Awesome how this little emirate has managed to 'create itself' out of the desert nothingness in just 30 years! It is transforming itself into the tourism hub of the Middle East, not because of its centuries-old architecture but because of its malls & 21st century lifestyle! i visited about 8 malls (and missed about 5 more), one only months since it opened.
the urban mall is an art form for these people. and with so much money, they could do anything. british architects and hong kong designers are having a ball with the creative restraints removed! so much attention to detail!
and as i mentioned in my post, the malls they build are spacious, corridors are wide. they make use of as much available sunlight. and lighting is warm white, not yellow! HA! but beyond that, malls in Dubai have consistent themes to play with. one mall had 'courts', shopping pavilions designed in certain themes (chinese, indian, persian, tunisian, etc.) and this theme is played out wall-to-wall! in the atrium of the chinese court, there's this huge Chinese junk! there's another mall, with one end looking like the Rialto of Venice and the other, the Central Station in London!
gaudy at times but hey, you marvel at the fact that they could do it. and did i mention skiing inside the mall... at the Mall of Emirates. skiing not ice skating (so megamall). complete with cable car to take skiers to the top!
and because of this, they have attracted fashion's & retailing's biggest names. some, of course, we already have. but a lot more shops we are barely aware of (or we could barely pronounce!). astronomical prices but the display windows are great...
you could set your credit card on fire...
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