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Dubai’s ecologic and economic complications are exacerbated by six years of acceleratedexpansion, a fixed top-down approach to urbanism and the construction of iconicsingle-phase mega-projects. With recent construction delays, project cancellations andgrowing landscape issues, Dubai’s tower typologies have been unresponsive to changingenvironmental, socio-cultural and economic patterns (BBC, 2009; Gillet, 2009; Lewis,2009). In this essay, a theory of ‘Big Regionalism’guides an argument for an economicallyand ecologically linked tower typology called the Condenser. This phased ‘box-to-tower’typology is part of a greater Landscape Urbanist strategy called Vertical Landscraping.Within this strategy, the Condenser’s role is to densify the city, facilitating the creation ofecologic voids that order the urban region. Delineating ‘Big Regional’ principles, theCondenser provides a time-based, global–local urban growth approach that weavesBigness into a series of urban-regional, economic and ecological relationships, buildsupon the environmental performance of the city’s regional architecture and planning,promotes a continuity of Dubai’s urban history, and responds to its landscape issues whilecondensing development. These speculations permit consideration of the overlookedopportunities embedded within Dubai’s mega-projects and their long-term impact on theurban morphology.
