I have often heard it proclaimed in expatriate circles that Dubai is what Hong Kong was ten years ago. This month after visiting the city recently re-embraced by mainland China, I believe the converse statement to be true: Hong Kong is what Dubai will become.
An architectural walk around Hong Kong Island sees dramatic contrasts abound with sparkling glass and steel façades nestling alongside century-old public buildings. The tour takes in Sir Norman Foster’s industrial HSBC headquarters; P&T Architects’ monuments to modernism and many others. The world’s most renowned architects have converged on Hong Kong, in exactly the same way they are circling the Business Bay development in Dubai. In five years time, will our streets be filled with the same backpack wearing tourists donning headphones and following a guide with clipboard aloft gawping at the latest offering from Zaha Hadid or Rem Koolhaas? Most probably.
As we go to press, Moutamarat’s International Design Forum is being held in Dubai; the topic on everyone’s lips being how the Arab world can create low environmental impact designs in this age of critical economic challenges. The three-day forum is being hailed as a resource rather than an event, and with speakers tackling questions such as: Where does the Arab world’s design fall in the global context? How can design be inclusive to all, including the Arab world? Why is there no design museum in the Arab world? the parameters for debate are seemingly endless.
The designers and architects that Dubai is tempting to its shores harbour a shared vision for cementing Dubai’s future as a governor in global design. They realise the key to this is education and much debate has ensued on the pressing need to launch a design school in Dubai, to re-educate the Arab world on the importance of cultivating creativity. With more local universities now offering interior design courses, the next step would be the formulation of a dedicated academic institution to ensure that in the future, developments of the Business Bay ilk would have home-grown talent designing alongside the international masters.
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