There is a new book out right now about the United Arab Emirates called 50U. It has been fifty years since the confederation of the seven Gulf states was officially declared (December 2, 1971), and so the book is a celebration of that. The format is 50 portraits of people, places, and plants (yes, plants) that tell the story of the UAE.

Included in the book is an excerpt of a 2009 talk by architect Rem Koolhaas (of OMA) about his reading of Dubai. ArchDaily published an abridged version over here and I thought it was an interesting read. Few people think about cities as deeply as Koolhaas does, and few can express their thoughts in such a rational and Dutch-like way. Here's a snippet of the talk:

I came here first in 2004. We were asked to do a major building on the site which is marked by the flag. Then, two years ago it was the exact moment… I became increasingly nervous about the mission of architecture and the uses of architecture. And I really became almost desperate… that the incredible pressure of the market economy was forcing architecture itself into increasingly extravagant conditions. Seemingly, Dubai seemed to be the epicenter of that extravagance. So, I came with deeply ambivalent feelings. It seemed as if the idea of the city and the metropolis itself had been almost turned into a caricature, not a coherent entity but maybe a patchwork of theme parks. And those themes would become the bogus and increasingly bizarre characters that were perhaps partly mythical and partly real.

I've only been to Dubai once. It was back in 2008 or 2009. And to be honest, it wasn't my favorite city; I think primarily because I enjoy walking cities and Dubai is largely the opposite of that. It felt like a patchwork of theme parks that you had to drive around to -- ideally in an exotic car while being as flashy as possible.

Now if these theme parks were within walking distance (and the drinks were good), that would be an entirely different story.

Google Earth has a feature called Timelapse that combines millions of different satellite images to show you how the world has changed over the last 37 years -- sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. It's a feature that's been out for a few years, but they just made it available in 3D. Some of you may have also missed the feature if you don't normally use Google Earth. So here's an overly wondrous video (also embedded above) showing off the new feature, and here is a dedicated site that allows you to quickly try out Timelapse in 2D. Dubai's "coastal expansion" is one of the places you can quickly land on and its growth over the last few decades is always mind boggling to see. But of course, there are also many other important Timelapses that should be viewed. A number of them speak to our environmental impacts on the world.

This week Bloomberg reported that Dubai is facing a "housing disaster" as a result of overbuilding. There's simply too much supply coming onto the market. About 30,000 units are expected to be completed this year, which the industry believes is about 2x actual demand. As a result, the industry -- yes, the development industry -- is calling for a 1-2 year pause on all new construction in the city so that the excess units can be absorbed and demand can catch up.

I'm not an expert on the Dubai market. And I've only been to the city once. But my sense is that there are relatively few barriers to new supply, especially compared to markets like Toronto and San Francisco. And so it's not surprising to hear that supply is and has been outstripping demand. According to Bloomberg, the market peaked about 5 years ago.

For the industry to call for a moratorium on new construction it must mean that there's concern of a prolonged housing slump and perhaps even some sort of systemic collapse. But if the objective is more affordable housing, than you might argue that Dubai has been doing a pretty good job of that. Here is a global city with a "housing crisis" on the opposite end of the spectrum. So what is it that makes Dubai different than, say, London or San Francisco?

Photo by David Rodrigo on Unsplash