Framväxten av en ny mastodontarkitektur i Persiska viken förtjänar mer uppmärksamhet i väst, menar Rem Koolhaas, som lagom till Venedigbiennalen ifjol gav ut boken The Gulf. Här återges en intervju med Koolhaas från biennalen:

what I am trying to confront also is why the west is so contemptuous of its own exports, it is clearly largely being done by Australian and Anglo Saxon architects, so we a huge responsibility. It's about what we define as public space, what we define as resorts, what we define as exciting architecture and so it is really confronting that contempt.

Läs också om hur Dubais stadsplanerare rekonstruerar kusten så att den ska utmärka sig via satellitbilder:

There is a new type of urbanism: designing islands and coastlines visible from the sky, recorded by satellites and transmitted across the Internet as jpeg attachments. Technologies that are used to monitor wildlife development, hydrography and land drought is now a tool for global transmission of projects under construction. Post-card GIS and reconnaissance technologies turn into spectacle and telegenic fantasy addressing mass tourism. Dubai’s suburbs are rising from the water, in the form of artificial and prosthetic islands, imitating Venice. Dubai is turning into a postcard portrait city of the future.

Och ur ökensanden reser sig enorma Potemkin-kulisser som visar var världens största hotell kommer att byggas: anmärkningsvärda fotografier.