Dubailand

In addition to the with the shape of palm trees or the World map islands, a cluster of more than 200 skyscrapers, or the future tallest building in the world (approx. 800 meters), in Dubai they have wanted to build a small leisure complex called Dubailand, more or less with an area of more than 186 million square meters.

Dubailand is part of the initiative of the current head of the emirate, Mohamed Bin Rashid al Maktoum. This project is aimed to boost the economy of the emirate and separate it more from the oil activities. The project is aimed to attract some 15 million tourists in 2010 and around 30 million when it will be fully completed in 2018.

To achieve this incredible number of visitors, the authorities of Dubai have devised a complex consisting of 45 major projects, which being organized in 6 areas, will cover all sorts of topics.

The areas or “worlds” in which will be divided the complex will be:

- Attractions & Experience World: it will include theme parks, a mini-city that will represent cultures from all around the world called The Global Village, a city to the smallest children, a water park (Aqua Dubai), a city shaped like a falcon where it will copies of worldwide monuments (Falcon City of Wonders), a covered ski center with more than 130,000 square meters (Snow dome), a family park which will include several hotels and 3 sub-theme parks (Legends of Dubailand), etc.

- Retail and Entertainment World: the world of shopping, with spaces as Flea Market, the global market World Trade Park, Factory Outlets, etc.

- Themed Leisure and Vacation World: leisure and holiday theme spaces, such as the Women’s World, dedicated to women, reproductions of buildings in Dubai in Destination Dubai (The originals are barely 10 miles away), a resort with a Thai style and the Andalusian Resort & Spa.

- Eco-Tourism World: A space for “eco-tourism” focused especially in the desert, but also with an area to place a large zoo, a safari, a botanical garden, the world of the pets, the hotel dunes, etc.

- Sports and Outdoor World: A spectacular world focused on the sport, which will include in the interior the City of Golf (Dubai Golf City), a dozen stadiums covered and uncovered, academies, shops and sports residences in Dubai Sports City, a huge equestrian center, the circuit of Dubai (already in operation) and an area dedicated entirely to the risky sports.

- Downtown: A mini-city that will act like the welcome door for the whole complex. It will contain different areas such as Dubai Bazaar, Teen World, and so on… Also it will include an area known as the City of Arabia, which will be the emplacement of 34 office towers and apartments of between 60 and 30 plants, the largest shopping center in the world (Mall of Arabia), the world’s largest Ferris wheel (Great Dubai Wheel), a giant sphere of projections called Virtual Game World, a park with replicas of dinosaurs and a large artificial canal filled with shops, among other things.

For those who do not really imagine the whole project here I leave with you a video about half an hour in which they are displayed certain areas of Dubailand.

For more information:http://www.dubailand.ae/(Web oficial)

In the area of 13 * 13 kilometers (approx) which will occupy Dubailand there are still proposes of some more projects, which will likely continue introducing new subprojects within this monstrosity construction.

The Subway Light Project / Natural lighting in the undergroud

If there is something wrong in the underground transport services (tube and suburban trains) is that their stations doesn´t have any sun light.

Caroline Pham, an estudent from the Parson New School for Design, from New York, propose the use for those stations of a lighting system fully sustainable, consisting in catch the sun light from outside and its transmission to inside using optic fiber. The proposal is named “The Subway Light Project”.

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“Plaza Sur” and the project for “Poligono Sur” in Seville

Public Administrations have specified several projects that are going to change the image of one zone which name in Seville is synonymous of social exclusion.

The fisrt one is refered to a urbanistic side, and the idea has been to destroyed the illegal yards that were built in the street without any control. In parallel, the Public Infrastructure Department of the Andalusian Government has developed and ambicious plan in which it’s planned to invest 45 million of Euro for the houses restoration, recovering the public spaces and normalyzing the illegal occupying.
The first difficult work was to create a census, and this is giving the first successes, so at Martinez Montañes Neighbourhood was checked how many legal or illegal occupancy or how many were empty of the total amount of this 1424 houses.

The same work is being repeated in other five districts, that with Martinez Montañes one, take part of “Poligono Sur”. Andalusian Government thinks that is possible to normalize at least 1000 property contracts in 2008. At the same time 1270 housed have started to be rebuilt, and 96 have been finished and they’re working with other 290, meanwhile the legal procedure has been started for other 692 in 40 blocks.

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