A 21st Century City - Part One

I recently spent five days in Dubai Dubai is truly a 21st Century City It is a city built for and in this century It is based entirely on a vision of the future As a futurist I look into and think about the future I look at trends patterns dynamics and directional energies to see what lies ahead It is clear that many large entities and certainly most cities do not really focus on the future let alone the long term Most are preoccupied with current problems the next quarter or the next year This is not the case with Dubai50 years ago Dubai was a small town of thousands resting of a couple of sandy spits of land and now it is a sprawling city of 15 million Due to the benevolent and visionary leadership of three sheiks over the last 60 years a forward thinking city has been created What this vision has manifested is truly remarkableMany of you have heard of the huge debt issues that surfaced last fall in Dubai This is true with many building sites idle This is no different that all the building sites vacant blocks and endless numbers of dark McMansions littering the landscape here in the USWhat I see in the US is a result of blind over optimism driven by greed fueled by lending fraud that was detached from underlying realities What I saw in Dubai was a long term cohesive development vision that has been temporarily whacked by the 20082010 Global Great RecessionWhenever a vision is brought into being by definition it is out in front ahead of its time and therefore subject to more risk and possibly ridicule than more traditional efforts This is why Dubai39s current problems have been magnified as it is a large vision ahead of its39 time that has suffered a significant but temporary setback As a Chicagoan I am familiar with Daniel Burnham and am convinced that the sheiks were either aware of or are channeling Burnham39s underlying philosophy which was quotMake no small plansquot Dubai is a large visionary plan temporarily slowedIn the past 15 years literally dozens of high rises and skyscrapers have been built As an ardent fan of modern architecture I was stunned by the beauty of many of these buildings It is as though the openness of the canvas and vision prompted architectural firms to be creative and leading edge in a way not allowed elsewhere To see this architectural beauty and mass on a desert landscape at the edge of the Arabian Gulf was both disorienting and intoxicating The feeling was that of looking at an urban desert oasis for the 21st centuryFor the past four years I have thought that as a futurist one of the places in the world that held both the greatest appeal and where I might offer the highest value professionally as a futurist was the UAE United Arab Emirates This is because it is one of the few countries in the world that seems to be looking out several decades to what it wants to be in 2030 and 40 years Again though the leaders of many countries speak to the future of their countries they are looking toward the next election and long term visions tend to be platitudinous and vagueThere are seven emirates that comprise the UAE and only one Abu Dhabi that has significant long term oil reserves Dubai has oil reserves that are expect to be largely depleted by 201520 The other five emirates have no oil at all This reality has prompted the UAE led by Dubai though largely funded by Abu Dhabi to look ahead into this century to plan for a vibrant economy in a post petroleum world It seems to be the place in the Arab world that is dynamically and intentionally looking beyond the vast economic wealth created off of oilThe vision which can be clearly seen in development is to create a global financial center that is geopolitically significant and extremely geographically important as the gateway from West to East and North to SouthI was in Dubai to deliver two speeches so I interacted with a lot of people at both gatherings I was frequently asked if this was my first visit to Dubai and if so what did I think After being asked this so often I distilled the answer down to the simple truth quotAs a futurist I feel at home in DubaiquotIn the second column on Dubai I will look at some of the leading edge dynamics the city has put in place that could serve as guidelines and examples of what urban centers around the world could do to reinvigorate themselves for the 21st CenturyDavid Houle is a futurist strategist and speaker He has always been slightly ahead the curve Houle spent more than 20 years in media and entertainment Most recently David is a featured contributor to Oprahcom Check is out here wwwoprahcomdavidhoule David can be contacted at DavidDavidHoulecomRead all Davidamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at David Houle MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

Become a Thought Leader. Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

A 21st Century City - Part One

Author

Publish date

Channel

David Houle

Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

More Videos:

Become a Thought Leader. Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

A 21st Century City - Part One

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

David Houle

Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

The payment was successful

Cookies