. Muted pictures, through the sand haze, of what this city aspires to be. Acre on acre of concrete, fenced in with scaffolding and overhung by tower cranes. Tower blocks look eerily abandoned rather than half-made. So much is out of bounds—still a building site, everything else: desert. It is like nothing I’ve seen before... and it is like nothing I’ve seen of Dubai before either. What I’ve seen up to now are renderings and artists impressions, immediate in their pictorial seduction, but all still some way off completion—still building sites littered with cranes and workers dressed in their matching blue overalls. Dubai is the stuff of the current city in its pure form. It is a city in construction now.

If I am to get any where near close to understanding this place it is clear I am going to have to read it differently from anywhere else. From this point on, the existing model of the city is dead. This unmistakably unique enterprise at city making, this city of endless means and ambition, needs to be understood on its own terms. Sudden conclusions and first impressions will be affected by my distinctly Western/Middle/Eastern** cultural baggage. I need to find a host of positions that are as plastic as they are imaginative.

It is not going to be enough to describe the 'Dubai Model'... the newly minted term for this particular brand of honed development package of unashamed growth and expansion. I can't simply litter a critique with superlatives or words like fantasy and authenticity. Without doubt, some of the spatial/political practices being carried out here are in need of urgent critical interrogation and accountability. But a Western/Middle/Eastern** paradigm can surely no longer be the benchmark?

I'm tired. I spend a few hours by the rooftop pool contemplating and procrastinating. I go to bed.

* With the motto: "The Fun is Building", Dubailand, conceived by Mohammad Al Habbai, CEO of Dubailand, will be the largest destination for family-oriented tourism and entertainment in the World. Dubailand will feature a number of theme parks, including what's going to be the largest water park in the world, and the Manchester United Football Academy within Sports Land.

** Delete as appropriate

09.09.08
Discovering Hidden Dubai - Deira

Hidden within Dubai, like a clearing in a skyscraper forest, is the still-beating heart of the original city. Called Deira, the 'old town' which built up around the creek is worlds apart from the curtain walling and concrete. I journey through the narrow streets, from canopy to canopy, finding shelter from the sun. This city, with a whole mechanism of services, networks of trade, community, and tourism, operates on a parallel economy, outside that of 'New Dubai'. Moving deeper into its maze of alleyways and arcades, my arrival in Deira feels accidental. There are no monuments that declare 'you have arrived', there are no skyscrapers here. Here the purposeful remains just that, there is no pastiche...

"Watches mister? Nice watches! You want watch? I have Rolex, Omega, Breitling!"

The pace increases, with pedestrians, shoppers, bicycles, sellers, all, presumably, with somewhere to be. It is difficult to distinguish who is working and who is socialising; everyone appears busy. I stop for a second to consider buying a hat when I'm interrupted by a shopkeeper from the adjacent store inviting me to look at his wares instead. An Emirati women barters over the price of some silk while a man brushes by with boxes, stacked impossibly high, on a cart—he disappears in to a dimly lit alley.

I walk past a small cafe, it was never meant to accommodate its clientele, people sit on crates and use a cart as a make-shift table, drinking out of plastic cups. Activity defies building in Deira, here impression is nothing. I find some hope. Deira doesn't need Dubai.

Discovering Hidden Dubai - Al Quoz

New developments burgeon in the desert, beyond the older cores of Deira and Bur Dubai, linked by freeways and ring roads. Any remaining space is quickly filled by a lower-intensity, car-dependent urban sprawl. I ask my taxi driver to take me to Al Quoz, one of these intermediate spaces. He looks a little incredulous but obliges. The Al Quoz Industrial District houses many of the immigrant workers who service projects such as Dubai Marina and Emirates Hills as well as the freezone in Jebel Ali. Some facilities (my tax driver says 'labour camps'), my taxi driver tells me, can hold up to 2000 labourers, who are segregated by nationality, in an effort to avoid disputes.

The roads here are more open... more English. People still stop and chat and greet each other as they pass. The absence of women is startling and the atmosphere, in one camp I make my way through, is disarmingly civilsed and upbeat. A lot has been written on the appalling conditions of these camps and the inhumane conditions under which labourers are expected to work. But I witness an admirable care and attentiveness within the camps, a willingness of living that is overlooked by the media coverage of these labourers. The coverage may have the ideals and interests of these labourers in mind but rarely delve beyond the impersonal, staggering statistics to impress, shock and provide substance for quotes. The dire circumstances I have read about are not prevalent, here anyway, and I leave with the news that some contractor businesses are beginning to listen to the worldwide demand for improved conditions... a small token gesture maybe, but more hope none the less.

10.09.08
Why are we still Learning from Las Vegas?

Fifteen hours later I am, again, lying by the hotel pool. I am slightly uncomfortable from my all-you-can-eat breakfast and the persistent heat. In between applications of sun-spray I attempt to reacquaint myself with Learning from Las Vegas.

It's not hard to start drawing parallels. Both grew out of the desert at blink-and-you'll-miss-it speed. I wonder if there is a divergent path for Dubai to take—with all the intelligence and imagination and money it has already invested—could it continue to set new examples by developing new models beyond even their comprehension?

...No longer unshackling itself from the landscape by brute force of wealth (that can buy out nature with air conditioning, terraforming and by sustaining a massive system of desalinisation and irrigation), Dubai accepts the dryness, heat and beauty of the desert. Learning more from Arcosanti, Dubai has a zero-sprawl rule, finally putting the cities love of the skyscraper to good use. Vertical density is exploited to the extreme. Neighbourhoods grow vertically, learning from the palms fronds, they minimise their impact on the ground while maximising the effectiveness of shared services. Each Island collects its own water and generates its own power. The city has snubbed infrastructure all together, going completely car-less. No more 6hour traffic jams on the Sheikh Zayed Road, highways or pollution, only blimps and magic carpets moving between towers. The entire city can be crossed in less than an hour. Celebrate the pleasure of building babel-esque edifices. The sky is the limit...

50 years later I watch as Dubai gets on with it's daily grind and the only criticism that can be attempted is one that questions to what degree Dubai exploited its freedom from history and culture. Did she go as far as she could? Was she as outrageous as she could have been?

11.09.08
Branding a Revolution - Dubai Inc.

I decide to head along the beach front, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Palm Jumeirah and get the customary tourist photo of the Burj Al Arab. Plus, there are likely to be girls in bikinis.

Once again I make the intrepid journey along the Sheikh Zayed Road by taxi. The traffic is already intolerable. A taxi ride that might take ten minutes at midday lasts an hour at either end of it. I ask the driver to drop me off at Wild Wadi, he laughs. “Are you ready for a very long chat?” he says.

I take photos of as many of the colossal billboards as I can. I am sure the taxi driver is looking at me in his mirror. I don’t make eye contact. The billboards are spread all along the Sheikh Zayed Road, promoting Dubai’s ambitious building projects and further magnifying the image of a city obsessed with pomp and wealth. The largest billboard in the world stands out in the desert showing the finished Burj Dubai alongside a simple rubric: “History Rising.” The signs emerge from the desert in the same way the buildings do. Many in stasis.

These inescapable signs are stage-sets that promote the desired personality of a covetable Eden. Most depict a disarmingly familiar vision: a pastel-clad, white population (devotedly engaged in harmless activity) and contemporary Arab families in a dreamlike vision for expats and perfect locals. They command their messages to anyone passing with superlative-littered slogans: The World’s Largest X, The Most Prestigious Y. They are here to instill an immovable emotional impulse, a brand that goes beyond the product—after-all the product doesn’t (yet) exist. It dawns on me (maybe I’ve been reading too much Learning from Las Vegas?) the landscape is currently defined by its peculiar penchant for megalomaniac graphics and quirky typographical messages. This is the architecture of a new kind of city and a tightly honed form of brand awareness.

In a world with only plausible truths left, as critic Michael Speaks states, bullshit can become a reality when it is accepted as something we can work with.

I glimpse the beginning of Palm Jumeirah from the road. I can't see any way of getting closer on foot and I'm becoming exhausted from being outside for so long. The realisation of the first palm-island is a massive achievement. A grand moment in the history of architecture. The idea of monumentalising suburban housing like this, with a strict symmetrical layout along a linear axis, has something of Versailles about it. Extravagance and opulence is, of course, nothing new.

I return to a taxi. It is not easy to hail a taxi on a twelve-lane-wide highway. I decide to try ticking off the places on my list I still haven't been to. It is possible to get in to a taxi, and, over a matter of hours, instruct the driver to transport you between a bizarre plethora of places: Global Village, Green Community, Healthcare City, Internet CIty, Sports City, Investments Park, International Media Production Zone. Driving form one 'free zone' to another could be likened to real-time browsing. The zones have turned abstract nouns into concrete (literally) propositions... almost like a city-wide built encyclopedia in progress.

12.09.08
A Wander Around The Mall of The Emirates

Dubai Inc.'s defiant, proud stance and its extravagant impulses are exposed through its many shopping malls as well as its skyscraper follies.

I walk from one boutique to another looking for clues; any hint as to what is special about this place in comparison to a Western mall. It dawns on me as I stop, wistful, outside one particularly exclusive store: the archipelago of malls in Dubai provide a (rare) kind of public space—one different from that in a Western mall. In a desert city, dominated by skyscrapers, freeways and exclusivity, the mall becomes the one scale, density, and interiority that all the population can relate to.

Six Secrets to Business [for 'Business' read 'City'] Success:***

1. Work On Your Business

One of the biggest pitfalls in growing your business is to become so busy running the outlets and specifics that you don't take the time to run your business. It is easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day details that there's really no strategy for mapping out the future and then making it happen. My advice is to schedule time to grow your business.

2. Market and Measure

Another mistake is people don't spend enough time marketing their business; plus, they mistake advertising for marketing. Advertising is just one piece of marketing. All the techniques used to attract and persuade consumers need attention; everything from your business' culture and positioning, through market research, new business/product development, advertising and promotion, PR, and arguably all of the sales functions as well.

3. Be Customer Centric and tailor your product to meet an identified customer mind-set.

People in the embroidery business are very product-centric. You ask them what they do, and they talk about their product and what they sell. Retailers should concentrate on being more customer-centric. They should be focused on getting a customer's business and then keeping that customer. Understanding and responding to each customers unique needs is a vital prerequisite to creating a compelling and relevant experience.

4. Add Value

Also, in your industry, if you're not careful, you can become a commodity business very fast. The only way to keep from being a commodity business is to add value for the customer so that price doesn't become an issue. When you're very customer-centric and focused on delivering great experiences, price will not be the customer's major decision maker.

5. Be Different, Be Unique

It is important to differentiate yourself in a crowded market. You must look at what is unique about your brand and transfer that into an outwardly visible identity. It doesn't mean you have to offer something totally unique, but it does mean you have to do something to set you apart from your competition.

6. Deliver Great and Real Experiences

In today's world of product and brand proliferation, it is often said that 'shopping is the purpose of life'. If so, it is important to create something that makes every trip memorable, turning it from simple experience into voyage of discovery that appeals to all the senses. Customer service continues to be a buzzword, but many retailers don't manage it well.

***adapted from Six Secrets to Retail Success

13.09.08
Stockholm Syndrome

I wake up early on my last day in Dubai. I feel a little regretful. Maybe I've not done this city justice in the short time of my first visit? I feel I owe it to the city to understand it better, listen to what it has to say. My problem: any attempt to be timely with a commentary on Dubai is already largely out of date, the city is changing so fast it would appear to be resisting being perceived candidly at any one moment.

“Build it, and they will come”, said Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, echoing the disembodied whisperings heard by Kevin Costner in the 1989 American fantasy baseball film Field of Dreams. And they’re coming—from everywhere. At 4:40am, the arrivals board at Dubai International Airport shows flights from Addis Ababa, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Beijing, Bahrain, Colombo, Dublin, Heathrow, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Kabul, Malé, Melbourne, Osaka, Shanghai and Singapore—all within three hours.

The Muslim call to prayer (Fajr) was being relayed in Terminal 1 as I joined the check-in queue. I notice a big sign that I missed at arrivals. It reads “Welcome to Tomorrow”. I swap between being awed by the scale of ambition here, and concerned by its flamboyant futurism. Yet, in those stolen moments, peering out of a taxi window, I have been transformed and taken by the strangely subtle (yes, subtle) strokes of invention, ingenuity and brilliant idiocy on show. People I have spoken to seem proud of their young city, but cautious about what the future might hold. Increasingly, they seem to be aware that they are living as tourists in their own city.

This is where I shock the high architectural profession: with its mish-mash of garish towers, its gated communities, its commercially acceptable Experiences™, its dark spaces, by-products and leftover conditions, its 3 storey high billboards, its sheer unwavering belief in what it is doing, Dubai is a newly sublime experience and I have been satisfied by its motives.