Dubai [Metro]Polis: Infrastructural Landscapes and Urban Utopia
Dubai [Metro]polis: Infrastructural Landscapes and Urban Utopia When Dubai Metro was launched in 2009, it became a new catalyst for urban change but also a modern tool to interact with the city - providing a visual experience and an unprecedented perception of moving in space and time, almost at the edge between the imaginary and the real. By drawing on the traditional association between train, perception and the city we argue that the design and planning of Dubai Metro is intended as a signifier of modernity for the Gulf region, with its futuristic designs and in the context of the local socio-cultural associations. NADIA MOUNAJJED INTRODUCTION Abu Dhabi University For the last four decades, Dubai epitomized a model for post-oil Gulf cities and positioned itself as a subject for visionary thinking and urban experimentation. PAOLO CARATELLI During the years preceding 2008, Dubai became almost a site of utopia - evoking Abu Dhabi University a long tradition of prolific visionary thinking about the city – particularly 1970s utopian projects. Today skyscrapers, gated communities, man-made islands, iconic buildings and long extended waterfronts, dominate the cityscape. Until now, most of the projects are built organically within a fragmented urban order, often coexisting in isolation within a surrounding incoherence. When inaugu- rated in 2009, Dubai Metro marked the beginning of a new association between urbanity, mobility and modernity. It marked the start of a new era for urban mass transit in the Arabian Peninsula and is now perceived as an icon of the emirate’s modern urbanity (Ramos, 2010, Decker, 2009, Billing, n.
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