Dubai's vision: Future as a heritage

Future is the single biggest heritage foundational block of the founders of United Arab Emirates, the belief that the impossible is possible and that obstacles only exist to be overcome by people joining forces to work together.

I moved to Dubai to work as a professional futurist for the Dubai government last year. I had visited this marvelous city before as a tourist, but only now am I starting to get a feeling for what makes Dubai the city it is.

In my view, the true Emirati heritage does not live within the buildings in the Shindagha district, it doesn’t live within the monumental architecture of Burj Khalifa or the megastructures in the Dubai Marina or the artificial islands off the coast.

The true Emirati heritage can only be felt while working within the Dubai governmental and commercial structures, side by side with Emiratis and expats alike, where the living spirit of the Founders of the Union can still be felt. Dubai is a city where the history lives and evolves with us, every day and every single moment in time.

It doesn’t seem an exaggeration to say that never before in human history has a project for a city been as forward looking as Dubai. Future is the single biggest heritage foundational block of the founders of United Arab Emirates, the belief that the impossible is possible and that obstacles only exist to be overcome by people joining forces to work together as a single organism to imagine, design and execute the future. Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has famously said: “Nothing is impossible where there is perseverance. Nothing is impossible where there is belief. Nothing is impossible where there is life.” It is within this combination of perseverance, belief and life where the DNA of the Emirati success story lies, in staying in continuous motion, without resting on our laurels, through active visionary leadership always striving for building a better tomorrow for its people and the world at large.

What does the concept of the future as a heritage actually mean? Dubai’s story, and the story of the United Arab Emirates, can be seen as an evolving story based on combining resilience with continuous transformation. No matter how old we get, at the very core of being human is our natural curiosity towards new things and phenomena, the awe at the miracles of nature and the universe and the craving to reach for the stars and explore further. What I have learned about the Emiratis in the short time I have lived in Dubai is that they are explorers at heart, guided by the inspiration of the fathers of the nation to build a city and a state which places the human development at the centre of everything we do.

Dubai is a city firmly rooted in the future. The excitement to create projects which have never been done before is palpable, and this energy is highly contagious to anyone coming into contact with it. The Emirati history is the grand story of continuous innovation, it is a narrative where vision combined with deliberate action can result in the unimaginable. Much has been written about the American dream, where the individual is seen as the captain of his own destiny. Much more should be written about the Emirati dream, where a collective dream for a better life and seeing a city as an open testbed for new ideas and innovations is laying the foundation for the future of all mankind.

Rather than individual achievement, all humans have in them the desire to participate in a grand narrative. As His Highness has said: A great leader creates great leaders, and does not reduce the institution to a single person. What makes me a grateful individual to participate in the Dubai story is that here I can align my own will with the collective will of the history of the city to build a space where we can join forces to build a better future, for us all.