Remember the benefits

Use as little water as possible. For a desert city, people think that’s the one answer to sustainability.

Local wisdom, instead, optimises water use. In other words, it seeks out ways to maximise the benefit.

Falaj

Life over the millennia in this desert climate produced the falaj. A sophisticated water sharing system between and within communities, and it came with a strict sequence in what it was used for. From kitchen to farm.

The principle was not to minimise use. It was to get the most benefit from every last drop.

Water scarcity set the limit on what could be done. This age-old limitation was broken virtually overnight when oil was discovered. Then, populations grew exponentially. Counterintuitively, what followed was an explosion in the amount of water for irrigating the new urban landscapes.

The new infrastructure

Cities built the infrastructure: wastewater treated and reticulated city-wide.

While the infrastructure quickly adapted, the full natureculture expressions took time to mature. This process continues today.

What would these new landscapes look like? How do you translate to the urban scale? And, importantly, what should be the function of plants in these new cities.

There were no city-scale precedents to follow. I searched for them, and for years, found none.

Until, I did.

An old expression

It was a city under trees. With an urban forest responding to what was happening at ground level. Streets with virtually 100% canopy coverage. Trees planted, not for decoration, but for shelter.

Urban parks unlike any I had seen before. Not lawn exposed to the sun, but gardens shaded by continuous tree canopy. Spaces that were emerald green and cool. I found myself at the paradise garden.

By the way, the famous two-dimensional plan geometry, is not the true essence of a paradise garden. It is a full three-dimensional immersion. How to explain it? It’s like….an underwater experience, but on-land?

This city showed me an exceptional natureculture expression for when irrigation water is available at a city scale….and what is possible, in fact necessary, for today’s Gulf cities.

Old expression meet new infrastructure

We applied this knowledge directly to a site we were working on at the time. The area south of the Dubai World Trade Centre was undergoing a major renewal. Here, we tripled the number of trees and filled empty spaces with plants.

Years later I walked the streets of One Central Dubai.  Foliage was moving in the breeze. Birdsong. Plants spilling over the paving. It was green, and it felt cool.

It was proof of concept. A natureculture expression adapted for today’s Gulf Arab city.

Lesson learnt

Make beautiful and cool spaces using every last drop of sustainably available water. Grow large trees wherever you can and the benefit will grow too.

Dryland at one end, paradise garden at the other. This is the full spectrum of landscape expressions that belong to the Gulf.

Credits

Natureculture is the work of many people. We could not claim full ownership over any one outcome. The tree gardens of One Central Dubai would not have been realised without the design leadership and driving commitment of Simon Fraser, Principal at Hopkins Architects.

Laith Wark is founding partner of NatureCulture Studios and led living systems and placemaking at One Central Dubai.

Making the natureculture