Le Corbusier dreamt up Ville Contemporaine.
Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned Broadacre City. Now, add into the mix Rem Koolhaas' design for the Waterfront City in Dubai - some 1.5 billion (yes, with a 'b' people) square feet of development.
Yet again, one of the notorious Starchitects proposes an urban development plan that is suspended in hypotheticals in lieu of considerations for practicality. While the New York Times gushes over the prospect of the project, here are shortcomings that we see:
- In a nomadic society that embraces mobile technology - laptop, wi-fi, collapse of tangible networks and support systems - how can the premise of a densely populated urban environment succeed anymore?
- The glossy review reads as though this city will emerge practically overnight. Let's not tease ourselves as this plan will take time and energy to evolve. The imagery is lovely, but the ramifications of practicability for the project need to be reviewed and resolved - i.e. transportation, water and sewer, electrical needs, and any ecological impact(s).
- The shear amount of materials and manpower to construct this vision is staggering. Can the global economy afford such an undertaking and depletion of resources in order to permit this project to move forward?
- Lastly, the project appears to be nothing more than a urbanized Baudrillardian Disneyland. Banal buildings are a backdrop to articulated, well-formed buildings. Ultimately, the development forms its own context, culture, society and - ultimately - economy. It is displaced from reality as it acts as its own Garden of Eden. And, by doing so, Koolhaas ultimately fails to deal with the context of an existing environment as his romanticized writings in 'Delirious New York' imply.
The disappointment that arises from reading this article is that once again architects are failing to observe, review and propose for the current built environment and landscape. Where cities are experiencing declines in population growth, planners and officials demolish vacant properties and seek resolutions for redevelopment. The redevelopment projects are consistent from one city to the next - demo this, mixed use here, redistrict there, and recall the 'Main Street' concept.
When one looks at the proposal for Dubai, one must begin to question what examples from these proposals can be (if at all) used for redeveloping our existing cities and trying to make inhabitable areas better. We need to bear in mind that our level of comfort in nostalgia is inherently flawed and new planning techniques need to be considered in order for our society to continue to evolve (note to self: modern cultures don't live in caves anymore).
The success of Rem's plan for Dubai is not what may or will be built for the Waterfront, but what the global society can extract from the plan and apply to their own city.
