Dubai forward : architecture in a transient city

Dubai is a fascinating young city projected to the future. Its skyline offers nowadays a wide panorama of architectural works, from largescale interventions to small size projects, designed by some of the most world-renowned architects such as OMA, Foster + Partners, Santiago Calatrava, SOM, Zaha Hadid Architects, Atkins and so forth. Nevertheless, Dubai’s fragmented urban fabric lacks today unity, continuity and identity. There is an urgent need of actions aimed at a radical change of the urban landscape, attempting to reconnect a built environment fragmented by the bursting expansion of recent times. This book presents the outcomes of the international design workshop “Towards Dubai 2020. Architecture in a Transient City” organized in Dubai in November 3rd-11th, 2017 by Al Ghurair University in collaboration with d3 Dubai Design District, the Polytechnic University of Milan and the Sapienza University of Rome. This was the second workshop of a series dedicated to the theme “Architecture in a Transient City”, the first held in march 2017 entitled “Dubai Pop- Up” and published in this same publishing series. The workshop promoted reciprocal cultural exchanges and benefited of lectures and contributions by some prominent figures of the academic and professional world. The visiting students worked together in mixed groups with local students of the Bachelor in Architecture of Al Ghurair University (coming from different countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa) fostering a significant cultural contribution. The goal was also to enhance capacity building through a collective growth and awareness.