Dubai Properties av Bin developing the new Venice
We all know that developers in the UAE won’t have anything to do with projects that are anything less than outstanding / impossible. And the catchily-named Mohammed Bin Rashid Gardens is a prime example of this, but without a skyscraper in site. Instead, Venice had better watch its back
The $60 billion parks project by Dubai Properties was announced last spring and now the overall masterplan for the development has been revealed. The ‘Venice of the East’ theme, with more than 150km of the city made up of waterfront and wetlands, also involves more parkland than London and New York put together.
The design has been completed by London-based architect, Eric Kuhne, who tells arabianbuiness.com:
“The canal system, which will be navigable, will…provide wildlife habitats and provide numerous opportunities for leisure and recreation.”
But will there be gondolas?
‘Arabian urban design principles’
The urban development has been centred around Sheikh Mohammed’s 2015 Strategic Plan for Dubai, which apparently was to build “a city for roughly a quarter of a million people, that would create parks and gardens, waterways, educational institutions, cultural facilities and establish a new city based on Arabian urban design principles, not European and North American principles,” says Kuhne. Right, better get to work then.
New homes and other facilities
Mohammed Bin Rashid Gardens will consist of new homes, educational, financial and commercial facilities and iconic civic buildings, which will all be connected by the waterways and enough greenery to offset the carbon emissions of the whole city. Bill Oddie is yet to be confirmed for the opening. Sounds good to me, all the beauty of the floating city, but without the pigeons.
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