Generative Infrastructural Urbanism in Dubai

DI Policy Brief Series

As Dubai embarks on the Dubai World Central (DWC) project in parallel with its Urban Development Framework plan, it is instructive to review similar moments in the Emirate's past when large-scale infrastructural projects generated formal changes in the metropolitan area. The decade of the 1970s, when Dubai enjoyed high capital liquidity from increased oil revenues, marked a prolific time for such infrastructure investment.Concerns over inflation, and the need to further develop Dubai's vocationas a regional entrepôt, guided ambitious infrastructural planning and construction. In contemporary circumstances, high capital liquidity from a more diversified economic base, matched with the desire tocontinue developing Dubai's international tourism and trade profiles, has launched a new round of infrastructure planning andconstruction.Recommendations are offered on how these projects will spatially impact the metropolitan form and functionality, and how the Emirate can best prepare for these changes.

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