How Sustainable Have We Been? Part 2

You know you have been in Dubai a long time when the projects or the buildings you have designed or were involved with have been demolished and replaced.

- Jean-Claude Melone

Equally, when the projects’ lead Consultants have gone through global mergers, acquisitions, name changes and re-branding or all the above, at least once. In a rapidly expanding City like Dubai, infrastructure and public realm often go through a necessary upgrade after 15 or 20 years. New destinations and larger developments require substantial road widening and increased utility networks capacity.

I have been encouraged by colleagues and friends who have read my March article, to carry on writing in the same vein and to prepare a follow-up part two on the same subject. I have therefore, re-visited two other previous projects to continue to reflect on how sustainable they have proved to be, a decade or more since they were designed, and to draw useful conclusions for potential improvements.

Project no.1: Interchange no.1 on sheikh Zayed Road

Design: 2006 – Landscape construction: 2016