Delirious Dubai (Woods meets Koolhaas)

Lebbeus Woods criticizes Rem Koolhaas's proposal on laying out the grand urban experiment in Dubai. Koolhaas polishes his approach with a 'European sophistication' in which he is trying to "find optimism in the inevitable." It's true, who would criticize someone who is optimistic. Here is the rest of Wood's article.

A brief on the project:
"Designed for one of the biggest developers in the United Arab Emirates, Nakheel, Mr. Koolhaas’s master plan for the proposed 1.5-billion-square-foot Waterfront City in Dubai would simulate the density of Manhattan on an artificial island just off the Persian Gulf. A mix of nondescript towers and occasional bold architectural statements, it would establish Dubai as a center of urban experimentation as well as one of the world’s fastest growing metropolises. "

In Conclusion:
"Maybe Koolhaas doesn’t believe that Dubai is the place for a forward-looking vision. Or maybe he believes, true to his post-Modernist roots, that the past offers the best model for the future, if it is leavened with irony, and garnished with a dash of the surreal. Or maybe he simply doesn’t have a vision for the future. Who knows? We should care, however, because the world’s attention is focused on Dubai, and on Koolhaas and other architecture stars, and because—like it or not—what they do is taken as a model for the future, even when it is, how shall I say, not nearly good enough. LW"






http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/arts/design/03kool.html?_r=1&ref=design