Buying Generic: The Generic City in Dubai

Richard Prouty

Origin: Static Issue 08
Content: Text

In 1995 architect Rem Koolhaas declared ‘urbanism is dead’. All the qualities normally associated with a great city—iconic architecture, pedestrian thoroughfares, creative ferment—are aspects of an outdated ideology. The new model for urban space is the generic city, i.e., a city with no special qualities. The generic city has no center, no essence. It cannot be distinguished from any other city. No grand plan gives it shape; the city assumes whatever form it needs to take. The generic city seemed to be the logical and inevitable result of the homogenization of global culture. Then in 2008 Koolhaas was commissioned to design a generic city of his own in Dubai. With its Manhattan-like layout and vernacular spaces, the design of the Waterfront City, as the project is known, suggests that traditional urbanism might not be completely dead. Furthermore, homogenization is no longer the biggest problem cities face in an age of environmental crisis. Finally, the concept of the generic city does not fully describe how urban space is actually experienced. Variety can appear even the blandest places.

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Contributor:

Richard Prouty is an independent scholar based in Chicago, IL. He earned his PhD in English and Film Studies from Temple University. His critical essays have appeared in The Journal of Modern Literature, Film Quarterly, Cinema Journal, and The International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. He blogs at one-waystreet.com, where an earlier version of this essay first appeared.