Eric Demay

Monday World Architecture News: Dubai. Firstly, let’s set the table, let’s get updated on what is being built over in the UAE. Here is a collection of renderings (four pages) of “only a small portion of the buildings that are being proposed, constructed or developed in Dubai and its surrounding region.” In this land of endless potential and infinite possibilities, the biggest architecture players are each pushing and redefining contemporary architecture in every new construction, may it be formal or conceptual. However, in response to the “growing superficiality [and] deadening sterility” that are faced contemporary cities and the “growing use of high-end architecture as a tool for self-promotion”, Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) are also proposing a metropolis in the metropolis. The gridded generic city made of smaller scale “nondescript towers and occasional bold architectural statements constructions” is an experience in urban construction and a critic to the development of Dubai as a “theme parks of architectural tchotchkes“. Our own Charles-Antoine & Anne-Sophie were working hard on this project over in Rotterdam last summer.