Do you value the various Chinatowns in cities like New York and San Francisco. To me, these unplanned, spontaneous developments is what makes a city worthwhile. Modern urban planners seem to want to make such spontaneity impossible, and will end up as sterile and uninviting as a strip mall.
I heard a radio interview about this about a year ago in Dubai.<p>This is the land of SUVs with tinted windows, maids to do anything that remotely resembles domestic work, and wretchedly excessive bling. When asked about who would want to live in this experimental community (there ain't no hippies down here), the developer said that it would start with the employees of the companies who get the contracts to build out the town.<p>Now that's what I call synergy.
Reminds me of a few things I've read about how fancy new houses in the southern US have omitted design features which cleverly deal with heat in the absence of air conditioning, so an energy crisis is going to put those homeowners in hell. It's important architectural technology to preserve.
I see this column is called Critic's Notebook, but I was mildly irritated by the author's relentless and pointless negativity.<p>Other than that, fascinating.
Excerpt:<p><i>He began with a meticulous study of old Arab settlements, including the ancient citadel of Aleppo in Syria and the mud-brick apartment towers of Shibam in Yemen, which date from the 16th century. “The point,” he said in an interview in New York, “was to go back and understand the fundamentals,” how these communities had been made livable in a region where the air can feel as hot as 150 degrees.<p>Among the findings his office made was that settlements were often built on high ground, not only for defensive reasons but also to take advantage of the stronger winds. Some also used tall, hollow “wind towers” to funnel air down to street level. And the narrowness of the streets — which were almost always at an angle to the sun’s east-west trajectory, to maximize shade — accelerated airflow through the city.</i>
It seems like there is an entire industry that's been built up in this country selling rich oil barons things they don't need, paid for with money that doesn't really belong to them.
This article lacks a summary of the capital and maintenance costs per resident. With the government as landlord it will be an elite enclave as long as the right people in the government are interested. When interest is lost, watch out for deterioration in the "custom" infrastructure (e.g. the personal electric vehicle infrastructure).
<i>... and the rest generated by incinerating waste (which produces far less carbon than piling it up in dumps)</i><p>Anybody care to explain how is that possible?