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2005 Pritzker Prize winning American architect Thom Mayne, warned at the recently concluded Cityscape event in Dubai, that unless the current building momentum is reigned in, Dubai faces an inevitable ecological disaster. The comment comes amidst grand plans to launch a 1km tall skyscraper by property developer Nakheel, who have in the past fended off criticisms for their landmark Palm island developments.

Mayne, founder of architecture firm Morphosis, also pointed out that the connection between social, infrastructure and ecological will not work in harmony with each other in the future. We wonder what the star-architects working on several high-profile projects in the emirate have to say? So far, every new project coming on board has been labeled a pioneer in the critical sustainable building debate that has emerged as a new school of architecture in recent times. How much of it is going to be the real deal, only time will tell and we shall reserve our comments until the evidence is on the block.

A rendering of Nakheel’s proposed 1km-tall Al Burj tower by Woods Bagot

Stephen Reinke, London-based MD of the global architecture firm Woods Bagot– the company responsible for the design of Nakheel’s proposed 1km tall tower that will eventually dwarf Burj Dubai (yet to be completed)–has rightly pointed out that sustainability isn’t just about using less energy, it’s also about building self-sustainable communities.