The famous emirate has allocated an area of 450 hectares to the project

Jul 11, 2014 06:49 GMT  ·  By

We've seen man-made islands of various sizes and shapes, skyscrapers, high-rise buildings, large hotels and colossal shopping malls, and Dubai already has all of these, or is in the process of building some. Now, the emirate is ready to add a new “world's first” achievement to its list of accomplishments: a neighborhood with weather controlled by humans.

Located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf, Dubai is the city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the largest population. It is also the second-largest emirate (capital Abu Dhabi beats it in that).

In recent decades, it has been the place of new, borderline futuristic architectural projects, so in a way, it's not that shocking that it would pave the way for domed cities.

Dubai won't be building a dome large enough to encompass the entire emirate. However, it has approved plans for the creation of a glass-covered neighborhood spanning 450 hectares.

Technically, it will be a shopping mall, called Mall of the World, but when you have one hundred hotels and serviced apartment buildings under the same roof and overseeing authority, you can't call it anything other than a full neighborhood, or even a city unto itself.

The mall will, of course, include a shopping center (750,000 square meters), a celebration district (emulating the La Ramble in Barcelona), and a theater district (based on New York's Broadway and London's West End).

As for the roof, it will be made of glass and will be retractable. However, it will likely be kept in place most of the time, as the climate will not be controllable without it. Indeed, the project stipulates that the weather will be subject to man's decision, through whatever means.

Weather machines have been a staple of science fiction almost from the very start. Sci-Fi is, after all, focused on how technology can give man, or fictional races, control over aspects of our existence that we can do nothing about with just our minds, legs and hands.

It remains to be seen if the world's first indoor, climate-controlled neighborhood ends up being made with special vents and canals for funneling water and Steam (to produce weather), or if architects and landscaping experts somehow set up enough ecosystems with ponds and streams that a natural water cycle is produced.

Then again, odds are higher that the designers will just forgo rain altogether and take care of plants through subtle irrigation and localized sprinkler systems, so that tenants and visitors are comfortable all day, everyday.

Dubai's Mall of the World (8 Images)

Dubai Mall of the World
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