Friday, Mar 20, 2009
Goodbye Dubai - the Guardian paints a grim picture
Guardian: The dunes will reclaim the soaring folly of Dubai
When prices go up, buildings go up. When prices come down, buildings tend to stay up. Construction has ceased on half the unfinished towers that stretch out into the desert. Nothing can bail out a tower if there is nobody to live in it. The same goes for thousands of villas on the artificial islands in the world's most boring sea. They will stand empty in the heat. Most towers were built as investments. The value of those investments has fallen an estimated 60% in just six months. If their emptiness reaches a tipping point where there are no neighbours, no shops, no services and no social life, they will decay, like downtown Detroit. Their lifts and services, expensive to maintain, will collapse. Their colossal facades will shed glass. Sand will drift round their trunkless legs.
9 Comments
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1. Hev said...
I was in Dubai early last year and could not see the appeal of this massive construction site in the dessert, every one appeared to be rattling on about their investments but unless you like shopping in very expensive malls or really want to pay extortionate bar bills in the hotels- what is the point?
It also appeared to be a potential terrorist target, I would prefer a tent in the Dales.
2. montesquieu said...
Interesting comments, some of the ex-pats a bit hot under the collar as their gravy train hits the buffers.
Jenkins has tendencies towards being a smug prat like most Times columnists but on this occasion he's spot on.
3. Lazypeon said...
I always thought that place was going to be in trouble anyway when sea levels start to rise!
Something that big and extravagant, without a solid pragmatic reason for being there, was bound to become a massive liability sooner or later. The whole place is the biggest collective ego-w@nk in history :D
4. japanese uncle said...
Any sane minded person could easily envisage this. As I said earlier, Burj Dubai will be standing unfinished, precisely like a Tower of Babel (or Bubble?), as poignant testament to the stupidity of the greedy.
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6. icarus said...
"Just throw more money at it". This has been the MO of the ruling family's horse-breeding operations too. Autocrats and grand designs don't produce much of lasting value.
7. drewster said...
Jenkins makes some good points about the architecture in Dubai. If they had spent the last decade building modest low-maintenance low-energy more traditional urban houses and souks, then they would better survive a downturn. However the gleaming towers are expensive to maintain; without the bubble jobs it's hard to see who will pay the maintenance fees, let alone the rents. The UK has made similar mistakes - look at the poorly-built apartment blocks in Leeds or Liverpool.
8. inflation is eating my savings said...
There is always this option.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt-Igoe
I always wanted to press the button on one of these things...........
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