Dubai now has the tallest building in the world, and 11 skyscrapers that are taller than any European building.
That's from Ed Glaeser, who offers a more general take on the city-state.
Dubai fact of the day
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I vaguely recall that some economist has a “skyscraper business cycle theory” that predicts a crash after a spate of record-tall buildings are built. This seems to fit the theory, though I’m not sure if the theory proves more than “busts tend to follow booms.” Still, it’s interesting to think about.
Besides (or maybe beyond) excess capacity, Dubai suffers from a major design flaw: It’s a brilliant copy of the very worst model of urban planning: USA 1975.
Even in the 5-6 months of moderate weather you cannot walk around the new parts of Dubai. The distances are too great for comfortable walking. The city is built around the car. All that Arab culture learned in a thousand years about adapting cities to great heat — high-ceilinged buildings along narrow streets which provide shade and short distances to walk outside — have been forgotten or ignored. The city’s design ignores the goals of the modern sophisticated tourist — to be able to walk around outside.
… and massive overcapacity.
City Comforts: Dubai wasn’t trying to attract “sophisticated tourists” who want to stroll around. Am I wrong to detect in your complain that it’s “the very worst model of urban planning” merely that it’s not what you like?
From what I’ve heard secondhand about Dubai’s weather, you don’t want to walk around. Nobody there walks around. They’ve “ignored” lessons that were applicable to not having air conditioning or vehicles, and to having to walk – because they don’t have to and don’t want to.
Personally, I’m rooting for the death of “the city” wherever possible, but that’s perhaps because I’m the opposite of an urban planner, and the people most strongly pro “the city” qua “the city” are urban planners. If they won’t let a city organically grow, change, and sometimes die, then, in the words of Conan, “to Hell with them!”
(More seriously, when was the last time an “urban planner” made something anyone but a few dedicated urbanites without kids wanted to live in?)
Dubai is in the Persian Gulf. That’s where the oil is. It is a producer of oil. We have been assured that there are no limits to growth, that the oil will never run out.
The economists tell us that this is true and the environmental wacko chicken little’s running around saying the oil is running out are all just flat wrong!
There are no limits to growth!
Dubai has merely adopted the business theory of the best and brightest of US business schools and the schools of economics. There are no limits to growth, and the way to win is to build capacity so you swamp your more conservative competitors and offset your losses with increases in market share.
The oil will never run out, so building ski slopes in a desert is just a way to gain market share and not foolish – Dubai produces oil and the economists say the oil will never be depleted. Can you go skiing in on Wall Street? No, you must travel to New England or Vail and then only in the winter. Clearly Dubai will replace NYC as the world’s finance center because the oil will never run out and so there is no limit to Dubai’s growth except the failure of imagination.
The point of all this building supposedly was not to draw tourists, but to get talented people to move there permanently. But the plan — and this was urban planning with a vengeance — focused on wow-factor buildings with amenities designed for jet-commuting knowledge-workers. In the long run it is possible that the empty scrapers will ultimately fill up. It is equally possible that other cities in the region will invest more intelligently and cost-effectively in the infrastructure and amenities that support day-to-day pleasantness and help constitute lively cultural and entertainment scenes of various kinds.
Dubai will live on because at it’s core it provides a tax haven and entertainment haven in a region that demands it.
It’s not the first of it’s kind either, there’s Hong Kong, Singapore and Cayman Islands.
I thought Dubai sent you to prison if you couldn’t pay your debts? I’m guessing this doesn’t apply to the royal family.
Excellent Post, Keep it UP
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