Dubai Forum discusses sustainable development

More than 40 speakers and 400 delegates, including top architects, media critics, architectural historians and developers from 15 countries spoke at the inaugural session of The Dubai Forum last month. Coinciding with the opening of the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, UAE the platform is designed to foster discussions on sustainable development. The theme for the day-long session was “Architecture for Sustainable Societies”.

Brand Dubai organised the seminar in cooperation with one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished schools of architecture, New York’s The Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art.

In her address at The Dubai Forum, Elizabeth O’Donell, associate dean, Irwin S Chanin School of Architecture, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, said that sustainability cannot be generalised but should integrate histories, geographies and traditions, including contemporary building aspects. “Dubai is a perfect example for these trends that professionals need to emulate and share at all practical levels,” she said.

Panel discussions at the forum focussed on architecture and sustainable communities, architecture and natural forces, media perspectives, architecture and rapid urbanisation and architecture and cultural sustainability. Panelists discussing the role of media and its perspectives in creating architectural and sustainable societies in the region, felt the process of social change on sustainability, though slow at present, needs to take its natural course.

Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker, said: “Cultural sustainability means social sustainability, political sustainability, sustainability of a community and a city is a reflection of a society’s past, mistakes it has made, the novel ideas it currently nurtures and its aspirations for the future.

“Dubai is unique because it has sprung to life in the shortest span of time. Most cities evolve over centuries or decades; but the emirate has successfully achieved this in less than a generation.”