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Major architecture firms are flocking to Dubai’s Design District

Building Team

Major architecture firms are flocking to Dubai’s Design District

Three more major firms are making a permanent home in Dubai.


By David Malone, Associate Editor | November 15, 2016

Rendering courtesy of Santiago Calatrava

Dubai’s Design District, which has already seen the likes of Zaha Hadid Architects open an office in early November, is about to welcome Foster + Partners and Santiago Calatrava as residents, soon, as well.

These most recent firms will join 30 other architecture practices that are already based in the United Arab Emirates city, according to Dezeen. Not only has Dubai been at the center of the rise of the Middle Eastern architecture market, thus making itself an attractive locale for an office, but also each of these three firms is already hard at work on major Middle Eastern projects.

ZHA unveiled its plans for the Urban Heritage Administration Centre in Saudi Arabia and a hotel in a new city in Qatar. Santiago Calatrava is hard at work on an observation tower in Dubai that is expected to rise higher than the Burj Khalifa. Meanwhile, Foster + Partners is working on a skyscraper for Dubai’s financial district and a creative hub that will be a part of the design district.

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