Sunday, July 6, 2014

Dubai Announces "Mall of the World" Mega Project, Includes Indoor Theme Park, 100 Hotels, and more !


Here is something fun to start the week. I say "fun" because as you will see this new Dubai project is so "over the top" that it becomes hilarious. Don't get me wrong, they've succeeded to do some great things in Dubai. I love the Palm and World man-made islands, as well as the Burj Al Arab Hotel, and let's not forget the impressive Burj Khalifa tower. But they always need to top the previous project and as you'll see this new one is going to be difficult to beat, at least in its category.


So, what is it about? It's called "Dubai Mall of the World" - above and on top, the entrance of Dubai mall of the World, click to enlarge - and the project is to be "the retail and hospitality showpiece development for the Expo 2020 in Dubai, alongside the planned mega convention centre and related infrastructure that will be rolling out of the design board shortly". In its conceptualization, the project will be nothing less than a city-within-a-city and also include - are you sit? - 100 hotels!



Apart from being the largest mall in the making by occupying 8 million square feet, it is being billed as the world’s first “temperature-controlled (pedestrian) city” and with a 48 million square feet spread. This will be through a glass dome enclosure that will be open up during the winter months, a high season for the city’s retail, leisure and hospitality sectors.


On completion, it will be a year-round destination that is projected to pull in 180 million visitors annually. 180 million! To give you an example how unrealistic it is France, currently always the most visited country in the world had last year around 85 million international tourist rival ( the U.S are just behind with 69 million ). And in both countries there is plenty of things to see and spend time, and certainly much more than in Dubai... So, 180 million per year in Dubai? Sure, baby, sure, go on dreaming...

That said there is  some interesting ideas in the project like this themed street with a tramway, under the removable dome.



And it is supposed to include too a theme park, which looks more to me like a water / amusement park...



"The Mall of the World would also host the world’s largest indoor theme park. And unlike the big-box design concepts in vogue in the global mall industry, the new development’s design ethos will be that of a “retail street network” stretching to over 7 kilometres.
Merging the twin pursuits of shopping and leisure living, the Mall of the World’s retail area will have connectivity to 100 hotels and serviced apartment properties offering up a combined 20,000 room keys."

“Our ambitions are higher than having seasonal tourism - tourism is key driver of our economy and we aim to make the UAE an attractive destination all-year long,” Shaikh Mohammad, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said in the launch statement. “This is why we will start working on providing pleasant temperature-controlled environments during the summer months.”

"A full-scale ‘Wellness District” thus is integrated into the masterplan, and this would take up 3 million square feet. Future tenants in this cluster will offer not just cosmetic and wellness treatments but top-of-the-line health care, including specialized surgical procedures. This will also be where the ‘Dubai Cultural District’ will be anchored. Again, the developer is eyeing for touchstones similar to what a visitor would see in London’s West End of New York’s Broadway."

"It will have the ‘Celebration Walk’, akin to Barcelona’s Ramblas Street. There will be direct connectivity from the cultural cluster – which will offer a mix of conference, celebration and even wedding halls - to the rest of the mall."


Anyway, as great as it might look we'll see if it ends to be built or if it will be one more Dubai project that never was. In this case, and because of the 2020 Expo may be this time we'll see it built. In the meantime have a look at the video below showing the amazing model of the project.




Pictures: copyright WAM

7 comments:

David Doo said...

Hey Allain,

Despite having mentioned your considerations about you're activities with the site, you keep coming with one amazing post after the other. I'm amazed every time I see your newest. I can understand and respect your decision whatever it is, and I'll remain a loyal fan no matter what.

Good luck!

David

Alain Littaye said...

Thanks, David!

Anonymous said...

Dubai seems to have not yet learned the problems of central planning. So far their central planning has worked because it's survived on the hype of Dubai, but once the hype fades and reality sets in, the free market will take over and leave many of these centrally planned projects abandoned and/or neglected. Most grand centrally planned government projects end the same way.

Like all central planners, Dubai's are dull. Their imaginations are limited by shopping malls and hotels. There is no originality and nothing really to see in Dubai. We have all the malls, hotels, and theme parks that we need, right here, in the Europe and N America. Except here our construction workers aren't slaves and we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and our women are not put in prison for being raped.

Furthermore, as you say, their numbers don't even add up. 180 million visitors per year amounts to roughly 0.5 million new visitors per day! That's about 450,000 jumbo jets landing in a year, about double the number of aircraft that land at London Heathrow (which has about 470,000 landings AND take-offs in a year). Yet they think they can achieve this just by opening another shopping mall and a few more hotels. lol

The level of dullness and deranged thinking in Dubai is on a level with the central planners of the USSR, and I fear that it might, one day, end just as badly.

Riad said...

Wow!.. another record breaking for Dubai

Jaber said...

we have done the street theme mall with removable dome few years a go here in Kuwait.
Dubai just takes ideas from other countries and make'em unbeatable.
ok so in a few years they'll be broke and they're gonna have to borrow money from us again lol.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the original Epcot on steroides...

Anonymous said...

The Dubai Mall already attracts 60 million + visitors.
This number includes all daily visitors to the mall, and as this is a free area, especially a shopping center at its core that get repeat visits all year long, 180 million is not unrealistic at all.

It's not 180 million paying tourists like it would be at Disneyland.