The late Michael Cameron Dempsey was an urban planner who worked in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Abu Dhabi--an obscure Middle Eastern principality that happens to be the richest city in the world. This book tells the story of Abu Dhabi's ambitions to transform itself from a sleepy sheikhdom into a thriving international metropolis and a hub of business and leisure. It traces Abu Dhabi's boom years from 2009 to 2011 from the perspective of a Westerner working for the Urban Planning Council, the government agency that planned and coordinated all of the massive development activity.
Castles in the Sand explores the drastic changes in Abu Dhabi's built environment, where entire islands are forested with skyscrapers and billions of dollars in infrastructure are spent on a whim--while recounting the disorienting experience of an outsider encountering a society in which foreigners outnumber locals nine to one and modernity clashes head-on with centuries of embedded tradition. General readers will find a broad introduction to Abu Dhabi, and architects and planners will gain a firsthand glimpse inside an unprecedented experiment in city-building.

Table of Contents


Preface

Prologue

One.¿Origins

Two.¿Ready, Fire, Aim

Three.¿The Mean Streets

Four.¿Nanny State

Five.¿Into the Desert

Six.¿Proletarians, Unite!

Seven.¿A Higher Power

Eight.¿Back to Nature

Nine.¿The Short Arm of the Law

Ten.¿Faulty Towers

Eleven.¿Nadir

Twelve.¿Greener Grass

Thirteen.¿Only Sheikh!

Fourteen.¿Grand Designs

Fifteen.¿Lonely Hearts Need Not Apply

Sixteen.¿Cracks in the Façade

Seventeen.¿Guests Behaving Badly

Eighteen.¿The Calm Before the Storm

Nineteen.¿End of the Road

Epilogue

A Note About the Author

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index