Parachute into Dubai, the glittering chimera, for an architectural smorgasbord. Since the 1970s, the little city on the waterfront of the Persian Gulf has boomed into a unique, tower-inflected phenomenon, corresponding to the vision of its ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
What does it add up to? For an architect, Dubai has become a required stop on the 21st-century version of the grand tour—a place to balance the firm’s portfolio of domestic work, to compete for a job, or to gawk. Imagine a totally new city (though a small trading center existed before), springing up in the desert, filled with a gaggle of skyscraping monoliths, artificial islands offshore, the world’s tallest building, the world’s largest mall, the most luxurious … seemingly everything. For architects during the past decade, the future possibilities have seemed endless.
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