Germaine Greer really gave Dubai a thrashing in The Guardian this week.
"For all its extravagant novelties and its masses of petunias, Dubai is a city with neither charm nor character," says the feminist writer and scholar. It seems like only yesterday that Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, was raking in accolades for its grand and innovative architecture. Now, suddenly, the tide has turned. New buildings are standing empty and critics like Greer hotly criticize the excesses.
As for the soaring Burj Dubai? Greer calls it "outrageously megalomaniacal, and defiantly worldly, a new Tower of Babel."
More in The Guardian: Dubai's architecture is beyond crass. For opposing views, click the comments link below.
Photo: The Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) © Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
Comments
Is the author of the article sure that she is talking about Dubai? Not only the
architecture of this city is stunning, but is also innovative. Dubai attracted the
world’s most prominent architects, including Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid,
and Jean Nouvel, who are designing groundbreaking projects; individual building contain
great architectural elements; sides of the building are decorated by asymmetrical
exquisite art elements. The article remind me of old art books, where during
(so-called) the dark ages we have ignored great accomplishments of “islamic art”.
How can she claim that her critique on Dubai is genuine? This is an absolute joke. She herself said that her stay in Dubai was only for four hours of which she spent on the open top of a double-decker!!!
Germaine Greer didn’t even bother to check her facts. Burj Dubai is entirely empty because it is still under construction!!! Palm Jumeirah is in fact largely developed and I wonder where she herself saw the stagnation and algae? Surely not from her bus seat because the bus can’t reach there.
She has the right to say anything about Dubai’s economy, whether it is good or bad, but it should be valid with substance, and not what the bus driver told her on her 4 hour trip.
Imagine I go to Sydney on an 8 hour bus trip and come back with a “investigative” article about the city and its economy.
Should’t we encourage creativity? Is it possible to “feel” a city like Dubai in just a couple of hours? Well, she is entitle to her opinion but it will not change the fact that it is an interesting place tovisit for many on the face of the earth. For many of us Africans, it is a dream.
I’d agree with the critics, not only on architectural grounds but also on humane grounds. I’ve been there several times for work. It is totally soulless; full of people chasing the big buck or escaping taxes at home and totally unsustainable. The grand architecture, linked by broad highways either under construction or whizzing with traffic is completely intimidating to pedestrian human beings who must be encased in airconditioned vehicles to – in come cases – cross the street!
Yes, Dubai is a very characterless city with no identity nor culture. Too many cranes pollute the already busy skyline and the traffic is crazy. The city has nothing to offer other than an array of bars and massage parlours doubling as brothels!!! oh! and of course, thousands of spas offering makoevers and tucks and nips and botox and this and that and whatever.
Most of the people in the world are racing to make them proud with the tallest building in the world, but, they’re never thinking about how much cost, budget, and the economy is still bad. Even ig the country has a tallest building, they will have more risk and dangers. Will it stop? Never, right?
Dubai is a joke. They have nothing to keep themselves sustained. It is completely a trend location and in 10 years everyone will forget the city exists. What then? You think they would have a little more common sense before building that tower. It could work in other cities MAYBE. But is there really need for somthing that tall? Its just a hazard.