Emerging from the desert in less than 50 years, Dubai is a constantly evolving city with extraordinary architecture.
Emerging from the desert in less than 50 years, Dubai is a constantly evolving city with extraordinary architecture.
“Most major cities are readily identified by their skyline, and Dubai is no different,” says Dubai-based architect, Richard Fenne as he discusses the urban landscape of our fast-paced city.
Fenne is an architect for the international studio, Woods Bagot, which has played a key role in some of the UAE’s most important urban projects, including as the master planners and Phase 1 architects of the expansive, city-defining Dubai Design District (d3).
A City of Diversity
Like many global cities, Dubai’s architecture of the past 10-15 years has been characterised by a diversity of skyscrapers informed by varied streams of contemporary architecture, with many of them iconic, supersized, glittering and glamorous.
“Dubai is incredibly mixed. What’s also very interesting about the city’s skyline is that there’s a sense of immediacy about it. One year here feels like five anywhere else because everything happens so fast; you have a sense that you can make a real contribution to the city,” says Fenne.
A Vision for the Future - d3
And the future is bright and ambitious. Turning away from the super-sized, the city-defining project of d3 is leading the way in creating a new roadmap for development in Dubai - where community, integration and lifestyle-led urban space are placed at the forefront of development.
A pivotal project, d3 is creating a new hub for design in the city, attracting local emerging designers and established brands to co-exist in a vibrant community; a creative eco-system that fosters partnership and innovation.
While many of the world’s creative hubs have grown organically over many years, the result of evolving fashions and cultural trends, the creators of the Middle East’s design district are undertaking an ambitious and innovative approach to creating a regional centre for creative design.
The design industry in the Middle East is thriving and is now an important part of the economy, worth around $2.3 billion in 2014. For the thousands of artists, fashion designers and creative minds across the region, there has been a desperate need for a real, living community: a community that provides space, collaboration and opportunities.
A Collaborative City of Community
Longevity and working with the environment are design principles that are now at the forefront of the many masterplans citywide, says Fenne. Moving away from the trend for one-off iconic structures and following in in the footsteps of d3, Dubai’s masterplans with their thoughtfully planned urban spaces and innovative architecture, aim to create engaged and involved communities where people can work and live harmoniously.
Image credit: Made.ae