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Monday, March 3, 2008

Rem Koolhaas’s Dubai

posted by on March 3 at 8:47 AM

Rem600.jpg

Read Nicolai Ouroussoff’s entire piece on the design, because it is about the life of all cities. Ouroussoff lays out both sides of Koolhaas’s project—and each side’s potential powers and dangers—really well, especially his salutes to Warholian sameness and, at the same time, his outbursts of egotism.

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1

The truly interesting thing about Dubai is that in 50 years, most of it will be washed away by the rising seas.

And yet they still keep building.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | March 3, 2008 9:01 AM
2

"Is this large enough to sustain the dense social fabric that Mr. Koolhaas is after? Or is it more likely to become a new species of gated enclave, architecturally stupendous yet profoundly exclusionary?"

I predict it'll be more towards the profoundly exclusionary. Dense social fabrics are born, not made.

Posted by Katelyn | March 3, 2008 9:03 AM
3

IT'S THE FUCKING DEATHSTAR!

Posted by seattle98104 | March 3, 2008 9:03 AM
4

"the thrust of his strategy is to turn the logic of the gated community on its head: isolation becomes a way to trap urban energy rather than keep it out. His goal is to imbue his waterfront enclave with enough complexity to provide a distilled version of the great metropolis within this moated sanctuary."

Sounds like another vanity project for the super-wealthy. Where will its (guest) workers live?

Posted by Trevor | March 3, 2008 9:04 AM
5

Oooh, good call on the guest workers, Trevor @4.

Posted by Katelyn | March 3, 2008 9:06 AM
6

what is dubai's FUNCTION?

besides Michael Jackson, WHO lives there? WHY?

ELF, THIS should be your target. not that i object to you warming up on Street of Dreams.

Posted by max solomon | March 3, 2008 9:12 AM
7

Too bad no one in their right mind will travel there to see this since Dubai frequently arrests and unjustly imprisons foreign travelers

Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23436226-details/Briton+jailed+in+Dubai+after+officials+find+cannabis+weighing+less+than+a+grain+of+sugar+under+his+shoe/article.do

Posted by marmar | March 3, 2008 9:12 AM
8

@3:

Hm, my first impression was that it was a ginormous Pokemon ball:

"I choose YOU, Dubaisaurus!"

Posted by COMTE | March 3, 2008 10:38 AM
9

That city is going to be tackier than Vegas.

Posted by keshmeshi | March 3, 2008 11:09 AM
10

hmmm... Koolhaus' "generic city" sounds an awful lot like Corbu's "la ville radieuse" plan to destroy Paris and replace it with and endless grid of identical towers...

so Koolhaus adds a few, to use Venturi's term, "Ducks" and it's supposed to be wonderful?

doesn't sound either creative or appealing.

We already have the suburbs to prove that a sterile environment doesn't make people more human

Posted by fllw | March 3, 2008 11:12 AM
11

i also like how he shows trees growing everywhere in a fresh-waterless, 120 degree desert.

Posted by max solomon | March 3, 2008 11:36 AM

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