“We only have 60km of beach running along the coast of the Emirates, but we have 14 million visitors a year who come here for the beaches. This is “They were totally unfazed by anything,” says Luis Ajamil, president of architecture giant Ajamil did manage to bring a little bit of market sense to the madness. “St Petersburg is our honeymoon island,” he says, pointing out a blob of land that they have remodelled in the shape of a heart, dotted with thatched cabins, from which long piers extend to provide mooring posts for Germany has been reserved for higher-end occupants – “the second or third homes of your average millionaire” – while Sweden is billed as the pinnacle of exclusivity, featuring 10 “palaces”, whose rooftops are modelled on the upturned hull of a viking ship.
Construction of the 300 islands began in 2003, before halting due to the Islands in the project range from 14,000 to 42,000 square metres (150,000 to 450,000 sq ft) in area.The archipelago consists of seven sets of islands, representing the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, The project was unveiled in May 2003 by Sheikh MohammedUntil early 2012, only one of the islands had been occupied by a building (a show home) on it,The World was supposed to be serviced by four major transportation hubs linked by waterways. The World or The World Islands, (Arabic: جزر العالم; Juzur al-Ālam) is an archipelago of small artificial islands constructed in the shape of a world map, located in the waters of the Persian Gulf, 4.0 kilometres (2.5 mi) off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Heart of Europe. So we needed to create more beach.”Walking up the hard shoulder of the roaring highway of the Palm today (there is no pavement; everyone drives), the feeling is less one of an exclusive private enclave than that of a generic slice of American suburbia.
Standing on Lebanon’s beach alongside a small handful of other bewildered tourists, I see diggers in the distance, shifting sand beneath what looks like the frame of a substantial new building on an island next door. He also planned to slice the UK landmass in two, connecting the slivers with what he describes as “an abstract interpretation of Tower Bridge”. Creation of the islands … In a move that now seems like tempting fate, the Palm Jebel Ali was to feature a In this case, the challenge proved too great. You could put buildings on stilts and bring boat slips in underneath them.

Together, they would add more than 250 miles of coastline to the shores of Dubai, and provide an additional 6,000 hectares of land – an area larger than the whole of Manhattan. After a decade of despair, some other island owners have been buoyed by the company’s efforts. The smart folks figured out that the game was to work with the water, given that the plots of land were so small. “We went from trying to sell a bunch of pancakes to showing people how they could make spaces that could really work commercially. That wasn’t the only replica icon: “A lot of people were looking at recreating wonders of the world. He bought the island of Austria in 2006, before catching the bug and acquiring three more islands, then another three. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. The high-density rezoning paved the way for Kleindienst’s plans, which do their best to fill every square inch of land and sea available, creating an atmosphere redolent of the Costa del Sol.The Universe would have only increased the congestion – it was planned at a higher density still. “When you go into these marketing suites, it feels like 2007 all over again,” says Dubai-based architect Sara Anwar, who was involved with Karl Lagerfeld’s plans for a fashion island, “Every five minutes a bus would arrive at the sales office full of potential buyers, and people would fly here on their private jets for the most lavish launch parties imaginable,” Anwar says. Trucks are trundling from a concrete batching plant on Monaco over towards Sweden, where a series of villas are under construction, designed in collaboration with Bentley Home. “It soon turned out that there weren’t 300 people who wanted to buy an island for $30m,” he says, “so we changed the plan and increased the density to make it commercially viable, more like a city without cars. Antarctica was imagined as a big commercial hub, with rows of seven-storey hotels and a mile-long beach facing The Universe is an aborted plan for an additional 3,000ha of fantasy islands. Instead, it looks like a pair of mating caterpillars, the two spits of land whittled away into long, curling tendrils, upon which dozens of white modernist holiday homes have been packed side by side. Creation of the islands started in 2001. It has the same energy consumption and uses the same principle as conventional air conditioning, he says, except that the water will fall from a network of pipes in the form of rain. This means tourists can enjoy holiday season around the year. “Absolutely,” says Ajamil.

Located in Dubai's iconic World Islands development, The Island is the first development to open it's doors to the public. Before he got involved, The World had been planned solely with private owners in mind. Dubai World, the government investment arm in charge of the project, was revealed to have Surveying the barren spots of sand that dot the sea today – which, in aerial images, make it look as if the Gulf is suffering from a nasty case of acne – it’s hard to shake the sense of an Ozymandian ruin. There are moon-shaped crescents, cosmic starbursts and wiggling worms, arranged in an indiscriminate muddle, as if someone had spilt a bowl of spaghetti shapes across the map. But all of this planned terraforming was facing a more fundamental hurdle: they were And presumably the tangled knots of the Universe would have drastically reduced the value of the existing islands? Invitations to “Own the World” were sent to a targeted group of 50 potential buyers each year, offering tours of the site by yacht or helicopter, with prices for the islands ranging from $15-50m (£10-36m). After a decade in limbo, The World is back – with more ambitious plans than ever before.With his heavy Austrian accent, imposing stature and chilly demeanour, Kleindienst has the air of a Bond villain, and I half expect him to unveil a giant laser cannon for making it snow on his desert islands. Land parcels are supposedly zoned for various uses: estate, mid density, high density, resorts and commercial.The plan was for utilities to be routed under water, with water plants at each of the hubs pumping fresh water to the islands. Man-made islands at the Heart of Europe development in Dubai.