o "the Cloud" me dá um certo medo!
Impressionante

first comment;) DAMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN; AMAZING BUILDINGS.

Really great architecture, but in my oppinion you can't call the new Dubai a city. It is just a bunch of modern skyscrapers in the middle of nowhere. No urban planning, more a playground for famous architects. And anyway, Dubai is really dying since the financial crisis.

Insane... thanks for sharing.

wow, they actually have a rotating tower??
I have to go to Dubai to visit these amazing buildings!!

The entire city looks like it's out of Star Wars. I'm waiting for some Jedi to start running around with Lightsabers.

wow! would be nice to see now the existing architecture of nower days.

man!! the difference between 1990 and 2003 is like oMG!!

I've seen pictures of Dubai and have heard miraculous things about the country, but this post is truly amazing. I love the extensive display of pictures. I wonder what "the cloud" is and what it's used for.

God the dancing buildings make me queezy, awesome projects all round though, with the palm tree and world map already grabbig my attention i'm definately going to have to go there one day. I just hope for its sake it survives the recession.

Thanks for the comments, hope you liked the post.
Janw, thats a good pointview that we can discuss more, how the purpouse of all that, right?
MitchMahoney, "the cloud" is a resort city elevated 300 meters in the air.

Great images of Dubai. I love the whole sci fi feel to them.

In fact only one or two of these are realy good architecture, all the rest don't have consistence. Only a few jokes of form that I could let my children do. It realy don't configure a city, it's fashion architecture. In some years it will be mor one big dinosaur of our ignorance.

wow.

some incredible stuff there O_O

i was born and raised in dubai from 1981-1999 then i moved to the US, ive seen some of the miraculous transformation that dubai has undergone.

im surprised that u din post pics of the islands that they are building in the water....when it comes to architecture i would have to say dubai is gonna be the center of it all.

Also u din post the ski resort that they have in the middle of the desert and the worlds largest aquarium, also pics from inside the burj al arab hotel are very inspiring....

thanks for the post...

In my opinion architects can design crazy stuff all day. The question is whether it will get built. I think some of the less crazy stuff in this post will get built but the deathstar, porsche tower, opera house, anara... good luck seeing those built any time soon.

People in Dubai just have too much money. They even have an indoor ski mountain.

you need to get an updated picture. 2003 vs 2009. an even bigger change.

and don't forget the Burj Dubai.

wow, it apears to me that dubai have been promoting itself as a huge world laboratory for all kinds of experimental architecture. Very polemic issue marcelo, nice post. I'll be wainting for part II!!

Looks like these buildings belong in great cities of the past like Atlantis... I think people are starting to remember our high tech heritage.

Amazing buildings! Too bad, Dubai is really affected by recent world's financial crisis... the Arabs spend so much money for lavish buildings and now lot of projects can't be completed coz lacks of funds...

I love the fact that they are supporting some pretty radical architecture. We will know have to wait and see how many of these proposals actually see the light of day. So far many are just pitches or renders and will stay that way. Lets hope they don't but I'm not holding my breath at the moment

I was there 2 weeks ago and expected what many who have only seen it in magazines and architectural renderings hope to see. But this wasn't the case.
It is a dry and dusty place. Part of what makes a city grand is the combination of landscape and architecture and the interaction of people with these. Unfortunately they are not going to be able to get round the fact that it hardly rains, so delete all the green you saw on the renderings and artists impressions. Replace it with brown.
Sure there are some flashy buildings but it feels like an soulless film set at the end of the days shooting. And each flashy building is surrounded by a number of less flashy buildings, dragging down the aesthetic (or surrounded by featureless desert which is as depressing).
Unusual is right. City? I think not. It is no more than a collection of buildings, which isn't the same.
I still took some nice photos though.

The buildings are amazing!

but the workers who build these buildings are practically slaves, with terrible living conditions in the extreme heat, extremely poor sanitation, barely any food, and no hope of ever going back to their homelands. They are often left unpaid.

I currently live in Dubai in the United arab emirates, the architecture is definatly one of a king, with new projects spawning constantly, if your interested in modern architecture this is the place for you.

-Ty
skreamdesigns.com

Gorgeous designs but frankly the archaic laws of the country insures I won't be visiting. No way I'm supporting them by giving them my money.

I live in Dubai and i don't think ill be able to see these buildings ever in my life.. Dubai just like to promote it self as if its the worlds biggest city but really its nothing.. Those are just concepts except Burj Al Arab.. Any ways good luck to you that you wont fall into the trap of Dubai

I lived in Dubai from 1989 to 2000, I changed so much in that time.

My friends all complain that it is just one big building site all the time and that traffic is now a major problem.

I am sure that once it is all finished it will look amazing, thing is, a place can look amazing... but the people are crappy.

The Arabs just through money at EVERYTHING, the expats are the type of people that have got the worlds economics in a mess..MONEY MONEY MONEY.

I loved my time there, but the types of people that it attracts now, just make it somewhere I want to avoid.

Great Building though..lol

Dubai = Petrolleum = Much & Much Money = Incredible Buildings & Resorts & Homes. But still you can not drink or buy a bottle of beer from a market. If you're lucky, you can drink it in your 5,6 or 7 star hotel :)

While this is some fantastic architecture I'm sorry to say I'm not impressed. I can't help but questioning the purpose with all this. What's behind it, what's the intention etc etc.
This is just a symbol of how capitalism is a failure. This is what we do with money when people are starving around the world? I'm just not impressed...

Actually there are lots of places to go and have a drink. There are hundreds of bars in hotels.

You can not buy drink in supermarkets, you have to go to a special shop, most people have an alcohol license and just buy in bulk for parties etc...

The point about it being like a movie set with no soul is exactly right.

How about the fact that all those buildings are being constructed by Pakistani labor that's almost to the point of slavery. They are tricked into coming to Dubai by being told they'll make a lot of money, that they'll pay their travel expenses there and it could be paid back easily in wages. But when they get there their passports are taken away, the amount they promised is greatly reduced taking them 3 years to pay back the debt. Made to live in horrible conditions. All so they can build these buildings.

It's a petty that all modern architecture made by computers, not by the people. Modern designers start thinking like a 3Ds Max soft or so. This buildings nice but don't have an warm homelike comfort like an old european streets, for example. Hey, guys add some from your self not only 'standart primitives' from the soft panels.

I was in Dubai last year for 2 weeks. I took many many many pictures. There are a few of these buildings right now but most are ideas and concepts. I do see many of them happening in the next 10 years.
They have tons of money because of all the oil, once that runs out (and it will someday), they will be relying on the buildings and many other things to attract tourists which will become the number one thing to bring money to that country. It's just what I think.
I did have a great time there but I'm also from Iraq so it might've made things easier for me a bit (Canadian Citizen)

Dubai really is the capital of "out-of-the-box" architecture.. I love it..

Too bad the money is spent a bit to fast and the investors are moving out of the country though.. Also this way of building isn't that friendly towards its surroundings and nature.. :(

The fact that the whole concept of designing a building that fits in its environment is either neglected totally, or honored for the fact that all buildings are wonders on their own is pretty interesting..

THE Anara Tower IS AWESOME! the angle of the 1st pic is breathtaking, it overlooks the palm tree island magnificently.!!!! i'm going there b4 i die... lol

Dubai is an extremely interesting place, and I give kudos to them for what they're trying to do. Dubai actually has very, very little oil. Oil only accounts for around 8% of the country's GDP, and so basically they're going 'all in' in an effort to make the city a global financial center and tourist mecca, and thus all the crazy, futuristic architecture you see there. Were they not doing these things, Dubai would go back to being a Bedouin sandpit, with no oil, nothing to recommend it, and nothing going in its favor.

Now with this explosive growth has come a lot of problems, particularly of the environmental sort, and also due to the vast numbers of impoverished workers brought in from Africa and East Asia who are frankly exploited terribly, their passports taken away so that they cannot leave, and forced to live and work in terrible conditions. And environmentally speaking, much of the sea around Dubai is 'dead'. It is so contaminated that it's hazardous for humans to swim in, much less even think of eating anything which might come out of it.

It will be interesting to see how it all works out, as they are fighting against Mother Nature herself. It is so ungodly hot there (averaging between 110-117F in summer months), and so dry, that the amount of water needed just to keep the city alive and functioning on a daily basis is frankly staggering to the imagination. And as a result of this, the people of Dubai leave by far the largest carbon footprint on earth (dwarfing even that of the Americans), and that again all plays into the environmental problems which plague Dubai. And no matter what they do, the desert constantly creeps in. Sand is everywhere, carried by the hot, dry winds.

What they are doing could be considered highly unnatural, trying to create an oasis requiring vast amounts of water in one of the driest and harshest climates on earth. But it's what they have to do, because they have no alternative due to their lack of oil. I wish them luck with it.

Frankly speaking, all of these structures don't harmonize standing with each other. It looks like a bunch of random buildings that are about to be placed on a single area. Well each of them looks promising when it comes to over-all design, but not when they are seen together.

it's AMAZING,WONDERFUL...what again do these guys want or need.....ARAB MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice......what a wonderful world

That's just crazy.