Dubai has been experiencing a frenetic growth and development. However, a significant part of the city remains under occupied. "Between 2007 and 2010 the office space in Dubai grew 140 %, but only 70 % is occupied". "The civic body’s Building Department demolished 85 of 249 abandoned buildings identified in 2013". These overlooked statistics are the departure point of this research.

A proposal for a school of Architecture for 2,000 students becomes the tool to promote local economic development in the city through three main approaches: a broad perspective (the city), a local impact (the neighborhoods) and a small scale of intervention (the school itself). Thus, existing areas with abandoned buildings become a spatial and urban opportunity; the two metro lines emerge as key urban corridors; and existing isolated urban pockets develop into interconnected areas.

Al Barsha, a thinly populated residential area, stands out as a key neighborhood in Dubai and becomes the starting point of the intervention. The challenges of its location are transformed into opportunities to promote its development and economic growth through its densification and reinsertion into Dubai’s disconnected grid.

The school itself completes the urban tactic taking over existing under-occupied built structures and articulating itself along the public transportation system in order to amplify the urban effects of the uses and activities associated with it.These strategies all together interlock to create a unique school that takes knowledge out of the classroom to interact with the community and rethink the current paradigms Dubai is based on.

Dubai Architecture School | International Competition

Aliz Mena + Rocio Carvajo

dubai, united arab emirates | 2014