copyright @nbencheci
Dubai is definitely not “black and white”!
Believe it or not, but Dubai is kind of a tabu between architects, specially for the ones from Europe, where architecture’s culture is so deeply related to its history, where each city has developed slowly through the centuries in an organic way to be build; where time have been working through centuries in order to select the best buildings to bring to the present; where the resources become so scarce that we’ve learned to force ourselves to become minimalists or systematically developing more ecological behaviors. Sometimes all of this is also kind of too much.
Seems I was trying to believe this myself, specially during the years I was studying architecture. By then, I have also written an article how I saw Dubai and all that crazy and over-scaled built-reality, which I could not understand and which I would denying to get it a chance to get to know it better by visiting the place, and all because everyone around me was defending the same argument, becomiing the only “truth”.
It happens that some years have passed. I confess it have never come to my thoughts again. Vanished, because no contact of relationship has come from my surroundings related to this kind of cities.
But curiously, three years ago, my sister got a chance to go to live in Dubai. Visiting her was just a normal thought! But if she wouldn’t go to live there, I would probably never ever think to go to visit Dubai.
But it goes, I went there my first time, and I tell you – no expectations. Actually almost with little kind of negative preconceptions build through the years, influenced by the ‘school’ and western old culture… I went there to be with my sister, no matter what. But then – what a surprise!
I just landed in the morning after around 7 hours flight during night time. I got to my sister’s apartment, leaved there the luggage and right after we landed almost directly to a birthday boat party. I mean, come on, I don’t know how often boat parties happens in your kind of lifestyle, but for me at that time was something so unexpected and so cool somehow, that the introduction to this “weird place” (in my mind) was leaving myself in a contradictory situation.
Imagine – you are experiencing something new, you see Dubai from the waterfront perspective, all the skyline, Burj al Arab from the sea, all the Marina area, funny people and well spent time…; of course such an introduction to Dubai’s lifestyle will make you start to look at things slightly in a different way, don’t you agree?
You start to understand that the places you go are demanding a well-dressed and finesse behavior. You get involved in an atmosphere where, as an architect, you start to look around, looking for details, and you just realize slowly how much care, creativity and amount of resources they have invested in every space that surrounds you. You’ll probably laugh, but I started to get so curious that I won’t miss to check even one ladies (bathroom/toilet) everywhere we went to. While in Europe usually this spaces are only functional, there they are another kind of representative space. Spacious, with strong design concepts, well developed, music, textile towels, hand lotion.. Those you see as kind of a standard, and they weren’t 4 or 5 stars restaurants or hotels… I was getting seduced by all this generous budget interior designs, by the lifestyle that in Europe has a very hight price to afford and it comes with the feeling that you don’t belong to this standards… but in Dubai it seems like something normal, easy and confortble to have.
There is also the believe that in Dubai urbanism and architecture doesn’t make any sense, partly because for years, specially at the architecture schools where I or other architects that I know have been through, we were told only negative aspects of this frenetic development, a non pedestrian city, non-ecological movements and choices that would ruin all the efforts. All this has it’s truth, but isn’t the truth also a matter of perspective?
copyright @nbencheci
That’s how now I realize how the misconceptions about this place were built and transmited perpetually through our western culture. A culture is by itself like a filter, it forces you to select thing linke “black&white” (right&wrong). In my perspective though is all very relative. I don’t know if that comes with the personal experience of being born, growing up and living in different cultures attenue your filters somehow. What for westerns is wrong reality, for soviets that has lived in the regime the same reality appeared to be very satisfying; the same with arabics and all those misconceptions of restrictive culture, non sense and crazy constructions, are only an interpretation through a specific cultural filter. But when you’re present, and experience a certain reality, and you get to see other side of the same story, you might get surprised with what kind of information and interpretation you arrive to.
There are so many issues to be exposed and discussed that for sure makes sense to develop this ideas in separate articles. After spending in total more that two months in total through the last 3 years, I have stories that never ends.
I could tell more about what to do, where to go, what to visit, critics about society, work environment, human rights, clima, etc. etc. It would be nice to get to know if you’re interested in such content. Leave me a comment anytime, share your experiences as well!
I’ll be glad to hear from you! 🙂
nataliabencheci 