Dubai : planning the instant city

The starting point for our work was the consideration that a livable city must exist at every scale (from the urban to the pedestrian level), but the development of the 21st century instant cities does not allow for this multiplicity of scales. In fact these cities, of which Dubai is an example, are driven by the pursuit of capital and power and, thus, the resulting urban condition is alienating and devoid of human scale. In this moment, Dubai is facing the challenge of keeping up with the rapid urban growth and, at the same time, of re-establishing its position within the global economy (a position that came to a halt during the 2008 economic crisis). What we have tried to do in our thesis, was to understand the complex dynamics that led the city to become what it is today: an endless construction site, with many superlative, scattered and unconnected projects spread all over the territory; different kinds of urban settlements; an ample land resource in the form of a vast desert landscape whose sand actually serves to carry out the offshore developments (the artificial islands); a political situation in which all the power is in the hands of the Royal Family; a city that – despite the suffered economic crisis – still has strong inward flows of foreign capital investments. Dubai is now trying to keep up with the Western countries in the planning field, because in 2006 there was an announcement for the editing of a comprehensive Master Plan: the aim of our thesis is, therefore, to provide a critical analysis of the planning process that took place in Dubai up to now and to critically analyze what has been proposed in the last Master Plan. We want to enter in the process, providing an effective framework of guidelines for the future growth of the city, starting from deep analysis and studies of the existing city. This work is also integrated with an overall overview of the actual situation of Dubai and of the events the led the city to become what it actually is, also from a global point of view.