In this lecture, given at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal on August 21, 2014, Rachel Keeton describes a new development that has become a poster child for private cities springing up around the world.
Saadiyat Island is a “dreamscape” created by Tourism Development & Investment Company just half a kilometer from downtown Abu Dhabi. It is an amalgam of luxury residential areas, 5-star resorts and golf courses crowned by a Cultural District containing a hallucinatory collection of museums designed by five Pritzker Prize winners.
Is this the future of private development?
Private developers are building more like Saadiyat, where the “chaotic and compromised” city championed by Rem Koolhaas has met its match.
The Learning From… series takes its title from Learning From Las Vegas (1972), Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour’s influential publication, which analysed the commercial strips and architectural symbolism of Las Vegas in order to understand urban sprawl. In this spirit, the series brings together experts to explore specific urban conditions and their relevance to the future development of cities.