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Amazing Buildings in Dubai

images.businessweek.com — Cool features showing the new spectacular buildings of Dubai. Including an underground hotel 66 feet under the sea.

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theconquerer 2 years 274 days ago, made popular 2 years 273 days ago

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Who Dugg It?

Sell, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11These buildings are absolutely amazing. Why don't we have this stunning ***** in the US? and if we did it would no doubt cost 3 to 4 times more. The cost of those incredible places is next to nothing comparatively. The same structure that cost them 265 million would cost us nearly a billion.
- BritOverseas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Hee hee, of course it does. These buildings are built for 50 cents an hour by Indians and Bangladeshis that stay in horrendous "Man camps" and are fed gruel every day.
  
  By comparison, yours are built by well paid contractors who are not treated like second rate citizens.
torrentado, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4wow! just wow!
sahaskatta, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5hard to believe that they actually exist!!

-- http://www.SkatterTech.com
Cmain, on 10/12/2007, -14/+0*Goes a little in his pants*

I think I know where I'm going.
Linuxrocks, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I've always wondered why and how Dubai has such sweet buildings.
link470, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I want "Hydropolis"....
Jeebugorn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"These buildings are absolutely amazing. Why don't we have this stunning ***** in the US?"

"I've always wondered why and how Dubai has such sweet buildings."

oil
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"actually... they have run out, the region of dubai yet abu dhabi(where i live, capital of the UAE) has plenty. dubai relys on tourism"
  
  I think he means Oil in the sense of "Oil capitalists are building a haven for their retirement". Imagine it like Florida in America. What's the point of being an Oil multi-billionairre in the Middle East if you can't live like a Tech billionairre in the American Northwest? In fact, why can't you live better, since your cost of living/manufacturing/taxes are so much lower? So you go out and buy a manmade island.
solarwinds, on 10/12/2007, -38/+3Who cares, they are still terrorists, and we don't want these Osama sympathizers running our ports.
- brainache, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19What an idiot. Saudi Arabia are not the same people as the UAE, they are 2 different countries.
  
  So now everyone who is Muslim is a terrorist? Or is it everyone who wears tradition Arabic dress? Or is it just everyone who lives in that general area? What about "everyone not American"? Does that sum up enough people for you.
  
  Please, before you go making accusations, learn a little bit about what you are talking about.
bikeham, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Dubai has these nice things because the US is addicted to oil.

Even George just realised it.
jk_baller23, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2well, most haven't been built yet, but they do have nice buildings.
mephitix, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8"Who cares, they are still terrorists, and we don't want these Osama sympathizers running our ports"

Oh, so everyone's a terrorist now, huh? Looks like the collective intelligence in these comments just dropped a few notches...
- ConceptJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"just dropped?"
  
  I've been reading Digg for a few months ago, and that comment seems about the norm. The reply option will hopefully help... until this week, Digg's comment system was so 1996 (now it's 1998... hooray!).
BitVector, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Dubai has a massive, growing economy that isn't hampered by outrageous military spending.

In other words, the United States should have stuff like that, yet our budgets are too limited at the moment.
- brainache, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Sorry, clicked the wrong reply link, i will repost this in the right place lol. Gotta love the Edit comment feature eh?
- argoff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Duabi looks beautiful if you look at the buildings, but if you look at the economic freedom rankings, and the political freedom rankings Dubai does not look pretty at all. They have lots of price controls, lots of business and commerce controlls, press controlls, government interference in almost all sectors, and even though on paper their government is independent, in practice most of society is controlled by a tiny handful of elite emirates who pull the governments strings.
  
  The only thing that is driving Dubai growth and building is the fact that the government is running out of oil revenue and so is desperately trying to create a foundation for revenue from other sources. Over the long run I imagine that their track record will be about as successfull as most governments have been.
jayred, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Most of those images are just 3D renders of things they are planning to build, but have not yet built. The only thing that actually exists is that indoor skiing place on slide 9 or 10.
- digid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Actually they've already built a large portion of their coastal man made palm islands and are building more. The tallest building in the world is already in the works
- brainache, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yeah you have to remember that in Dubai the government is trying to make it very easy to biuld very fast. So buildings that in the US might take years to be built go up in a matter of months. One reason is much less paper-pushing, and anohter is a very cheap and abundent work-force (the indians). As there is pretty much no minimum wage, the contractors can pay lots and lots and lots of indians to do the job, and it gets done quicker.
Lurk3r, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3The only one that actually exists is the indoor ski place. the rest of the buildings are just fiction. Get over it. The place is hot and its full of Arabs who want to cheat you out of your money. How do I know? I am a US Sailor.
Agent_M, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I've only seen the Al Nakheel resorts/residences. The rest are new to me. They're unbelievable.
Boredom431, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Hmm so lemme get this straight Dubai has the tallest building in the world by 09, biggest mall in the world, highest apartment in the world, the worlds biggest man-made islands, the worlds largest indoors snow park, and of course the worlds FIRST underwater hotel. Wait I forgot in one of their 15 sub-malls the have the worlds biggest gold market.
aznboi04k, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i don't know why this city has such hightech aritechtural plan. what is this city doing that's so profitable and desirable?
- brainache, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5They have loads of oil.
  
  At the moment, their entire ecconomy is based on oil.
  
  So they are spending the money now whilst they have it, in order to turn themselves into one of the most prestigious tourist locations for Europeans and Orientals alike. Their oil is going to run out real soon (like 20 years i think i heard) and they want to secure their future by spending the cash now. Its a kind of investment in their future i spose.
Chasin_Fat_Kids, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0money, money, money
gamekid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5"i don't know why this city has such hightech aritechtural plan. what is this city doing that's so profitable and desirable?"

Selling oil to people around the world who badly need it (like the needy people who drive HUMMERS in the US) helps.
manfrin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"The only one that actually exists is the indoor ski place. the rest of the buildings are just fiction. Get over it. The place is hot and its full of Arabs who want to cheat you out of your money. How do I know? I am a US Sailor."

The palms are alomst finished, and they've started construction on most of them. And as for the 'Arabs who want to cheat you" comment: don't be a racist jackass-- oops, too late.
- clokwise, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Being a salior doesn't make you right. When were you last in Dubai? If it was any time in the past couple years you'd be hard pressed to miss the Palm Islands which certainly do exist.
zachharkey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"Why don't we have this stunning ***** in the US?"

We do. It's called Las Vegas.
gamekid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Anyone remember Chrono Trigger's Ocean Palace? That Hydropolis doesn't look very different.

"The place is hot and its full of Arabs who want to cheat you out of your money. How do I know? I am a US Sailor."

I'm against the deal, but I'm no bigot like you, lurk3r. manfrin's right--I'm reporting that jingoist dick.
a1532b, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Ever wonder what 3 bucks a gallon will buy you?
nitinshantharam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i don't know why this city has such hightech aritechtural plan. what is this city doing that's so profitable and desirable?

ITS "doing" OIL. :)
SLIPSTR3AM, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0The Palm does exist right now. I've seen it's actual website. It is or is very close to being open.
rm999, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0"First Apple, now Skype, and who’s next in the lame Let’s-lock-out-AMD game? Is someone afraid here? Let me guess…"

Good to see someone sticking up for the little, but superior, guy.
rm999, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0that last comment was put in the wrong window
kindrobot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3WOW! Cool stuff. When do we get to run security for all of them?
Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1"The place is hot and its full of Arabs..."

I've been to Dubai and several other adjacent locales. Most of these Arab cities are like widely spaced out ghettos in the flaming hot desert, with the occasional overpriced building to remind the population that the rulers have more money than Croesus.

If you want to know why these guys are so touchy, it's the heat. It gets in your brain, makes you nuts. I'm pretty sure if you raised them in sub-130 degree heat, they would turn out alright.
mushoo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6"Even George just realised it."

No he just decided to admit it at the last state of the Union.
He's been aware of the oil dependency since before his boozing days. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure something like that out. Don't fall for his retard/mumbling idiot act, the ***** is like Reagan. He'll screw you over while coming off as a retard/mumbling idiot, when in reality the bastard is filling his pockets and those of his friends and laughing it off.
- inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2>No he just decided to admit it at the last state of the Union.
  
  No he didn't. He didn't admit to anything. White House henchmen were out in droves to backpedal and put a spin on that "addicted to oil" stuff within 24 hours. Bush's speeches, including the State of the Union, are all marketing, packed with buzzwords and double-talk. His approval ratings are in the ***** and he said what he thinks most of us want to hear. That's all there was to it.
kendawg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0*
The only thing that actually exists is that indoor skiing place on slide 9 or 10.
*

Also, the big palm islands, they actually exist already. those bad boys are crazy
lobbster, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4no digg dubai is such a ***** hole its only good for stoppin over on your way over from london and all the money from oil is nearly gone so they are trying to use the last of it on tourisim by wrecking underwater reefs and sea life so they can build palm tree shaped islands and ***** pointless *****. the buildings are made poorly and dont stand up to internatial regulations they put no effort in to the construction of the buildings and are made by un skilled people. the reasone why none of this ***** is built in the u.s is because of the fact that they have strict regulations about buildings and it costs more money to hire skilled people. i hate dubai but im not being a raceist and if a have been im sorry. also the hrydropolis ***** will never be built one well placed wale or submarine and bam everyone dies good work dubai the point of life is not to build a reputation on what you plan to do but what you have done
SyDIGG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Dubai has a massive, growing economy that isn't hampered by outrageous military spending.

In other words, the United States should have stuff like that, yet our budgets are too limited at the moment."

What kind of ill-informed crap is this? Do you know the % the military budget takes up? Well in 2003, the military budget was a mere 3.7% of GDP. What makes you think military does not help the economy? How many jobs do you think military expenditure created? BTW ...in the United States, its the not responsibility of the government to design and built extravagant buildings. We rely on the private sector to do that ...IE Vegas.
- burningheretic6, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To contrast The United Arab Emirates spends 3.1% of their GDP on the military, so its about the same as America in terms of percentage of GDP. I think the point of all these building projects it to attract foreign investment to diversify their economy away from the dwindling supply of oil.
CheapDigWannbe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Also the palm like islands for housing are also almost finished...

sigh... in 2003 when my family was about to move to US I told them to go to Dubai.... bah but we moved to New York instead....
RiotActing, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3***** Dubai, I say we fly some of their airliners into those ***** buildings!
CalH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3nice galleries here http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/dubaiprojects
shantambee3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1as amazing as all of this stuff is, Dubai is a really expensive place to live in. people are buying real estate like crazy over there. i remember going there last Christmas, and gas prices in the emirates went up 30%, and so did the cost of living - everything became pricey.

a lot of buildings are being built and aren't being used to capacity, which doesn't help much either. but it is becoming a nice tourist attraction.
- brainache, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Compared to a lot of European prices, Dubai isnt that expensive. My cousin and her husband live there as Ex-pats (he works for Shell) and let me tell you that its really not as expensive as you may think. Housing costs less than in the UK but is roughly on par with the rest of Europe, foodstuffs and electrical goods etc are mildly cheaper, and Petrol prices, although they did indeed hike by 30%, they are still MEGA cheap compared to the rest of Europe (in the UK you can expect to pay 89p/l or around 7$ per gallon, Germany and France are around EUR 1.40 per litre, which is about 6.50$ gallon). In dubai we are talking still a quater of that price.
  
  So really, its not actually more expensive. Unless of course you want to live in Bur Dubai or in a high-rise appartment or something similar. The only thing Mega expensive is alcohol. Because it is a Muslim country (Muslims do not believe in drinking) alcohol is very expensive (we are talking 2ce the price), and you have to have a license to buy it, which you have to present in the shop when you buy it, and you have a limit per month of how much you can buy.
neozeed, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Nice... you should add some pictures of the port of Miami.. its pretty impressive & theirs too. Oh and 1600 pen ave, I hear they own that too.
Korvaras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Solarwinds.

Dude. Your head is somewhere it shouldn't be. Just because they are brown, don't mean they are terrorists, and Dubei is a major oil supplier to the States... terrorism is sort of bad for business... I doubt they harbour terrorists on purpose.
- brainache, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Here Here.
burningheretic6, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Your oil money hard at work!
Lurk3r, on 10/12/2007, -10/+0"The palms are alomst finished, and they've started construction on most of them. And as for the 'Arabs who want to cheat you" comment: don't be a racist jackass-- oops, too late."

Manfrin, you have been to dubai? Wait, I didn't think so, have you been in an Arab country? I didn't think so. By cheat, i mean, do they want to get you for the most money possible? Hell yes they do. Ive been cheated there with dinner bills, cab fares, you name it. So you know what? PFFFFT. Cry me a river.

And to game kid, grow up, its the interweb. Report me to who? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahaha haaaa hahahahahahahah
BugMeNot2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yay! The money we spend on oil goes to making really cool buildings!
jjk5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have a feeling 10 years from now business students will be studying the gigantic failure and overinvestment of Dubai.
nazuraki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If I'm not mistaken the UAE has the highest concentration of billionaires anywhere in the world.
capn_caveman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Are those fricken laser beams coming out of the buildings? Where are the sharks?
RADicalSatDude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I grew up in Dubai, and work there, believe me, its overy hyped.

Traffic is pure hell, and most of those shots show buidling that haven't even started construction yet. Road works have lost to massive greedy builders and there's NO stopping the rent rise as there aren't celar consumer protection laws.

Its all PR, and extreme marketing, sometimes I think this buyout by Dubai Ports of P&O was just a stunt to get loads of free international press.
NoelTribune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This stuff is amazing, but any Californian can tell you what happens when you start building major stuff on landfill- liquefaction. Pretty islands made of sand sound great until an earthquake comes. There is a reason why when an earthquake hits us, only a few people die, but when the same earthquake hits elsewhere, it kills thousands. This reason is called building codes- the are expensive and they make some really cool stuff impossible.
orabox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2omg, this is vaporware
kindrobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I joke, but honestly Dubai is really trying hard to come into the modern world and deserve some credit for the effort.

The recent internet censorship is a bad sign, but I think it's a temporary problem.

Still, I do believe it would be funny (and fair) to have an american security company protect their ports/tourist attractions.
manatee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2hmm....there must be a lot of money in oil...
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Amazing Buildings in Dubai

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