Dreams of an Architect: Top 10 Cities in the Middle East

After such a long journey through the spectacular urban landscapes of the Middle East, we have finally reached the city that is possibly the world's most one renowned for luxurious travelling and state-of-the-art architecture. Definitely worth being ranked on the first place, Dubai amazes its visitors with the tallest man-made structure in the world, with the most luxurious hotels, with countless facilities and with its massive development in the recent years, hardly encountered elsewhere...

Dubai is the city with the largest population in UAE, located within the emirate of the same name. The emirate of Dubai is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf and is one of the seven emirates that make up the country. The earliest mention of Dubai is in 1095 AD, and the earliest recorded settlement in the region dates from 1799. Its strategic geographic location made the town an important trading hub and by the beginning of the 20th century, Dubai was already an important regional port.

Today, Dubai has emerged as a cosmopolitan metropolis that has grown steadily to become a global city and a business and cultural hub of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region. Although Dubai's economy was historically built on the oil industry, the emirate's Western-style model of business drives its economy with the main revenues now coming from tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services. As of 2012, Dubai is the 22nd most expensive city in the world, and the most expensive city in the Middle East.

Dubai has been called the "shopping capital of the Middle East". Dubai alone has more than 70 shopping malls, including the world's largest shopping mall, Dubai Mall. The city draws large numbers of shopping tourists from countries within the region and from as far as Eastern Europe, Africa and the Indian Subcontinent.

For the recent years, Dubai has been hogging the limelight for its tourism and retail, as well for its impressive architectural development. Dubai has a rich collection of buildings and structures of various architectural styles. Many modern interpretations of Islamic architecture can be found here, due to a boom in construction and architectural innovation in the Arab World in general, and in Dubai in particular, supported by top Arab or international architectural and engineering design firms.

Burj Khalifa, known as Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration is the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m. Its design is derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture, with the triple-lobed footprint of the building based on an abstracted version of the desert flower hymenocallis which is native to the Dubai region. The completion of the Khalifa Tower, following the construction boom that began in the 1980s, accelerated in the 1990s, and took on a rapid pace of construction unparalled in modern human history during the decade of the 2000s, leaves Dubai with the world's tallest skyline as of 4 January 2010.

Construction began on 21 September 2004, with the exterior of the structure completed on 1 October 2009. The building officially opened on 4 January 2010, and is part of the new 2 km² (490-acre) development called Downtown Dubai. The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago, with Adrian Smith as chief architect, and Bill Baker as chief structural engineer. The primary contractor was Samsung C&T of South Korea.

Burj Al Arab is a luxury hotel located in Dubai. At 321 m, it is the fourth tallest hotel in the world; however, 39% of its total height is made up of non-occupiable space. Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island 280 m (920 ft) from Jumeirah beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to mimic the sail of a ship. Sometimes referred to as "the world's only 7-Star hotel", its star rating is disputed. The building opened in December 1999.

Burj Al Arab was designed by architect Tom Wright of WKK Architects. Construction of the Island began in 1994. It was built to resemble the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. Two "wings" spread in a V to form a vast "mast", while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium. The architect Tom Wright said "The client wanted a building that would become an iconic or symbolic statement for Dubai; this is very similar to Sydney with its Opera House, London with Big Ben, or Paris with the Eiffel Tower. It needed to be a building that would become synonymous with the name of the country."

The Palm Jumeirah is an artificial archipelago created using land reclamation by Nakheel, a company owned by the Dubai government in United Arab Emirates and was designed and developed by HHCP architects. It is one of three planned islands called the Palm Islands (Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira) which would have extended into the Persian Gulf, increasing Dubai's shoreline by a total of 520 kilometres. The Palm Jumeirah is the smallest and the original of three Palm Islands originally under development by Nakheel.

Atlantis Hotel is a resort located on Dubai’s reclaimed artificial island The Palm. It was the first resort to be built on the island and is based on the myth of Atlantis. It includes distinct Arabian elements. The resort opened on September 24, 2008 as a joint venture between Kerzner International Holdings Limited and Istithmar.

The World or World Islands is an artificial archipelago of various small islands constructed in the rough shape of a world map, located 4.0 kilometres (2.5 mi) off the coast of Dubai. The World islands are composed mainly of sand dredged from Dubai's shallow coastal waters, and are one of several artificial island developments in Dubai.The World's developer is Nakheel Properties, and the project was originally conceived by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai.

Dubai Marina is a district in Dubai. Dubai Marina is an artificial canal city, built along a two mile (3 km) stretch of Persian Gulf shoreline. When the entire development is complete, it will accommodate more than 120,000 people in residential towers and villas.

The Dubai Sports City (DSC) is a $4 billion, 50,000,000 square feet (4,600,000 m²) mixed-use sports city currently being constructed in Dubai. The city will consist of apartment buildings as well as several sports facilities. The first structures opened in late 2007. Dubai Properties is master developer of this project for infrastructure.

Dubailand is an entertainment complex being built in Dubai, which is owned by Tatweer (which belongs to Dubai Holding). When announced in 2003 it was one of the most ambitious leisure developments ever proposed anywhere in the world costing 64.3 billion, but development has been severely impacted by global recession and Dubai's financial crisis. The development was put on hold in 2008 and will resume in mid-2013. Updates in 2013 show that $55 billion has been raised therefore a positive future will hold for Dubailand. An estimate shows that Dubailand will probably open in 2015.

Presently under construction in the city of Dubai, Hydropolis Hotel Dubai will be the first underwater hotel in the whole world. It will feature three parts: the land post, where visitors will be greeted, the connection subway, which will convey individuals to the center place of the hotel, and the 220 suites found in the underwater leisure complex. It is one of the biggest modern construction projects in the entire world, having 260 hectares, about the same size of Hyde Park of London.

With all this amazing architectural innovations, there's no doubt that Dubai is should be ranked as a first-class city not only in the Middle East area, but in the whole world. Finally having reached our number one destination in the Top 10 Cities in the Middle East, I'm eagerly waiting to find out your opinions about this surprisingly prolific area for architectural development.

Since it is the first day of 2014, I wish you all a great new year, full of spectacular achievements. May you accomplish success in all your plans and, whenever you feel the need for an unconventional escape from the daily rutine, make sure to pay a visit to the blog - because 'Dreams of an Architect' will never come to an end...

Dreams of an Architect

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Top 10 Cities in the Middle East - 1. Dubai

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