Dubai Sci-Fi

[alanajoli]

The more and more I read about Dubai, the more it strikes me as a city straight out of science fiction. The most recent article was this 60 Minutes segment hosted by Yahoo news. The Sheik decided that they should double the coastline of the city, and so they built an island that looks kinda like a spider, so that each of the arms could have beach-front condos on it.














I don't know if the look they're going for over there is the futuristic, or whether that's just what's happening, but Dubai looks like where it's at for science-fiction styled architecture and man-made islands.

Edited to add a photo that appeared in the NYTimes a few weeks ago, but that I couldn't find online. Luckily, I'd saved it. :)

Comments

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

Dubai rocks. I was there earlier in the year, and right now, it's an intriguing blend of old and new, Western and Arabian. On the one hand, you have the old-fashioned cultural heritage-type places, and then you have the presence of every Western brand/chain known to man. Many buildings have two towers to them, just so they can have a name (like Rolex, or Marriot) posted first in English letters, then in Arabic script.

And yeah, the newer buildings are out of this world. Cutting-edge, dynamic, creative, and -different-. From the ultra-fabulous hotels to the manmade island resorts, Dubai's reinventing itself for tourism... after all, they want to be prepared should the oil money ever run dry.

I love Dubai, and want to go back eventually when the Palm Islands and the World are closer to done.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

It looks like a really mind-boggling place to visit--and a great setting for some urban fantasy, maybe. Whenever you have a juxtaposition of cultures, it seems like it's ripe for epic fiction to happen in the midst of it all.

Did you notice how the cultural atmosphere was in regards to women? When I was in Turkey this year I noticed how much more open women were in public than six years ago--far more liberal than it had been in 2001 (as far as apparel was concerned, at the very least).