While the fever dream of real estate wealth in the U.S. fades away, halfway around the globe, the nation of Dubai is trying to make its dream a reality.

The housing market in the United States has been in the spotlight a lot in recent years, if only because leading economists had identified it as one of the few engines of growth in the nation's economy. Yet that balloon seems to be continuing it's slow deflation, as recent reports show a drop in the price of new homes and analysts predict a rougher time ahead for builders.

This dip was not unexpected, and normally would be considered part of a regular economic cycle. The problem is that many homeowners took advantage of their rising property value to shore up their personal finances, and growth in home construction was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise listless economy. While there is still plenty of new home construction, industry analysts have been waiting for the first signs of a slowdown, and recent data from these last months shows the free ride is probably over.

Yet while the U.S. housing market is finally finding its way back down to earth, construction in the oil rich Arab Emirate of Dubai is reaching for the sky. It is no secret that Dubai has been at the center of a whirlwind of construction in recent years, but it is difficult to grasp the breadth of these efforts. Any one of the major projects underway could be considered a new landmark, but they are all part of the dream of making Dubai the greatest high-end resort city in the world. There is probably no equivalent place in modern history so determined to reinvent itself as a home of tremendous monuments and spectacle. What was once a mid-sized Gulf port is quickly becoming a place of architectural and engineering wonders.

The scale of some of the Dubai projects defies description: massive artificial peninsulas shaped liked palm trees, an artificial atoll shaped like the world's continents, and a tower set to be the tallest in the world once completed. Most of these bold projects are intended for residential and tourist use, and are to be packed to the gills with apartment villas and hotels. You can see ENR.com's reports on these projects, but even there it is hard to convey in words the sense of unreality the new Dubai evokes.

With their oil reserves predicted to run out sometime in the coming decades, many see Dubai's cavalcade of projects as a scramble to turn the country into a magical playground for the rich. Yet even that scenario doesn't fully explain the monumental nature of Dubai's construction; there is a grandiosity of vision and even megalomania that drives these projects, the kind you don't see outside the biographies of famous architects or the gloating speeches of James Bond villains. It's rare today to find a city so willing to divorce itself from it's sleepy past and erect a host of new, very expensive landmarks to redefine itself.

Yet maybe the dreams of Dubai's builders aren't so far removed from those of humble homeowners and builders in the United States. Those looking to exploit the final days of the U.S. housing bubble are rushing to get that last bit of profit before the market deflates completely. Meanwhile in Dubai, it's a race against the clock to get their billionaire's paradise up and running before the oil money dries up. In both cases we can see that nothing lasts forever, but while rampant housing construction is losing it's luster in America, Dubai sees new construction as their chance for survival once the oil runs dry. Indeed, there could be a bright future for Dubai in high tourist traffic and being the second (third? fourth?) home of a money-laden international jet-set.

Now the larger-than-life route Dubai is taking wouldn't work everywhere, but as reminders of inexorable economic forces grow louder at home, it's encouraging to see a small country try something unique and spectacular to escape decline.

December 2, 2006

It remains to be seen if the high energy inputs, in the building stocks are sustainable or not? Specially keeping the climate in view. Buildings are not intelligent as the new high rises of China.

Sikander Ajam

November 17, 2006

Dubai is doing everything after the model of Hong Kong and Singapore. The ruler of Dubai influences a host of other followers in Middle East. Therefore, do not underestimate the long term effect in the Middle East.

The mentality of Middle East people is that I shall believe it when I see it. If I saw it you do it, then I can do it too (overnight).

Walter Chan