Think before you build

Imagine, if you will, Dubai without air-conditioning. My thinking is instant ghost town.

For all the forward thinking that contractors, developers and designers pat themselves on the back for when building new skyscrapers and master-planned communities, they seemed to have forgotten the basics in building stuff.

That would be infrastructure. That non-glamorous component of building pretty things that keeps the lights on, the AC running, the toilets flushing and a smartly planned roadway system so there is not a lot of ugly traffic tied up in the neighbourhood.

When infrastructure is an afterthought, it's kind of like buying a Bentley that is powered by a four-cylinder engine from Toyota, or marrying someone like Angelina Jolie only to discover she doesn't match her screen persona.

Dubai has been a playground for many Western contractors, developers and designers. They're like kids with a US $20 bill in a candy store. But somewhere along the line they have not learned the lessons that have plagued the US and the UK. Infrastructure must come first.

Nothing runs right without infrastructure in place. In fact, people who live and work in communities where infrastructure is considered the red-headed stepchild at the family picnic get pretty angry when things don't work in their beautiful buildings. They might not know exactly which developers botched the job, but they know lack of quality living and working when they experience it.

If Dubai gets it right, it could very well be the model city for all future developers to aspire. And getting it right means close attention to infrastructure and to alternative energy uses.

But there are troubling signs that Dubai, and the entire UAE for that matter, could be in a world of hurt. Energy consumption in the Gulf region is expected to climb by 50% within the next five years, while power generation will only reach about 30%.

As reported in this edition of Construction Week, the Citadel Tower, that generic erection of glass and steel in Business Bay, is in the commissioning stage, yet is hooked up to a generator for testing. Only one of the seven planned power substations in Business Bay is under construction.

The demand for towers appears to have outstripped the pace to build power substations. Call me a sceptic, but I have never been convinced that there is so much demand for these big buildings that we can't put the proper building blocks in place first.

It's understandable that construction is moving so fast that the exact power demands of new buildings get a little fuzzy. To me that signals a need for caution to move at a slower pace to ensure that places like Citadel Towers are up and running properly. Really, would you want to work in a building in which the power was tested on a generator and that by the time you moved in only one substation was green-lighted to go.

Let me put it this way: Are you prepared to work in a building in which the AC works every other day, the quality of your internet connection varies from hour to hour and you might have to hike up two floors to find a toilet in working order?

No, I didn't think so.

Rob Wagner is the editor of Construction Week.

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