Living in the future, life in the UAE.
I’ve just returned from a very brief trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Both were fascinating in their own way – most of which has been covered by numerous articles and videos documenting the amazing growth and development.
Apart from the unbelievable opulence everywhere, the thing that struck me the most was how much the perspective of people living there is focused on 3 – 5 years in the future.
While we’ve all seen amazing pictures of the buildings in Dubai, mostly the view is of construction sites like this:
Or this (the view from my very expensive beach hotel).
To cover this up, the developers have put up billboards depicting what you’ll see in 3-5 years when it’s done.
The most extreme case of this is a new island that’s being built:
Which will (by 2012) house a monumental set of signature buildings like a new Guggenheim and a new Louvre by architects like Gehry and Nouvel among others.
This focus is not confined to a civic level. On a personal level, most people buy villas “off plan” meaning that they’re buying houses which are not yet built. To buy one of these homes, a down payment is required and then additional payments are tied to each phase of construction until the villa is done (in 3 – 5 years) at which point you’ll have paid around 80% of the full price of the home.
Added to all of this is the fact that around 80% of the population are expatriates who are there for short periods in order to net a payday upon leaving, and it adds up to a very strange focal length for someone who lives in a country like the US.