Université de Liège Faculty of Applied Sciences Urban Megaprojects-based Approach in Urban Planning: From Isolated Objects to Shaping the City The Case of Dubai PHD Thesis Dissertation Presented by Oula AOUN Submission Date: March 2016 Thesis Director: Jacques TELLER, Professor, Université de Liège Jury: Mario COOLS, Professor, Université de Liège Bernard DECLEVE, Professor, Université Catholique de Louvain Robert SALIBA, Professor, American University of Beirut Eric VERDEIL, Researcher, Université Paris-Est CNRS Kevin WARD, Professor, University of Manchester ii To Henry iii iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My acknowledgments go first to Professor Jacques Teller, for his support and guidance. I was very lucky during these years to have you as a thesis director. Your assistance was very enlightening and is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your daily comments and help, and most of all thank you for your friendship, and your support to my little family. I would like also to thank the members of my thesis committee, Dr Eric Verdeil and Professor Bernard Declève, for guiding me during these last four years. Thank you for taking so much interest in my research work, for your encouragement and valuable comments, and thank you as well for all the travel you undertook for those committee meetings. This research owes a lot to Université de Liège, and the Non-Fria grant that I was very lucky to have. Without this funding, this research work, and my trips to UAE, would not have been possible. My acknowledgments go also to Université de Liège for funding several travels giving me the chance to participate in many international seminars and conferences. To my friends and colleagues in Ulg – Lina, Maryse, Christine, Juan, Miranda, Shady, Mario – thank you for all the conversations and stories; in one way or another you will all figure prominently in my memories of this thesis. Many thanks to Olivier Borsus for providing all types of references I’ve asked for. Thanks to those who contributed in various ways to this document: Antonella, Hussein, Rozana for their help in the cartographic work, and my brother Elias for proofreading and David Kelly for the final editing. To all friends and relatives in Dubai, especially my cousin Rana, thank you for facilitating my site work, and for introducing me to the many key persons there who helped me in my interviews. v My thanks go to my family, my parents Bernadette and Georges, and my step- parents Aida and Henri. Thank you for your support and your unconditional love, and thank you for taking care of my little family all the times I was busy working on my thesis. To my little Henry, thank you for your patience. I will never forget your welcoming baby smile when you see me, each time I traveled to participate to seminars or to do site works. And sorry for all the times you asked me to play with you and I told you that I was busy working. Last but not least, to my friend, colleague, mentor and my second half, Jihad, thank you for your support and love. Thank you for always being there for me. This thesis is also dedicated to you. vi Abstract Urban megaprojects are at the core of cities’ re-imaging and marketing. As large- scale development projects, they are considered as a globalization product, marked by a search for spectacle and visibility. In Dubai, UMPs have constituted in recent years the main tool in drawing a city image that aims to compete with the world global cities. Through UMPs, an economy based on spectacle and fascination is being deployed, within a complex system of governance that encompasses family ties, business logic and individualist visions. UMPS are not exceptions or isolated developments, they are in Dubai, a mean through which the city is expanding and being managed. UMPs are here the backbone public planning instrument to what we can call a UMPs-based approach to planning and development. Paradoxically, it is these very large projects, usually associated to urban fragmentation that allow, through their form and processes, the emergence of forms of regulation that articulate actors, institutions, interests, resources, spaces and scales. These adaptations and negotiations are orchestrated in a strategic pilotage manner, through informal, often unveiled ad hoc regulatory spaces. The ultimate goal is to ensure a certain synchronization between temporalities and project through a continuous logic of complementarity and competitiveness. vii viii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Chapter 1: Specific urban history, particular governance and a customized expertise as main factors contributing to the emergence of Dubai’s UMPs 1 HISTORY AND PARTICULAR URBAN EXTENSION 18 1.1# GEOGRAPHIC#LOCATION#AND#OPEN#POLICIES#.............................................................................#23# 1.2# THE#OIL#DISCOVERY#........................................................................................................................#26# 1.3# TOWARDS#A#METROPOLIS#CITY#.....................................................................................................#29# 1.4# METROPOLIZATION#AND#NEOLIBERAL#URBAN#POLICIES#..........................................................#30# 1.5# DUBAI’S#DEVELOPMENT#AND#URBAN#TOOLS:#THE#URBAN#MEGAPROJECT#AS#MAIN#ENGINE# OF#DUBAI#MODEL#........................................................................................................................................#31# 1.5.1# Provision+of+infrastructure+.................................................................................................................+32# 1.5.2# Schematic+and+Master+Plans+..............................................................................................................+32# 1.5.3# Urban+Megaprojects+as+urban+tool+.................................................................................................+37# 1.5.4# The+fascination+........................................................................................................................................+39# 1.5.5# Metropolization+and+Space+Commodification+....................................................................+43# 2 ACTORS AND GOVERNANCE SYSTEM AS MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE EMERGENCE OF MEGAPROJECTS 45 2.1# DUBAI#PORTRAYED#AS#A#NEOLIBERAL#CITY#................................................................................#46# 2.2# THE#THREE#SCALES#IN#DUBAI’S#GOVERNANCE#...........................................................................#47# 2.2.1# The+Sheikh+(governor)+as+a+unique+reference,+and+the+corporate+governance+style+47# 2.2.2# The+Municipality,+Free+Zones+and+the+multitude+of+authorities+.........................................+51# 2.2.3# The+parastatals,+governmentMcontrolled+developers,+and+the+lack+of+limits+between+ public+and+private+...................................................................................................................................................+54# 2.3# BETWEEN#UMPS#AND#THE#FINANCIAL#SECTOR#.........................................................................#55# 2.4# UNVEILING#THE#ROLES#OF#VARIOUS#ACTORS#IN#THE#REALEESTATE#SECTOR#........................#57# 2.5# PUBLICEPRIVATE#SYNCRETISM#AND#‘ZERO#POLITICS’#................................................................#59# 3 LACKING LOCAL EXPERTISE – INTERNATIONAL FIRMS AS MAIN ACTORS. 63 3.1# ICFUP,#ACTORS#OF#A#NEW#MODEL#OF#URBAN#PRODUCTION#...................................................#67# 3.2# INTERACTIONS#BETWEEN#CONTEXTUAL#ELEMENTS#AND#OPERATIONAL#MODE;#THE# INTERNATIONAL#CONSULTANCY#FIRMS#AS#ANALYTICAL#FRAMEWORK#.............................................#68# 3.2.1# Dubai+market’s+challenges+..................................................................................................................+69# ix 3.2.2# Coping+with+a+particular+regulatory+context+.............................................................................+72# 3.2.3# Operating+in+the+context+of+a+specific+urban+product:+the+megaprojects+.......................+75# 3.2.4# Between+global+and+local:+searching+for+references+................................................................+76# 3.3# BETWEEN#ARCHITECTURAL#AND#ENGINEERINGEARCHITECTURE#FIRMS:#TOWARD#A# TYPOLOGY#.....................................................................................................................................................................#78# 3.3.1# On+communication+and+mobility+......................................................................................................+79# 3.3.2# On+the+differences+in+structure+..........................................................................................................+80# 3.3.3# Different+methods+of+selfMevaluation+and+review+......................................................................+83# 4 CONCLUSION 85 Chapter 2: Dubai’s Megaprojects from isolated objects to shaping the city: A morphological analysis 1 KEY COMPONENTS OF DUBAI UMPS AS PRESENTED IN THE LITERATURE: DRAWING A REPRESENTATION 92 1.1# CHARACTERIZING#MEGAPROJECTS#BY#THEIR#GOVERNMENTERELATED#CHARACTERISTICS#93# 1.2# CHARACTERIZING#MEGAPROJECTS#BY#THEIR#MORPHOLOGICAL#ASPECTS#.............................#95# 2 ANALYSING DUBAI URBAN MEGAPROJECTS BASED ON AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH 98 2.1# THE#MASTER#DEVELOPERS#..........................................................................................................#103# 2.2# THE#FREE#ZONES#...........................................................................................................................#107#