Palm Jumeirah

Last week I said I would show something very big and fascinating to you guys, so this week I will show you the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The Palm, a manmade island in the shape of a palm-tree, is one of the three to be built within the next couple years, and the first to be completed. It is now one of the largest manmade land reclamation projects ever made. This project has literally changed the world. It changed the geography of Earth. The Palm Jumeirah is big enough that it can be seen from space, and putting the shape of a palm tree in the world map.

Building the Palm shaped island took US$12.3 billion, one of the most expensive construction projects ever. Construction took about 7 to 8 years. Construction of the island began on June of 2001 and by October of 2007 some real estate was already being sold on the island, while some construction still went on. Construction ended completely by late 2009. In total, 28 hotels were built on the island, one of them being the Atlantis Resort, the biggest on the island. The Atlantis is an enormous 1,539-room resort with a water theme-park that is about 6 square miles big. The residential part of the island, on the fronds of the palm, contains homes that range from 8.5 to 30 million AED (US$2.3million to US$8.2million). Most of these houses are owned by celebrities, such as David Beckham (Milan soccer team player) or wealthy businessmen/women.

I believe that as an architect, the person who designed the island and saw it rise from the bottom of the ocean, that I would be very happy with the results of the construction. The job of constructing took only 8 years, and that is with everything built on the island (hotels, houses, highways, and monorail tracks). The island is basically a floating city and is the smallest of three to be built. The largest of the palms to be built will be so big that it is estimated that it might be able to house over five hundred thousand people. Dubai is considered to be the basis for what the city of the future might look like, with the tallest skyscrapers most complex architecture and manmade palm-shaped islands.


The Atlantis. (n.d.) Retrieved April 21, 2010 from World Wide Web. http://cultblogforsheilasnblokes.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/the-atlantis.jpg.

Murphy, L (2009, January) Atlantis rising. Live Design. Retrieved March 18, 2010, from Associates Programs Source database.

Palm Jumeirah (n.d.) Retrieved April 21, 2010, from World Wide Web. http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/palm_islands/images/palm_jumeirah.jpg.