Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T19:08:19.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Whatever Happened to Dubai's Public Spaces?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2018

Khaled Alawadi
Khaled Alawadi*
Affiliation:
Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Program, Masdar Institute, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; e-mail: kaalawadi@masdar.ac.ae
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

As an ambitious city aspiring to become a major contributor to and player in the global world, Dubai often tends to be endeared to and affected by grand-scale urbanism and skyscraper skylines. The recent practice of architecture in Dubai is replete with examples of architectural monuments and miraculous constructions. Whilst the architectural feats required to raise grand structures for global branding and economic strategy are noteworthy, many other facets of urbanism also warrant adulation and exploration. One example is the narrative of human-scale urbanism—the pedestrian-driven places that put people at the center of the town. Due to its human-scale nature and morphology, the quotidian landscape, more than other existing settings, such as those modeled on “bigness” and dispersion successfully narrates a clear story about the essence of everyday urbanism: the nexus between the physical and the social, and the architecture and everyday life of the city's urban spaces. Life and culture in the UAE have evolved drastically, but in old communities where the quotidian landscape is still palpable, it has stayed the same—simple, open to everyone, and full of animation and affection.

Type
Roundtable
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 50 , Special Issue 3: Environment and Society in the Middle East and North Africa , August 2018 , pp. 562 - 567
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Koolhaas, Rem and Mau, Bruce, SMLXL (New York: Ed. Monacelli, 1995)Google Scholar.

2 Ryan, Brent, “Whatever Happened to ‘Urbanism’? A Comparison of Premodern, Modernist, and HOPE VI Morphology in Three American Cities,” Journal of Urban Design 18 (2013): 201–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Alawadi, Khaled, “Rethinking Dubai's Urbanism: Generating Sustainable Form-Based Urban Design Strategies for an Integrated Neighborhood,” Cities 60 (2017): 353–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Moser, Sarah, “Putrajaya: Malaysia's New Federal Administrative Capital,” Cities 27 (2011): 285–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Ponzini, Davide, “Large Scale Development Projects and Star Architecture in the Absence of Democratic Politics: The Case of Abu Dhabi, UAE,” Cities 28 (2011): 251–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Acuto, Michele, “High-Rise Dubai Urban Entrepreneurialism and the Technology of Symbolic Power,” Cities 27 (2010): 272–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Alawadi, Khaled and Dooling, Sara, “Challenges and Opportunities for Participatory Planning Approaches within Dubai's Urban Context,” Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability 9 (2015): 276–301Google Scholar.

8 Acuto, Michele, “Dubai in the ‘Middle,’” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38 (2014): 1732–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Alawadi, “Rethinking Dubai's Urbanism.”

10 Moser, Sarah, “Globalization and the Construction of Identity in Two New Southeast Asian Capitals,” Rethinking Global Urbanism: Comparative Insights from Secondary Cities, ed. Chen, Xiangming and Kanna, Ahmed (New York: Routledge, 2012), 169–89Google Scholar.

11 Elsheshtawy, Yasser, Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle (London: Routledge, 2010)Google Scholar.

12 Walters, David, Designing Community: Charranes, Master Plans and Form-Based Codes (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2007), 135–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Alawadi, Khaled, “Urban Redevelopment Trauma: The Story of a Dubai Neighbourhood,” Built Environment 40 (2014): 357–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Alawadi, Khaled, “Place Attachment as a Motivation for Community Preservation: The Demise of an Old, Bustling, Dubai Community,” Urban Studies 54 (2016): 2973–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Elsheshtawy, Yasser, “The Prophecy of Code 46: Afuera in Dubai or Our Urban Future,” Traditional Dwellings and Settlement Review 22 (2011): 19–32Google Scholar.

16 Elsheshtawy, “The Prophecy of Code 46,” 30. Cited in Alawadi, “Urban Redevelopment Trauma,” 356.

17 Alawadi, “Rethinking Dubai's Urbanism,” 263.

18 Alawadi, Khaled and Benkraouda, Ouafa, “The Debate over Neighborhood Density in Dubai: Between Theory and Practicality,” Journal of Planning Education and Research (2017), https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X17720490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Alawadi, Khaled, Khanal, Asim, and Almulla, Ahmed, “Land, Urban Form, and Politics: A Study on Dubai's Housing Landscape and Rental Affordability.” Cities (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/jcites.2018.04.001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar