The World
The offshore World project consists of over 300 man-made islands strategically positioned to form the shape of the world map, lying 4km off the coast of Dubai. Measuring approximately 9 km in width by 7 km in length, the development will cover approximately 9,340,000 square meters, will be visible to the naked eye from space and will add an additional 232 kilometers of beachfront to Dubai’s coastline. For The World to take shape, Nakheel is moving over 326 million cubic meters of sand to form the islands as well as building a 26 km-long oval shape breakwater.
The Palms
This three-stage development involves the creation of the world’s three largest man-made islands known as The Palm Jumeirah, The Palm Jebel Ali and The Palm Deira (right). Located just off the coast of the city of Dubai, the three palm tree shaped islands will increase Dubai’s shoreline by a total of 520 kms and create a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment opportunities.
While the first two islands will comprise approximately 100 million cubic meters of rock and sand, Palm Deira will take in 1 billion cubic meters of rock and sand – all of which will be quarried in the UAE. Between the three islands there will be over 100 luxury hotels, 10,000 exclusive residential beachside villas, 5,000 shoreline apartments, marinas, water theme parks, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities, health spas, cinemas and extensive dive sites.
Dubai Waterfront
International architectural and planning firm Gruzen Samton has prepared the masterplan for Dubai Waterfront, the largest development of its kind in the world. The masterplan includes a detailed plan of Phase One, Madinat Al Arab, featuring development control and design regulations. Plans have also been provided for each investor detailing a map of their land plot and usage, its size and location, as well as height restrictions and built-up area specifications.
Phase One was completely sold out in July 2005 for Dh13 billion in just five days after its unveiling. Located on the emirate's last remaining natural waterfront, near Jebel Ali, the project plans to be a world-class destination at the heart of the new Dubai, according to state-backed developer Nakheel. The masterplan integrates Madinat Al Arab, a vibrant downtown area enveloped by water and located on the main harbour, in the heart of the project.
Particular emphasis has also been put on infrastructure through planned roads and other amenities that will meet the demands of the rising population. The destination, which is set to become a benchmark for integrated development, is well located for direct access to Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road, the Jebel Ali Free Zone, Abu Dhabi, the planned Jebel Ali Airport and has also taken into account the proposed metro link-up.
Madinat Al Arab will be anchored by Al Burj, set to be one of the tallest buildings in the world – and going head to head with the Burj Dubai, currently being developed by another state-backed Dubai developer, Emaar. The final height of both towers remains a secret.
Nakheel plans to build a new city with a population of at least half a million. Including Nakheel’s nearby offshore Palm Jebel Ali, that figure will be nearer 700,000. Dubai waterfront is a long-term project; Nakheel is looking at 10 years for the infrastructure to be in place, although not necessarily all of the buildings will be in place by that time. Land for construction will be delivered throughout 2006. The developer has, it claims, maximised the sea view for all the residents by scaling the buildings from 10 storeys, rising to 20 storeys and then 50 storeys. We have planned the towers in such a way that everyone will have a sea view.
‘Anyone who has bought a plot will have three and a half years to start and six and a half years to finish construction. We are being very strict with that,’ says Nakheel. ‘We don’t want plots to be continually traded, so we have included clauses encouraging developers to build.’ Nakheel will be responsible for putting all infrastructure in place and selling the serviced land to developers. There will also be land parcels developed by Nakheel.
Dubai World CentralDubai World Central - a massive, multi-phase development centred around the world's largest international airport has unveiled its 140 square kilometre city masterplan. This one development will be almost almost twice the size of Hong Kong Island. The self-sustaining development, at Jebel Ali, some 40 kilometres south of Dubai city centre, includes Dubai World Central International Airport (JXB) - which when complete will be the world's largest with a capacity equal to that currently of Chicago's O'Hare and London's Heathrow - and a cluster of specialised zones. Dubai World Central will be a new city where eventually some 750,000 people will live and work - that's more than the present population of Frankfurt and almost that of Stockholm. The master plan, now refined, originally had a working title of Jebel Ali Airport City.
Dubai World Central is the most strategically important infrastructure development yet launched by the emirate. It is designed to support Dubai's aviation, tourism, commercial and logistics requirements until 2050 and infrastructure costs alone will run to US $33 billion.
At the heart of Dubai World Central is Dubai World Central International Airport (JXB) - which will be the world's largest passenger and cargo hub with a design capacity of over 12 million tons of cargo a year and in excess of 120 million passengers annually and capable of handling all new generation aircraft, including the A380 superjumbo.
Dubai World Central also creates the world's first truly integrated multi-modal logistics platform with all transportation modes, logistics and value-added services, such as product manufacturing and assembly in a single-bonded free zone environment made up of Dubai Logistics City, Dubai World Central International Airport and Jebel Ali Port.
Other Dubai World Central components include: Residential City, which will offer a combination of freehold and leased quality homes, Commercial City, which will feature hundreds of office tower blocks, a golf course resort and an Enterprise Park.
'This will be a 'smart city' - a beacon of future living and working environments. With our smart city approach we are demonstrating our commitment to delivering a leading-edge proposition which will further push the urban aviation development boundaries,' added Sheikh Ahmed. DLC, together with Dubai World Central International Airport and the Jebel Ali Free Zone and port, provide a single customs-bonded free zone environment and the world's first truly integrated, multi-modal logistics platform. It will be operational by the end of next year.
Dubailand
Dubaland is said to be the largest single development so far adopted in the UAE. Dubai’s government is assisting the project with some $1 billion of infrastructure funding. Covering about 20,000 hectares and due to open next year, the theme park, promoted by the Dubai Development and Investment Authority, is being developed by means of $5 billion private investment and is expected to attract 15 million tourists by 2010.
Over 200 individual projects were originally planned for the development when it was unveiled in October 2003, but out of the 45 megaprojects planned, only 21 had been signed off by 2005. Located around 20 km from the centre of the city, Dubailand was initially billed as the biggest leisure-based development on the planet. Among the 21 projects to have been given the go-ahead are the $1.5 billion (AED 5.5 billion) theme park, Legends Dubailand, the $1 billion City of Arabia, including the Restless Planet dinosaur park, and the $540 million Dubai Sports City. Other projects approved include the $136 million Dubai Sunny Mountain Ski Dome and the $231 million Aqua Dunya.
Business Bay The Business Bay development has attracted billions of dollars in investment and stretches several kilometres along and extended Dubai Creek. The developers say it is being modelled on international centres such as Manhattan and will feature facilities such as towers for offices and accommodation, gardens, and a road network. It will also feature canals to add to the splendour of the project.
Unveiled late last year by General Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Business Bay intends to create a new commercial and business cluster and is planned to be the cornerstone of a new economic push as well as extend the international role of the UAE. Business Bay reflects the ambitious vision of Dubai and the role that the UAE is looking forward to play as a leading international commercial and business centre. The essence of the project lies in extending Dubai Creek and to allow construction of a huge new city within the city. The importance of this unique project lies in the tremendous impact it will have on the local economy.
The project is expected to be in similar format to Manhattan or Ginza, which are the business centres for cities like New York and Tokyo. As a result we expect a number of visitors to the event form around the world specifically targeting the development as their local, regional and international headquarters.
Dubai World Trade Centre
A Dh16 billion ($4.36 billion) masterplan for the enhancement and development of the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) complex involves a major redevelopment of the present DWTC complex to include a state-of-the-art convention centre, office and residential towers, hotels and hotel apartments and shopping facilities over a period of seven to 10 years. The current exhibition capacity at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre will be increased by 30 per cent in order to meet the surging demand for exhibition space. The new development will complement DWTC’s plans to develop the Dubai Exhibitions City, which forms an important part of the World Central project at Jebel Ali. The Exhibition City will provide 120,000 sq m of exhibition space upon completion of Phase One in 2009. Apart from the new convention centre, designed to be the most technologically advanced in the world, the project will add to the number of available hotels and hotel apartments in the city and will increase Dubai’s capacity to hold world-class meetings and conventions.
It will also include the Landmark Tower to be situated on Sheikh Zayed Road near the Emirates Towers, shopping outlets, residential complexes, parking facilities and links to the planned Dubai Light Rail metro system.
Dubai Exhibition Centre
In May 2005 a US$2.2 billion project was announced to construct a Dubai Exhibition City at Jebel Ali. This will have 19 halls with 500,000 square metres of exhibition space (being 10 times larger than the current facility). The first phase is due for completion in 2009.The objective is to give Dubai the opportunity to move from being the regional exhibition centre in the Gulf to one that is able to stage large scale global events.
Jumeirah Open Beach
The ongoing construction work at Jumeirah Open Beach aims to turn the beach into a world-class recreational facility. New features will include a five-star restaurant, a beach bazaar, a food court, an amphitheatre, a skating park and a pool for children. There will be a jogging track along the 1.2 km stretch of the beach between the northern breakwater beside Dubai Marine Beach Resort and Spa. Other facilities will include attractive new lifeguard towers, covered changing rooms with locker facilities, and walkways. Water sports activities will be provided. The aim of the Dh100 million development is to enhance Dubai's tourist appeal as a premier beach resort destination. Private firms have been invited by Dubai Municipality to grab investment opportunities offered by the Dh46 million Jumeirah Open Beach beautification project. The second phase of the project consists of soft and hard landscaping of the beach-front as well as refurbishing of existing beach facilities such as refreshment kiosks and changing rooms, which shall newly include lockers.
Dubai Marina
This is a US$10 billion project that will be completed over a 20-year period. The first phase has involved the construction of a 3.5 kilometre canal and marina area connected to the sea. The second phase of the development is the construction of prestigious residential towers incorporating over 1,200 apartments and waterfront villas with over 60 shops and commercial buildings.A mixed-use development on approximately 578 hectares, Dubai Marina is planned as one of the major new centres within the city. Designed with the intent to create a new focus for high-density development, it was conceived as a 'city within the city' that would help shift the perceived centre of Dubai further west along the shore of the Gulf.
As work began on the master plan, the true design challenge came from the lack of context within which to build. As a place with few historical references and no traditional commercial real estate market, on a site simply bounded by a freeway on one side and a beachfront on the other, HOK and Emaar Properties had an open opportunity to define the characteristics of the kind of community we wanted to create. In the most generic sense, as planners, HOK tried to define the essence of what makes a great urban place and translate it into the physical context at hand.
The Dubai Marina project was blessed, says HOK, with a developer who had a strong initial vision for the overall development. This 'big idea' about the form, shape and function of a new urban area, is one of the essential factors for successful urban design. The vision for Dubai Marina brings the waters of the Gulf into the site, creating a new waterfront community. It will be a dense, urban place with a residential focus capable of accommodating a large international population.
Another key factor in the design of Dubai Marina was a large central waterway, excavated from the desert, running the length of the 3-kilometre site. To protect this resource as well as to create a place for recreation, the design established a continuous minimum 15-metre-wide strip of land around its perimeter.
This is a remarkable and generous achievement in a private development project. More than 12 per cent of the total land area on the site has been given over to this central public space. Although much of this area is occupied by the marina water surface, it also includes almost eight kilometres of landscaped public walkways creating a recreational zone along the waterfront with views into the various water basins and a relationship to the water. In a fairly dense urban setting, where fresh water is scarce and rain is insufficient to support open landscapes, the value of the marina is in the finished visual open space it provides in the center of the development. Like Central Park in New York, or the Grand Canal in Venice, the marina public space opens up the development to light and long views.
In addition to the marina waterway and promenade, the other important components of the public realm are the streets, avenues and parks that create the framework for the development. All of the neighbourhood streets are designed with generous, landscaped pedestrian walkways leading to the parks and the marina. Residential building entrances are oriented to these neighbourhood streets to encourage active pedestrian circulation and to create functional and visual linkages between buildings and the marina even if the particular building does not front directly on the waterway.
From an urban design perspective, the important factor is that the public realm is conceived and designed as a network of linked open spaces, and the private development parcels and guidelines controlling private development are all shaped to address and enhance the adjacent public realm.
The convenience of being able to walk to perform daily errands, to meet friends and to access community resources is one of the real pleasures of urban life. The activity and social interchange that this kind of access provides is also one of the qualities that make cities interesting places to live.
Dubai Marina is designed so that residents can arrive home, park their car and walk to take advantage of all the resources in the community. Retail shops and community services will be built into grade-level building podiums in neighbourhood centres. Larger shopping facilities with restaurants and cafes are planned at key locations along the promenade around the perimeter of the marina and along major boulevards. All residential development is within a five-minute walk of the marina promenade.
Linked to the objective of creating a pedestrian-friendly urban community is the need to provide a mix of grade-related, street-front land uses that meet the needs of neighbourhood residents and that are convenient and accessible. Retail and community service uses need to be concentrated into well-defined centers of activity, and these centers need to be conveniently distributed throughout the community.
The development frontage along the marina promenade is planned to provide a real mix of conditions to create interest and variety along 8 kilometers. Some lengthy segments of the promenade will be quite passive in character, providing a landscaped walkway in front of low-rise residential development lining the waterfront. The promenade also links the series of pocket parks at the end of cul-de-sac streets that may have cafes or convenience shops in adjacent residential buildings. In other waterfront developments, similar to the Phase 1 project, much more active commercial centers are planned that will generate and encourage pedestrian traffic and activity along the promenade.
One of the problems with large-scale master planning is the tendency to become too prescriptive in creating urban design guidelines that apply to the entire planning area. The result is a homogeneity that can be repetitive and tiresome. The neighbourhoods created in Dubai Marina are designed to allow for creation of a distinct identity and haracter responding to their own unique location within the overall community.
Dubai Marina has the advantage that it will be built out over a long period of time. This in itself creates variety. Over time, market conditions will change, as will community needs and priorities. The master plan creates a framework that can respond to change and allows for additional phases of detailed planning and urban design as new segments of land are opened up for development.
The fine grain of land subdivision will also be an issue addressed in subsequent planning stages, and may be one of the key factors in generating diversity and variety in the identity of different neighbourhoods. The developable land immediately adjacent to the marina is currently parceled in very large plots. These can either be developed as large multiple structure developments, as represented by the Phase 1 development, or they could be subdivided into smaller development plots. There is also the potential of opening new neighbourhood roads through some of these large plots to create smaller development parcels with internal road frontage.
Dubai Festival City
This is a 1,200 acre development on the Dubai Creek near the Al Garhoud Bridge. The project cost is now US$7 billion. It will be built in phases with completion due in 2015. It includes a 4 kilometre waterfront promenade comprising a mix of entertainment, dining shopping, sport and leisure facilities, hotels and marinas as well as residential and office. Construction is now well advanced.
Downtown Dubai
This downtown development includes a host of the ‘biggest and best’ type projects including the proposed tallest Burj Dubai tower and the biggest Dubai Mall. Downtown Dubai as a whole is a ‘planned’ mixed use community currently rising like a small city from a blank construction site at Dubai’s core. The Burj Dubai Tower is a US$1 billion project, which is planned to be the world’s tallest tower, and it will form the centerpiece of the Gulf regions most prestigious urban development. It has been designed to contain residential and commercial space as well as a hotel. Although the final height of the tower remains a closely guarded secret, it will exceed the 452 metres, which is the height of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. Construction is now well underway. Set in 400 acres of lush landscaped gardens and parkland just across the Burj Dubai Interchange on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai Mall is expected to ‘transform’ shopping and leisure in the Emirate as Dubai bids to become the world’s retail capital.
Dubai International City
This US$2.5 billion development, due for completion in 2007, will host a population of 65,000. It is being constructed in eleven distinct districts, reflecting the architectural styles of China (The Dragon Mart – the largest trading complex for Chinese goods opened in 2004), The UK, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Iran, Russia, Morocco, Thailand and Indonesia.
Dubai Health Care City
This project, announced in late 2002, is worth US$1.8 billion and will transform Dubai into a global hub for specialized healthcare, research and medical education by 2010 catering for the Middle East’s US$74 billion healthcare market (which is currently expanding at 16 per cent per annum).
The Al Safa project
A new housing and recreational project reflecting the Arab architecture with modernity will be built in Al Safa area in Dubai. The project will cover an area of 100 hectares and will feature a water channels and a lake surrounded by restaurants, office and residential complexes. Inspired by the traditional aflaj (water channel) system, the project will reflect the original architectural heritage of Dubai in terms of a network of small canals. It will include a recreational commercial axis for pedestrians, called the Pedestrian Promenade, to be constructed along an 800-metre stretch of water canal. Residents will be able to use boats as a mode of transport and leisure. There will be separate areas for cars and pedestrians.
Hydropolis Dubai (The Underwater Hotel)
Work on the Dubai’s first underwater hotel could start in the first quarter of next year, says Mansoor Ijaz, chief executive of Crescent Hydropolis Resorts (CHR), who hopes to commercially launch the hotel in 2008. When it was originally announced two years ago, the hotel was expected to open in late 2006. Ijaz said the hotel, the brainchild of German architect Joachim Hauser, would be built in a different site than originally planned. Its land station will cover some 60,000 square metres and include several retail apartments, as well as the entrance to a 500 metre underwater tunnel leading to the hotel. To be constructed from a combination of concrete, steel and Plexiglas, the hotel itself will have 200 rooms and 24 suites — each expected to cost several thousand dollars per night. ‘The architecture of the land station requires the building to be something like 25 to 30 stories tall,’ said Ijaz. CHR, which is based in the Isle of Man and now controls the Hydropolis franchise, was restructured earlier this year and floated on London’s secondary stock exchange, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), in June. The group has developed two concepts — shallow water hotels like Dubai’s which will be built inside an outer wall and look in on a huge artificial aquarium, and developments which are constructed onshore and then towed out to deeper waters.
The Palm Trump International Hotel and Tower
Nakheel and The Trump Organization have revealed their plans for The Palm Trump International Hotel and Tower. Spanning 5km in length and 5km in width, The Palm Jumeirah is one of the world's largest man-made islands, creating the shape of a palm tree in the Arabian Gulf. The Palm Trump International Hotel and Tower will provide a spectacular luxury centrepiece hotel on The Golden Mile – the exclusive residential and retail boulevard on the trunk of The Palm Jumeirah. It will pioneer the condo-apartment hotel concept in the region. The development will feature approximately 500 apartments (1/2/3 bedroom studios and penthouses), which can be bought to own, and each residence will have the luxury of access to five-star hotel services and amenities. The development will be the first project in Dubai where each room, on the entire 360 degrees of the tower, will be guaranteed a sea view. The development will also include a selection of high-end boutiques, fine dining, signature roof top restaurants, bars, swimming pools, and a luxurious spa and health club.
