Enriching Real-Estate Through Sustainable Public Spaces: The case of Dubai- UAE

Abstract

In the process of the ongoing urban planning strategies for developing smart cities, the concept of urban public square has not yet been given the attention of urbanists and city planners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. More focus was given by architects and developers on saturating the market with iconic smart buildings rather than developing more livable communities with public spaces and plazas for people to connect. The overall aim of this paper is to highlight the key role that the real state sector can play to foster developing public spaces and squares as an integral part of smart urbanism. The issue of developing urban public squares in Dubai new communities and formulating policies for including such spaces in new districts and cities should be closely examined. The focus should be on enriching the real estate sector by regulating a concept of injecting urban public squares in the new smart and sustainable urbanism in Dubai to perform as a sociocultural entity within the fabric of new communities for the sake of improving social life and developing vibrant environment. With keywords such as smart city, public squares, social, urban design, livability; and sustainability, this write up makes the case of sustainable urbanization.