The Gift within Dubai: Urban design as a catalyst for social interaction in a city of rapid multicultural urbanisation

Abstract

Over the last two decades, rapid multicultural urbanisation has occurred in the Dubai Emirate of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E), creating a dense and claustrophobic urban fabric, especially in the immediate urban suburbs surrounding the historic Dubai Creek precinct. This enclosing urbanisation has occurred phenomenally fast, destroying sense of place and isolating and disorientating communities already disconnected through political, economic or social planning. A complex multicultural society comprising of Emiratis, Asian, European and Middle Eastern nationalities exists within this area. In the built urban environment these cultures inhabit dense urban space in separated forms. It is a unique environment, located in an Arabic country that through its economic policies has imported a large expatriate population to achieve its expansion programme in a basically barren desert landscape, where the local population is now only twenty percent of the total number of residents. The experiences and opportunities o# ered by each sub-culture in the urban fabric of Dubai, and the potential for exchange between them, can be enhanced through an exploration of ‘gifting; a concept which has the potential to inform spatial qualities of the urban environment. According to the theoretical underpinnings of the gift, an architectural project can conceptually ‘gift’ a ‘sense of place’ through multicultural and social constructs and connections. This exploration is combined with the use of selected precedents and the author’s first-hand knowledge gained from living in the Emirate. The result is a sustainable urban transit system within the historic Dubai Creek precinct, with a Multi Trophic Aquaculture Facility, which is responsive to the urban context and reflects the social structure, cultural habits and inhabitation of the urban environment. The project is proposed as an architectural example of a community system node, expressed through an architectural concept of ‘gifting’.