Nothing seems more unnatural than a manmade island shaped like a palm tree, an act of artifice, of design, on a massive scale. Yet when the Sheikh of Dubai decided to invest in such a scheme, naturalness was foremost in his thoughts. As if the technological challenges of creating the largest manmade island in the world was not enough, the Sheikh wanted it constructed out of only ‘natural’ materials instead of concrete, adding significantly to the technological difficulty of the project. The dream was to create the most natural unnatural island imaginable: Palm Jumeirah.
Dolly Jørgensen. “The Palm Islands, Dubai, UAE.” In Iconic designs: 50 stories about 50 things, ed. G. Lees-Maffei. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
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