urban planning - Green Prophet

Do you have the greenest city? Apply for this global award

Green Prophet — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 10:33:25 +0000

During the Spring Meeting in Chiang Rai, Thailand, AIPH The International Association of Horticultural Producers members consist of thousands of growers of flowers and ornamental plants around the world opened entries for the third edition of the AIPH World Green City Awards – the only global awards for cities where plants and nature are the core focus.

The Awards recognise and celebrate bold and innovative action that harnesses the power of plants and nature to create greener, healthier, and more resilient cities.

“Today, more than ever, we are faced with an epic challenge: ensuring that our cities remain liveable and resilient in the face of climate change and growing urbanisation,” says AIPH President Leonardo Capitanio. “As climate change predictions become reality, it is clear that plants will be among the most valuable resources we have to keep our cities comfortable. We must recognise the importance of plants and trees and their ability to adapt to stress in order to ensure the health and well-being of us all.”

Rothschild Boulevard trees along the bile path in Tel Aviv, Photo by Yonatan Honig (Courtesy – Tel Aviv Jaffa)

Cities around the world are encouraged to enter their greening initiatives to showcase their achievement and commitment to nature-orientated solutions to address major challenges facing urban environments. The AIPH World Green City Awards 2026 comprise seven categories:

Living Green for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Restoration
Living Green for Climate Change
Living Green for Health & Wellbeing
Living Green for Water
Living Green for Social Cohesion & Inclusive Communities
Living Green for Urban Infrastructure & Liveability
Living Green for Urban Agriculture & Food Systems

A two stage judging process ensures rigour and integrity. Three Finalists for each category are selected by a Technical Panel of urban greening experts. From this list, an international Jury decides on the winners. Of the seven category winners, only one will be named Grand Winner of the AIPH World Green City Awards 2026.

The recipient of the prestigious Grand Winner title of the 2024 edition was the City of Chengdu, China, which was announced at the 2024 Awards Ceremony held at the Future World Green City Congress in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The inaugural edition of the AIPH World Green City Awards was won by the City of Hyderabad in India. Both cities impressed the judges with their city-wide approach to urban greening.

“The AIPH World Green City Awards has grown from strength to strength since the inaugural edition in 2022,” says Mr Bill Hardy, Chair of the AIPH Green City Committee. “In the past two editions of the Awards we have seen how collective action at the local level can achieve global impact. Cities are champions for the power of plants and nature, that is why all cities are invited to enter the AIPH World Green City Awards 2026.”

The post Do you have the greenest city? Apply for this global award appeared first on Green Prophet.

Egypt builds highway through the City of the Dead

Karin Kloosterman — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:58:36 +0000

Dome of a mosque through a minaret arch at the Sultan Al-Ashraf Qaytbay mosque and mausoleum, City of the Dead, Cairo, Egypt

Rapid urban development in Egypt isn’t considering the UNESCO-protected sites in the city, like this mosque in the City of the Dead, demolished and in ruin

Locals are reporting that Egypt is demolishing ancient history by knocking down the Al-Qarafa Cemetery in the City of the Dead, a UNESCO-protected site, to build a new highway through Cairo.

The City of the Dead, or the Cairo Necropolis, is also also referred to as the Qarafa in Arabic, is a series of Islamic-era necropolises and cemeteries in Cairo, Egypt. They run north and to south of the Cairo Citadel, below the Mokattam Hills and outside the historic city walls, covering an area of about 4 miles long.

This cemetery is is part of Historic Cairo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. According to people who live in Cairo, the area is home to stunning Islamic architecture, such as domes, minarets, and graves, some of which are over 1,200 years old. It also contains the resting places of Egypt’s most influential figures, such as those from the Muhammad Ali Royal Dynasty.

On the Urban Hell Reddit forum (where you can see photos –– we posted some here but the photographer asked us to take them down), one contributor says, “The Egyptian government and local authorities are highly corrupt, that’s why they are willing to destroy this cemetery without a second thought.”

Another reader defends the move, saying “They’re not “destroying it”. They’re putting an elevated highway through a four-mile wide cemetery. No registered historic buildings are being destroyed. The space this will take is a drop in the bucket. It would be nice if they didn’t have to but Cairo has grown 4x in population since 1970 and sacrifices must be made.”

Another one comments: “Reminds me of when Egypt destroyed trees in urban areas so property developers can sell the idea of “greenary” being exclusive and luxurious in gated communities. Or property developers leaving building facades unfinished so they don’t pay property tax. Or building a highway through apartments complexs or even through Alexandria’s ancient coastline

“Egypt needs to introduce new urban planning laws regarding historic sites, environment and facades before we see a highway ramp up to the Pyramid of Giza with a Starbucks on top.”

The government’s project is destroying a “unique, architectural, historic fabric,” said Ayman Wanas to the Associated Press. He is an official with the government department that lists distinctive buildings and wrote in his resignation letter posted online. “It’s a waste of Egypt’s historic, valuable heritage which is irreplaceable.”

Hundreds of activists were killed at Tahir Square in Egypt following the Arab Sprint uprising that started in 2011. Some sites list more than one thousand. We met Mohammed Gohar in Montreal who told us how he saved 17 Christians from certain death by hiding them in his TV station building during one of the protests. He was granted asylum in Canada for his bravery. Virginity checks and other awful violations faced the demonstrators as well.

The work on redeveloping Cairo, despite its rich architecture from the past is part of a mega-building campaign by their President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to reshape the home of 20 million people. His government is putting up massive freeways and flyovers at a furious rate while encouraging the growth of gated suburban compounds outside the city while building a giant new capital in the desert.

The post Egypt builds highway through the City of the Dead appeared first on Green Prophet.

Most of us are urbanites, new UN study

Karin Kloosterman — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 07:41:49 +0000

A town in the Faroe Islands. Rural, but pushing on urban, finds new UN study. Most of the world isn’t as remote and disconnected as you’d think

Most of us, even in suburbs, actually live in a type of city, a new UN study has found. Some 99% of the world is now connected to an urban way of life. Fewer than one percent of the global population live in truly remote hinterlands, sharpening the need for better understanding of how urban forms impact food systems as well as social and economic development, according to new research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the University of Twente.

Knowing more about how people organize themselves, can make an easier job for international planners and investors develop strategies for water management, solar energy, and even Covid vaccine rollout, for instance.

Small cities and towns and the rural areas they influence – defined as their catchment areas – play an outsized role in the way people pursue their livelihoods, says the paper, “Global mapping of urban-rural catchment areas reveals unequal access to services”, just published by the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

This is particularly the case in low-income countries where small cities and their catchment areas are home to almost two thirds of their overall population.

A sign in Muscat, Oman

Insights derived from the research “have strong policy implications, ranging from access to health services to the organization of city-region food systems and facilitating a mobility transition toward more commuting and less migration,” say the authors.

By using multiple spatial datasets and calculating the time needed for rural populations to reach nearby keystone urban centers, they found that peri-urban areas are home to nearly 40 percent of the global population, equally distributed in the surrounding areas of small, intermediate, and large cities.

These results challenge the centrality of large cities in development narratives and plans. Peri-urban areas often fall through the cracks of policies designed for city residents and rural farmers, highlighting the need for greater coordination between urban and rural administrative authorities in order to help these in-between populations to leverage their proximity to towns and cities to access education, services and employment opportunities more efficiently.

The strikingly low figure cited at the outset describes people who live more than three hours – measured in terms of the available mode of transit from an urban settlement of 20,000 people or more. On a national level, the figure of population in the hinterlands rises above 5 percent in only three countries with populations greater than 10 million: Madagascar, Niger and Zimbabwe.

Higher income does not always equate with higher urbanity

The findings highlight how the notion that higher-income countries are more urban is too simplistic. For example, more than half the rural populations in low-income countries live in high-density areas, six times more than is the case in high-income countries. That partly reflects a penchant for low-density suburban housing in affluent nations, as well as the way better road infrastructure can make it easier to live further – in distance rather than time – from the center of the local URCA.

The evidence shows that while large cities are now home to more than 40 percent of the world’s urban population, and nearly 50 percent for Latin America and the Caribbean, they draw proportionally fewer people into their functional orbit than smaller cities.

The dominance of small cities and towns and their catchment areas in low per capita income countries highlights the need for policies aimed at improving off-farm employment opportunities, education and health services, as well as for local food systems and for appropriate land-use strategies and transportation infrastructure investments.

The data provided can support a territorial perspective -already tested in high-income countries – that takes account of interlinkages between cities and their surrounding rural areas, leading to greater access to off-farm employment, a better-integrated local agri-food system, and less migration.

The post Most of us are urbanites, new UN study appeared first on Green Prophet.

Surprising Reasons Why Cities Need More Shade

Miriam Kresh — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 11:22:04 +0000

Walking outdoors under the summer sun can be a trial. The sun beats down, everyone’s hot and thirsty, and people’s tempers are noticeably shorter. It’s harder to exercise outdoors, and no wonder: it’s projected that by 2050 daily temperatures will rise by 2-3 degrees Centigrade.

We instinctively feel that shade reduces temperature, and research has also discovered that shade in cities can reduce the thermal load by as much as 50%. You’d think that cities should provide more shade-making structures like pergolas, and plant more leafy sidewalk trees to keep people comfortable.

But there’s more to shade than that.

A recent Israeli report funded jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Construction and the Ministry of Health suggests that when people know there will be shade on their way, they’re more likely to walk or ride their bikes, and less likely to drive. Maybe they don’t think of it as exercise, but it is.

The larger the numbers of people exercising, the deeper the statistical drop of ailments like cardiovascular disease and strokes, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, breast cancer, and obesity in the population. As is well known, regular physical exercise also strengthens immunities and relieves stress and depression.

Dr. Aviad Hadar, one of the initiators of the report, says,

“Over the past decade, dozens of research papers, articles, and policy documents have been published, demonstrating how the lack of shade in Israel’s public spaces harms public health. There even have been urban design exhibitions aiming to raise awareness of this specific problem.

“It’s important to understand that the presence of shade in urban areas has a crucial impact, either consciously or subconsciously, on the decision to leave the car at home and instead use less or non-polluting alternatives, especially in city centers that suffer from heavy air pollution due to car traffic.”

Let’s consider the global rise of skin cancer, a disease often triggered by sunburn and frequent exposure to the sun. According to the World Cancer Research Fund, 300,000 new cases of melanoma, the most common skin cancer, were reported in 2018.

In Israel, 1,674 patients were diagnosed with melanoma in 2015. 185 died of it. I myself recall with sorrow the death from skin cancer of a friend in my Jerusalem neighborhood; a mother of six. Having access to shade from childhood on can be a factor in preventing such sad outcomes.

How about cleaner air? Trees and bushes planted on sidewalks and road medians absorb and disperse air pollution. We’ve written how houseplants keep the air clean in your home, but on a major scale, making cities greener with shady trees also reduces the amounts of invisible particulates that we absorb with every breath.

But trees for shade are a long-range project; they need years to grow into their maximal shade coverage. Placing artificial structures like pergolas, extensive awnings over shop fronts, and long roofs where crowds come and to, like at Tel Aviv’s HaHagana train station, would be more efficient and timely.

Prof. Nir Becker and Or Neviot are the researchers at the Tel Hai Academic College who wrote the Israeli report on shade. They say that apart from health benefits, shade could have an indirect but powerful effect on the national budget.

An example is a school where $80,000 USD was invested in shading a 200-square-meter outdoor area. Encouraged to play outdoors, 30% of the kids became more physically active at school, with a marked improvement in their health. Annual health benefits for each child cost was about $25 USD, a total of $about $25,000 for the entire school. In less than three years, the initial investment in shade will be recouped and money saved.

Not enough recognition is given to shade’s potential financial benefits. Dr. Amiel Vasl, deputy director of the Ministry of Construction and Housing’s policy department and one of the initiators of the report, says professional publications all say shade is a good thing, and that Israel need lots of it, but there are too many less than useful guidelines. He adds,

“These reports do not examine the potential economic benefits of shade. No one talks about how much money shade could actually save.”

The researchers made cost-benefit analyses of increased urban shade. Comparing the calculated costs to the potential savings obtained, they concluded that shade, which helps reduce disease and mortality, could contribute significantly to the national budget in savings.

“In Israel, a large part of medical treatment is covered by the state. So if a population is healthier due to shade, the country saves money,” says Becker.

Vasl adds that not only children, but adults and especially elderly people, need shady encouragement to walk outdoors.

“The greatest economic benefit comes from making adults walk. It’s a target audience that we ignored until now, and a vital use of shade that needs to be focused on,” he says.

Israel’s savings from shade, the report concludes, could amount to thousands of shekels per capita every year.

So there it is. Shade not only makes Israeli summers more pleasant, it helps keep the population healthy by increasing the desire to exercise outdoors. Shady trees reduce air pollution. Shade could save the country plenty money. Now let’s encourage city planners to get moving on making more shade.

The post Surprising Reasons Why Cities Need More Shade appeared first on Green Prophet.

Saudi city goes underground to avert vehicular traffic

Tafline Laylin — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 11:37:24 +0000

Is there anything worse than being in a hot city with cars idling, kicking up heat and pollution? We don’t think so, and apparently Erick van Egeraat agrees. The city of Unaizah has approved Egeraat’s plans to build a massive ring road around the city, as well as an underground street.

Erick van Egeraat submitted a plan to build a ring road that encircles the 58-hectare city center. This is a one-way road that has four lanes of traffic. The diameter of the East/West route is 800 meters while the North/South route comprises a diameter of 920 meters.

And this is where it gets interesting. The master plan includes an underground street that travels North/South and links, along with the ring road, to an underground parking lot. With this, the design team hopes to limit the aboveground vehicular traffic and ensure easier pedestrian access to the city.

Work has already commenced on the ring road construction, and Egeraat is finalizing the master plan and other building projects.

Included in the city’s upgrade is a push to grow more palm trees inside the city center to reference those that have historically grown just outside the city. Plus this creates an environment that is more conducive to social engagement than one without any green spaces, and provides much needed shade in the brutal heat.

Also on the docket are more retail facilities, residential quarters, a mosque, and a mall. The latter will be decked out with vertical gardens and perhaps even waterworks (we hope they use reclaimed water.)

:: WAN

The post Saudi city goes underground to avert vehicular traffic appeared first on Green Prophet.

Dubai’s new air conditioned city to woo the wealthy elite

Tafline Laylin — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 04:31:39 +0000

Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai will soon play host to the world’s largest shopping mall – the gargantuan Mall of the World. Comprised of 48 million square feet of over-the-top retail, residential, and even medical services, the covered pedestrian city is expected to attract some 180 million visitors a year. I shudder at the thought.

In terms of density, this new Dubai Holding development is on the right track. Mixed use development is widely considered to be desirable in an urban context, and linking areas of the city with public transportation as well. But there’s more that goes into a city to create a wonderful, vibrant and inspiring space — it’s got to have soul.

With 25 hotels linked to the mall alone, any semblance of soul is already lost as far as I’m concerned. Add to that a three million square foot wellness center and seven kilometers of retail, and this place is starting to sound like a certain kind of hell.

Dubai Holding attempts to compare their development to La Rambla in Barcelona, but it will never be anything like it.

The Mall of the World is pure consumerism, and a particularly gilded form of it rarely seen in our age of austerity, poverty, hunger and war.

I find it particularly hard to see this development in the context of Syria’s war; as widows are trying to raise their children in refugee camps, and missiles are raining on Gaza, why do some people insist upon perpetuating such irresponsible excess?

Nonetheless, here are some details:

The development will have three districts, namely the hospitality district, which will have a total of 20,000 hotel rooms, a cultural district, which holds some promise as it will include a cinema art school, and the wellness district, which will have among its many amenities a facility that provides “one-day surgeries.”

Dubai wants to become the new Mexico for the wealthy elite. And why you ask is this on a green site?

Well, in part because Dubai Holding claims that their mammoth temperature-controlled pedestrian city linked by a tram network and filled with hundreds and hundreds of stores selling stuff that is completely unnecessary is a responsible development.

“We are ready to move forward with this unique concept, whose distinctive offering and strategic location will play an instrumental role in advancing the growth of Dubai’s tourism sector,” said Ahmad Bin Byat, Chief Executive Officer of the company.

“The project will follow the green and environmentally friendly guidelines of the Smart Dubai model. It will be built using state-of-the-art technology to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint, ensuring high levels of environmental sustainability and operational efficiency.”

Sigh. I wish Dubai would follow the Masdar experiment in neighboring Abu Dhabi a little more closely. In any case, we expect this to be ready in time for Expo 2020 Dubai.

The post Dubai’s new air conditioned city to woo the wealthy elite appeared first on Green Prophet.

Green up or ship out – Saudi clamps down on construction industry

Tafline Laylin — Wed, 14 May 2014 14:34:42 +0000

Saudi Arabia has announced that the construction industry has five years to “green” up their business. Amid a massive construction boom, the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) has decreed that all companies must reduce their air, water and noise pollution in keeping with regulations approved in 2008.

While skeptics claim that the Kingdom lacks the regulatory muscle to ensure that them, Saudi Arabia has introduced sweeping measures to bring the construction industry up to speed with international standards, The Guardian reports.

This move is particularly timely given the numerous construction projects underway, including the $93 billion King Abdullah Economic City. Faisal Alfadl, Secretary-general of the Saudi Green Building Forum (SGBF) told the paper that all of the projects under this umbrella will be green.

“As Saudi Arabia grapples with constant growth, government and industry support is needed to ensure building developments adhere to USGBC Leed certifications and other global rating systems. We need national policies to ensure companies store and sort their construction waste responsibly,” says Alfadl.

“To complete their projects, all contractors, construction companies and suppliers must adhere to these global green standards.”

SGBP has offered to help PME meet its goals within the next five years.

Part of their plan to reduce energy use by up to 80 percent and water use by up to 40 percent, Saudi is renovating more 90,000 mosques throughout the Kingdom, Alfadl told the Guardian.

“We welcome the PME’s move and we have the right support in place.”

We also welcome Saudi Arabia’s efforts to improve how they treat construction workers and natural resources, along with moves to increase renewable energy use, but the Kingdom has a long way to go. For starters, they have to resist splashy projects such as the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah.

Expected to reach one kilometer into the sky, the tower will require – among other materials – 500,000 cubic meters of concrete to supersede the Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world’s tallest building.

The new regulations could definitely improve Saudi’s overall environmental impact, but a massive cultural change will be required for any meaningful nationwide paradigm shift.

:: The Guardian

Image of Saudi Arabia Mosque | Shutterstock

The post Green up or ship out – Saudi clamps down on construction industry appeared first on Green Prophet.

Chinese investors to build a mini Dubai in Kenya

Tafline Laylin — Thu, 01 May 2014 23:39:58 +0000

The Kenyan government is reportedly paving the way for China to build a new city just outside of the capital. Some 100 Chinese investors aim to build roughly 20 skyscrapers in the enclave, which is expected to become a shopping destination for products from China and other countries.

Just one of three similar developments planned around Nairobi, the $750 million “Chinese-controlled economic zone” will include luxury residences designed to match the “glamour of Dubai,” according to Construction Week Online.

There are a lot of Chinese in Kenya. There are a lot of Chinese all over Africa, but Kenya – eager to become East Africa’s most powerful nation – has laid many of its resources bare to investors in exchange for infrastructural development and a smattering of social and development programs.

The Lamu Port is one such initiative. Under dubious terms, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) won tender to build a super port in a UNESCO-protected island on Kenya’s upper east coast. Here many people still live very close to the land and sea, and unspoiled mangroves and coral reefs are bound to be devastated.

(A subsidiary of this company has been given carte blanche to build a similar port and coal-burning plant in the equally beautiful Porthead Bight Protected Area – Chinese influence reaches across all reaches of the globe.)

On the one hand, the project along the Athi River in Machakos County promises to bring jobs to local people and improve their quality of life. But in reality, the Chinese typically import their own engineers and only employ locals for the most brutish of jobs; we won’t be surprised to find Kenyans dispossessed to make room for the foreign influx.

Chinese expatriates are often blamed for killing the local wildlife for food, not to mention their appetite for poached ivory and rhino horn, so perhaps Kenyans will be relieved to know that they will have access to products they are accustomed to.

But they won’t be impressed with how Kenya’s Vision 2030 Development Plan is likely to further overtax natural resources, create more pollution, and generate more traffic.

Construction is supposed to break ground later this year.

:: Construction Week Online

Image of Dubai skyline / Shutterstock

The post Chinese investors to build a mini Dubai in Kenya appeared first on Green Prophet.

An urban park that embraces its desert environment

Tafline Laylin — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 23:26:05 +0000

How many times have you seen a big old patch of lawn in the middle of Abu Dhabi and cringed? Lush green grass does not belong in the desert, and trying to make it so wastes water. That’s why Thomas Heartherwick came up with the idea of covering up an existing park with a shaded canopy, and it looks like a cracked desert landscape.

Abu Dhabi approached Thomas Heatherwick, a well-known and well-respected architect currently based in London, to rethink an existing park in Abu Dhabi.

“The existing public space evoked the style of a european park by covering the desert with a blanket of grass,” writes the studio.

“However, counteracting evaporation caused by the intensity of the sun was requiring a significant amount of purified water to irrigate it, produced industrially from salty sea water using a costly and high energy consuming desalination process.”

In response, the studio came up with the idea of creating a continuous domed canopy lifted about 65 feet off the ground. From above they look like cracks in the earth created by the desert sun, but below, they shelter a rich, cool and well-ventilated urban oasis.

“The idea for the park’s design developed in response to these challenges and as a way of celebrating the beauty of the desert and its distinct surrounding landscape,” the studio writes. “Instead of denying the presence of the desert that the city is built on, we set ourselves the task of making a park out of the desert itself.”

In addition to improving quality of life for residents of Abu Dhabi, who have to contend with rapid urbanization, thepark provides facilities for both learning and community activities.

Once completed circa 2017, the park will have cafés, play spaces, a library, pools and streams, as well as date palms and community vegetable gardens. There will also be a mosque, an outdoor cinema and indoor and outdoor performance areas.

“By creating partial shade for the planting, the canopy aims to reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation and so will improve the park’s energy efficiency and sustainability,” writes the studio.

Shaded during the day, and illuminated at night, the new and improved Al Fayah Park is bound to be a huge hit among locals.

:: Dezeen

The post An urban park that embraces its desert environment appeared first on Green Prophet.

Dubai unveils lamp-shaped ‘Aladdin City’ towers

Tafline Laylin — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:58:24 +0000

Three lamp-shaped towers make up the new Aladdin City that is being constructed in Dubai as part of an effort to boost the city’s profile ahead of the 2020 World Expo. I wonder what the genie thinks?

Dubai is becoming something of a legend itself with indoor skiing, the world’s largest tower, and a suite of artificial islands. But a new development project seeks to pay allegiance to an ancient folk story that is well-known around the globe – Aladdin from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

Instead of one lamp, however, the new complex will boast three: office space, parking buildings and luxury hotels will be incorporated into the three interconnected towers located within the commercial vessels port in the old area of Dubai – in Al Rigga, Dubai Creek.

“The symbolic content of the architectural form of the project buildings was inspired by the ancient legends from the 11th century, where vessels were sailed from Dubai Creek to the coast of East Africa, India and China,” Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality told Gulf News.

“It may have been here where the tales of Sindbad and Aladdin came from.”

A completion date has yet to be announced, but the Dubai municipality is expecting to draw more tourism to Dubai and stimulate the emirate’s economy either in time for or ahead of the 2020 World Expo.

The municipality also said that they are trying to improve their land use in Dubai, though this project does pose several challenges given the location in which it is being built.

Lootah told the paper that authorities want visitors to the region to still have access to the wooden abra boats that travel across Dubai Creek, as well as the harbor, without causing disruptions at the project site. Plus, visitor safety near a construction zone should be of concern.

Nothing has been said about the project’s environmental impact, but we don’t have high hopes.

For starters, the complex will have a footprint of nearly 361,000 square feet in an already crowded part of the Dubai, and its visual profile is nothing short of kitschy. At least the towers won’t be too tall however. The tallest will have 34 floors, while the other two will have 26 and 25.

Also, rather than creating a pedestrian-friendly environment, the project will provide 900 parking spots – further entrenching the car’s role in the city.

The post Dubai unveils lamp-shaped ‘Aladdin City’ towers appeared first on Green Prophet.