Last November I spent a week in Doha, with a day trip along Qatar's widest, smoothest and newest highway (the North Road). It had been more than a year since I'd been in Doha, and that year has been a big one for...

Leaving my house earlier than normal this morning, I found the nearby shopping street eerily quiet. Amsterdam's center wakes up late because it's more about entertainment than general commerce. Opposite Rembrandt's...

Living in the Endless City. Edited by Ricky Burdett, Deyan Sudjic. Phaidon Press

The London School of Economics' Urban Age Project has published its second and just as heavy volume about the planet's most favorite subject: its cities. The first was called The...

'Symbolism means nothing.'

Bahraini man in the street, The Guardian, March 18, 2011

Last week the New York Times ran an article with a headline more obvious than...

During a trip to Oman I learned something about the consequences of Dubai's development appetite, namely that it extends beyond its own borders. My traveling partner and I had been enjoying the drive-and-camp-where-you-may freedom Oman provides. Our...

Deira was Dubai's most modern quarter. It still is, though it's often referred to as "Old Dubai," a generalization that only describes a stop on the Dubai visitor's course. To see a gold souk, a fish...

First it was "booming Dubai," and then "sinking Dubai." Two years into one of its most cathartic states ever, where do things stand for Dubai? That question was...

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

One critic sardonically called the biannual architecture show now up in Venice "the biggest, most glamorous architecture show on earth." It's more often than not a lot of hoopla for navel-gazing architects. This year's show has captured the usual...

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

'The list doesn't destroy culture, it creates it.' - Umberto Eco

City rankings drive urban planners, city mayors, presidents and rulers to do the things they do. Rankings are the singles charts of the city-building business, giving benchmarks for ambition. A...

It's a cliché by now that the cities of the Gulf have embraced the powers of icon building. For many observers, the Gulf region's unfailing fixation with the iconic represents the deflated essence...

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

Abu Dhabi and Dubai, two Emirati cities separated by only 120 km of highway, seem to be simultaneously competing and yet prepared to help each other out.

Our piece here last week focused on the complications and implications...

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

How do you build a 'real' nation? If you've got the cash, the tangible stuff is relatively straightforward; lay down key infrastructure like power plants, water supply, gas, highways, seaports, airports,...

'Dubai Idol,' as the event is popularly known, gets a blurb in the local UAE papers around this time of year. The articles raise readers' eyebrows, cause grins and evoke a warmth, perhaps out of self-righteous pity, toward Dubai's most visible...

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

Dubai's major English-language paper Gulf News reports today on a phenomenon that plagued Dubai throughout 2009, but now it comes with a new twist. The abandoned car -- left to acquire a sand coating in a Dubai parking lot,...

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

The architect, perhaps more than other professionals, is a mythical figure. He projects a marriage of expertise with panache. Seductive imagery with poignant words. A suit man who doesn't carry a calculator because he can do the math in his head....