Dubai Is An Urban DISASTER. Can It Be Saved?

——

———

In this video we do a deep dive in the city of Dubai, one of the world’s most controversial cities.

The main question of this video: can this massive city… sustain? With massive resource consumption, environmental pressures, and an insistence on building skyscrapers by a who’s who of international starchitects, is Dubai heading for trouble?

In this video, we dive into whether the city is doomed or not and share insights on how it could turn things around with smarter urban design. We’ll look at how traditional architecture might actually hold the key to saving the city, plus ideas on fixing its car-heavy transport system. And let’s not forget Dubai’s reliance on international trade networks and supply chains, which leaves it vulnerable—making Dubai a bit of a mirror for the challenges our own society faces.

We tried not to only bash this city, but to come with suggestions of how Dubai could potentially improve - which will be hard, but not impossible.

———

==========

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you click on them and make a purchase. This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support the channel.

🎥 Video equipment I used:

📖 Favourite Urbanism & Architecture Books

===========

🎶 Music:

Desert Nights - In This World - 4U4TPMBXBKYZ0RBT
Hidden City - In This World - ICFPZOFX9BVHLZXY
Transporter - Falls - RNBGWFFTM40YUYWH
Outlandia - Falls - WDUEI4TJO3U3HR3F
Allons-y - Falls - IZFIHUSWFRY2JYWK

==========

👉Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Part 1: The Rise of Dubai
04:46 - Part 2: Crucial Flaws
09:43 - Part 3: Saving Dubai
13:03 - Conclusion: Is Dubai Doomed?

©️ Copyright info:

Angela Manthorpe, CC BY-SA 4.0
Vincent Eisfeld / vincent-eisfeld_de / CC BY-SA 4.0
Liz Lawley Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Alamy BDG4JM
Kjell Olsen CC BY-SA 2.0
SiefkinDR, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International 
Kittelträger - CC-by-sa 4.0
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2021 - CC Attribution 2.0 Generic
Anja Vrečko - ATTRIBUTION 2.0 GENERIC
Samuel Bailey  - Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Kaveh Parseh - ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE 4.0 INTERNATIONAL
Colegota -  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
Black Swan book: Alan Levine, on PxHere

[steemlenn]

It's so stupid that they have ignored all the historic knowledge of how to live in the desert. And they don't even have solar power on those bridges, right? Even though that would be self-regulated energy system: The more sun, the more cooling need but also the more solar electricity.

[mdhazeldine]

Props for actually going there and visiting it before spouting out opinions on the internet. That's not an easy thing to do, but I really appreciate it when it happens!

[dweeznutz]

Another thing to mention too: UAE has a problem beyond the extreme heat: extreme humidity. This is why traditionally, the locals lived in places like Al Ain, rather than Abu Dhabi or Dubai, which were fishing/ pearling spots. Places like Al Ain had drinking water and were far dryer, making them more hospitable

[damiano_ferraro]

It is absurd to contemplate how much enduring beauty could have been realized with those vast sums of money squandered on a fake, inhumane city…

[grahamturner]

Dubai seems like what would happen if Phoenix had oil money.

[guywithyoutubechannel]

dubai has to be among the top 5 most farmed video topics on this website
more people talk about it than actually live there

[horatiohuskisson]

It’s such a shame they chose to build a cheap imitation of a car centric American city rather than a beautiful Arabian city

[Trargent_]

Its quite weird how the city gets richer, it also gets less attractive/ beautiful...

[GABiHatchiiwa]

Thank you for making this video! It's one of the more level headed ones I've seen on this platform. As a resident and a student, the car centric-ness of this city is the bane of my student life. I use the metro and bus system for my commute and the capacity is not matching with the growing population. Even worse when you live near Sharjah where the end of day traffic lasts well into the night.

The Blue Line of the metro is hopefully on the way which connects the green line to Mirdif and neighboring areas but I still feel like they need to address the conjestion from Business Bay to Union Station. Changing portions of the highway underground and turning them into walkable parks is definitely a good idea! I would love it if the city did that along with more dedicated bus lanes that they started to implement. Life is comfy here (as far as my introverted, hangout averse self goes) but the city planning here has lots to be desired.

[cartercasias]

Those ai generated images depicting what Dubai could have been were incredible. Imagine if the UAE had built a city specific to their own culture and people instead of trying to appeal to the world. The people and culture are the soul of a city which I wish the government had cared more about. Arabian architecture is so beautiful. I loved the Ai image of the underground metro too, It was a very nice modern/futuristic touch. I hope those ideas will be implemented to that degree of beauty somewhere in the future.

[hafizwildones]

I feel it's important to mention that they are starting to realize all this, They're already building a metro expansion with a lot more coming after that one as well as connecting areas that are disconnected by highways. The issue is more societal than government at this point as doing anything outside of a car is just not even in the thought process. Changes are happening though, road redesigns usually include alternative forms of transport and bike lanes. Change is happening and that's always good

[floresamor]

The ai images reminds me of Mucat city in Oman. They opted out of skyscrapers and instead used traditional architecture and shorter buildings. It’s so beautiful

[robmeagher]

I'd rather go to Muscat in Oman... Dubai looks pretty boring and bland to me

[Alex-cwrz]

4:00 The London School of Economics revealed in a recent study that on average low taxes do not attract millionaires, how to attract them is making an attractive place to live. As you said clean streets etc. It is why the UK in the 1960s which was centre of art and culture in the world had a huge influx of millionaires even though the top rate of tax was 97%. Now the actual tax rate received was lower, however well over double and some estimate show it at triple what is reciebed today. That is why the Uk was a world leader in research and development, the streets were clean and money could be put back into the arts attracting more people.

[isamusika]

I've been an expat in Dubai for 17 years now. Obviously, I don't have a say in how the city is planned. I can make suggestions, requests, or criticisms all day long, but at the end of the day, I can choose to stay or leave whenever I want. That said, after all these years, two things are clear: this city offers
1. better economic opportunities and
2. better security for me and my family.
We’re wishing Dubai all the best in the future.
It’s a young city, and it’s still learning.

[SquidProQuo]

It's disgusting how Dubai had the opportunity and resources to design one of the world's most beautiful, pedestrian-friendly and well served by excellent mass transit cities on the planet and instead they recreated Houston.

[dangerousfox]

I recently watched a video ahout Dubai by Arab basically talking about how amazing it is but not focusing on any of the negatives, and I thought that was very misleading. I love how this video is more objective with some valid opinions thrown in, like "a developed city is not one where the poor drive, but where the rich take public transportation". Love this channel, keep it up

[westacheny]

They built everything from scratch, imagine if they had experimented with new ways of integrating both cars and walkable paths. Maybe they would have discovered better way to lay out the infrastructure for both.

[EVIL-to]

Please do this with more cities, I would love to see the good and the bad from around the world from your perspective.

[Alex-cwrz]

4:00 this isn't actually true, millionaires are threatening to leave, but when all your wealth is tied up in assets, all they can do is make baseless threats as they always do. Unless they want to fire sale all their assets. Which even Russians banned from London have struggled to do.