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Dubai Mega Mall Inspired By Nature

Dubai Mega Mall Inspired By Nature

27th May 2019

By Kieron Monks

Read More: https://edition.cnn.com/style/articl...ntl/index.html

Quote:

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Dubai is home to what was until recently the largest mall in the world by total area, the world's largest theme mall inspired by a Moroccan explorer and a mall with an indoor ski resort. Now, Cityland Group, a developer best known for creating the world's largest flower garden, is hoping to make a splash with a mall that lives and breathes.

- Cityland Mall, a $400 million development set in the rapidly developing Dubailand neighborhood, is billed as "the world's first nature-inspired shopping destination." The complex is built around a 200,000 square-foot botanical garden dubbed "Central Park," a little smaller than four soccer fields. --- The park will feature streams and islands, rare trees and flower gardens for shoppers to explore. The businesses surrounding the green space will accommodate a second layer of trees and gardens on their rooftops. The green theme extends throughout the complex, says Fahimuddin Sharfuddin, CEO of Cityland Group, with tree-lined interior walkways and living "green walls" positioned in the main thoroughfares.

- The CEO is also keen to emphasize that the commitment to green also entails a raft of eco-friendly features. The gardens will be irrigated with treated sewage to avoid water wastage, and storm water will also be harvested. "The skylights and facades are made from highly energy efficient glass which has reduced running power costs," says Sharfuddin. "A large area on the roof of the building accommodates photovoltaic solar panels." --- The completed mall will host more than 300 businesses, eateries, and "attraction operators." The first of these international supermarket chain Carrefour opened its doors on May 12 and Cityland is confident the rest of the site will be in business by the end of the year, with full occupancy by 2020.

- But the mall will face stiff competition to attract customers, according to retail sector analysts. Dubai-based investment bank Alpen Capital projects that the city's retail sales will grow over the next few years. But things could be harder in the longer term. "The expanding organized retail and rising number of international brands has intensified competition resulting in margin pressures," says Krishna Dhanak, executive director Alpen Capital. Cityland Mall could benefit from its location close to new, developing neighborhoods. --- "It could be set to do well as there have been a large number of residential communities recently delivered within a 10-kilometer radius," says Anthony Taylor, head of real estate at the Emirates NBD banking group. "The key factor for this mall location being successful would be ease of access both in from, and back out to, these communities."

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Are they ever gonna get tired of building ridiculous structures in Dubai?

If they really insist on building all these megastructures, they could at least build stuff like this:

https://previews.123rf.com/images/li...ion-scene-.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 8587281)

Dubai Mega Mall Inspired By Nature

27th May 2019

By Kieron Monks

Read More: https://edition.cnn.com/style/articl...ntl/index.html

What kind of person (consumer) does this appeal to? A high net worth individual? A middle class person? Someone who would enjoy shopping in Las Vegas?

There's a difference between "luxury" and "over the top / obnoxious" - this appears to fall into the latter category.

This looks like someone played too much The Sims.

Looks like the Wonka chocolate factory mated with downtown Disney...

Their last mall was a gigantic enclosed indoor city, which would have an insane AC bill in the summer.

apparently nature resembles a wisconsin dells waterpark

inspired by nature. just not their nature. where are the scorpions?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Via Chicago (Post 8587983)

apparently nature resembles a wisconsin dells waterpark

yeah, but the Dells has the Ducks. :tup:

thus, Wisconsin Dells > Dubai unnatural nature mall.

:cheers:

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007 (Post 8587525)

Are they ever gonna get tired of building ridiculous structures in Dubai?

They can hardly build anything anymore, most of their projects over the years are cancelled on hold or unfinished. Their economy has been in the gutter, turns out you cant run a metropolis on just tourism and real estate.

it has some cool mountains but that's all id go there for, you cant even drink.

At least it's not another misshapen glass blob of a skyscraper.

You lost me at Dubai. I cant stand that place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The North One (Post 8588042)

Do you speak anything but in hyperbole? Dubai has built more skyscrapers in 2018 than Detroit has in a decade.

I don't know how you can (rightfully) defend Detroit's economy endlessly while saying Dubai's economy is shit.

And plenty of places rely on tourism, what are you even talking about? Again, your city relies on automobiles to survive, whats the difference? And before you go on about how diversified Detroit is, remember you are also being reductionist about Dubail(a place I am sure you're not too familiar with).

I honestly don't understand the hate of Dubai.

A third world city has been transformed in 30 years to one of the richest. Their reliance on oil is right around 4 percent. They are pretty much the only oil rich middle eastern society that has welcomed the world and left oil behind.

Sure, as an urbanist, it leaves A LOT to be desired. But I know for a fact if one of their cool(and they have plenty of really nice skyscrapers) skyscrapers were being built in your city, you would shit your pants. Theres plenty of tacky buildings in Dubai, but they are forgotten in the sea of beautifully built scrapers.

Also, Dubai's Metro is very successful, something most American cities can't say. They have freaking bus stops with AC units in them while places like Alexandria are building 1 million dollar bus stops that are standard as they come. They are making slow progress at becoming more urban, but lets be real; its too damn hot most of the year. Therefore, the car will remain king.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtown,man (Post 8588596)

Because most people are jealous and hate what they can't have/shines. Human nature. Dubai's amazing, love it. And I'm someone who loves urbanity/cities. Dubai has plenty of walkable urban areas that are better than the vast majority of us cities. They're just not as well known. Agree about the metro, it's great. Makes the ones here seem...dilapidated to put it nicely. It's truly one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Truthisgone (Post 8588856)

I've actually thought about this for some time. I think people fall into a variety of catagories:

Some hate it because its gaudy and almost like Vegas in its fakeness.

Some hate it because it lacks traditional urbanity. But as you mentioned, they probably have never taken the subway to the older parts of the city which have more streetlife than any American city besides NYC would envy.

Some hate it because of the traditional view that its an oil center and all that that entails(fossil fuels, acelerating global warming etc.). But this doesn't hold up well, as very very little of its economy is based on oil.

Some hate it because of its conservatism. If you are hating on Alabama or Georgia because of recent laws, you probably won't like Dubai. In fact, you might be a hyprocrite if you did like Dubai.

Gay folks- Can't blame them. Although gays get around Dubai fine(I shared a hotel with a gay guy two nights in a row), the very fact that there are laws against homosexuality could turn off people entirely.

Near-slave labor- I've talked with many of these people. They know what they are getting into going to Dubai. So why do they still do it? It beats being unemployed in India or Pakistan.

I think what most of these people miss, is that yes, there are real concerns in the city, but there are so many nice parts to it. It has the traditional city streets full of people, it has one of the most modern metros in the world, beautiful beaches, absolutely mind-boggling skyscrapers, which yeah, minus some of the ill-conceived ones, would make anyone in the US happy to see get built in their city. Its not for everyone, but the near universal hate for it on here is rather confusing to me.

Dubai is just becoming a caricature of itself at this point. Enough already.

There is no nature in Dubai.

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Originally Posted by JAYNYC (Post 8587668)

Middle Eastern new money. It’s all over the top and obnoxious.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Truthisgone (Post 8588856)

Because most people are jealous and hate what they can't have/shines.

There's nothing to be jealous of, Dubai is a city planned worse than Dallas or really any city in the world for that matter. Monolithic mega towers line a fucking mega highway. And here we have yet another tacky mega mall, so jelly! It's easy, painfully easy to see why an urbanist would detest Dubai.

Their entire system is obviously propped up by oil money which is highly volatile, nobody wants to invest there long term since they're still in the political/social dark ages, many of their new built towers sit empty. Where is the jealously supposed to kick in here?