All architectural styles and none at the same time': how Dubai became a catalog of whims on a colossal scale

"Dubai is essentially a dystopia written 50 years ago. Like J.G. Ballard's Super-Cannes or High-Rise. I read them in the 1990s and thought, Cool, but it's impossible that anyone will ever build something like that. However, not only did they build it, but millions of people have gone there on vacation or to work pretending to be on vacation and posting stories and TikToks."

"Dubai has never hidden its dystopian nature; in fact, it flaunts it, puts it on display, illuminates it with LEDs, adds an indoor ski slope—Ski Dubai, 22,500 square meters of artificial snow at a constant temperature of -1C (30F) in a city in the middle of the desert whose drinking water comes from desalinating the Persian Gulf—and charges admission to ski and to see the penguin colony inside."

"People who, theoretically, should be capable of understanding that a monarchy without freedom of the press, without labor rights, without the right to dissent, with temperatures of 48C (118F) that require air conditioning in bus stops, represents such an obtuse civilizational model—besides being immoral—that it comes with its expiration date printed on its forehead."

Dubai embodies a dystopian vision predicted by 1970s science fiction authors like J.G. Ballard, featuring artificial constructs such as Palm Jumeirah and Ski Dubai that defy natural environmental constraints. The city operates under a monarchy lacking press freedom, labor rights, and dissent protections, yet maintains extreme luxury tourism infrastructure including the Atlantis The Palm hotel with underwater-view suites. Despite these contradictions—desalinated drinking water in a desert, air-conditioned bus stops in 48°C heat, penguin colonies in artificial snow—millions visit and work there, often documenting experiences on social media. The incident of an Iranian drone fragment falling on Palm Jumeirah exemplifies the narrative coherence between fictional dystopian predictions and Dubai's actual development, suggesting an unsustainable civilizational model.

Read at english.elpais.com