Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Bashing Dubai for its vulgarity is an all too easy target. Of course, it is ridiculous to see copies of buildings from other cities. There is a copy of Big Ben, but this time its really big! There is a copy of the elegant Chrysler Building, but now built as twin towers! There is a copy of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank by Foster, but without the trick of suspending the floors instead of stacking them! There is an Arc de Triomphe, and some kind of Jin Mao Tower, and a version of the Empire State Building! Actually, Dubai looks like a miniland in real size.
But is Munich, for example, not the same? The Feldherrenhalle is a copy of the Loggia Dei Lanzi, the Residenz is a copy of Palazzo Pitti, and the Hofgarten is then the Giardino Boboli – all modelled after examples from Florence. And at the same time were copied from Paris, the Siegestor as yet another smalltown version of the Arc de Triomphe, as well as innocent Karolinenplatz that tries to imitate the urbane Place de la Concorde with its Obelisk. All these monuments in Munich were built under the absolutist regime of Ludwig I., ruler of the small kingdom of Bavaria in the early 19th century.
Why does Munich earns sympathies for its urban beauty, and Dubai is being bashed by Western critics? Perhaps we shall view Dubai, this city that boasts itself as a model for the 21st century, as what it really is, a city of the 19th century.Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Bashing Dubai for its vulgarity is an all too easy target. Of course, it is ridiculous to see copies of buildings from other cities. There is a copy of Big Ben, but this time its really big! There is a copy of the elegant Chrysler Building, but now built as twin towers! There is a copy of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank by Foster, but without the trick of suspending the floors instead of stacking them! There is an Arc de Triomphe, and some kind of Jin Mao Tower, and a version of the Empire State Building! Actually, Dubai looks like a miniland in real size.
But is Munich, for example, not the same? The Feldherrenhalle is a copy of the Loggia Dei Lanzi, the Residenz is a copy of Palazzo Pitti, and the Hofgarten is then the Giardino Boboli – all modelled after examples from Florence. And at the same time were copied from Paris, the Siegestor as yet another smalltown version of the Arc de Triomphe, as well as innocent Karolinenplatz that tries to imitate the urbane Place de la Concorde with its Obelisk. All these monuments in Munich were built under the absolutist regime of Ludwig I., ruler of the small kingdom of Bavaria in the early 19th century.
Why does Munich earns sympathies for its urban beauty, and Dubai is being bashed by Western critics? Perhaps we shall view Dubai, this city that boasts itself as a model for the 21st century, as what it really is, a city of the 19th century.