Legacy of Architecture and Urban Planning in Dubai

Posted by Andree Iffrig Aug 16, 2009

Famous for its iconic architecture, Dubai’s ultimate architectural legacy may be the folly of pursuing form for form’s sake. Dubai is a city of oddly-shaped towers, each vying with the other for attention. The city has failed miserably at creating the intricate web of buildings and human-scaled public space that support relationships between people and the urban environment.

The real story in Dubai is social and environmental in nature. The region’s economy has been built on the backs of indentured labor. When architects turn a blind eye to the social impact of erecting buildings, their actions call into question the raison d’être of the profession.

Writing about Dubai in the August 2009 issue of Architectural Record, Michael Sorkin observes the fallout of the international economic crisis has exposed Dubai's worst excesses. In the wreckage of incomplete buildings are to be found the casualties of form for form’s sake: half-built towers “blowing billions of BTUs to keep the square miles of carpet cool to off-gas undisturbed.”

Sorkin, who directs the urban design program at City College of New York, states “This is an environment designed by the world’s best and brightest.” Yet the environment and social justice have been short changed in the architects’ fetish for form. What were these smart designers imbibing with their beer at architecture school? Certainly not an understanding of the complex interplay of finance, culture, sustainability, history and place.

As an educator, Sorkin recommends giving every student a foundation in the different design professions: architecture, urban design, landscape and environmental design. Great cities are not created by individual architects but by collaborations between professions and the communities they are supposed to serve.

Being a graduate of an interdisciplinary program of studies, I know first-hand how hard it is to collaborate and genuinely practice integrated design. If designers are going to be knowledgeable about sustainable design and what makes for humane cities, schools of design will have to adapt. Integrated or interdisciplinary design processes need to become the norm not just for LEED buildings but the wider profession.