Desert Paradises

Julian Bolleter is Deputy-Director at the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at the University of Western Australia. His role includes teaching a master’s programme in urban design and conducting research and design projects. Julian is a landscape architect and urban designer and has worked in Australia, the United States, the UK and the Middle East. He has published four books: Made in Australia: The Future of Australian Cities (with Richard Weller), Take Me to the River: A History of Perth’s Foreshore, Scavenging the Suburbs: Auditing Perth for One Million Infill Dwellings and The Ghost Cities of Australia: A Survey of New City Proposals and Their Lessons for Australia’s 21st Century Development.

• 1. Introduction 2. Dubai briefing 3. Paradisiacal landscapes 4. Urban and desert landscapes 5. Challenges in practice 6. The potential of Landscape Urbanism in Dubai 7: Conclusion

"Desert Paradises is a superb analysis of the development of urban landscape in Persian Gulfwith a focus on Dubai. This fascinating and historically informed account sheds new light onnuances of landscape urbanism and the complex politics behind it. Providing an original andimpactful contribution to landscape design, history and practice, Bolleter handles both breadth anddepth of the development of landscape in Dubai with balance and solid supportive arguments.This indispensable study would be an inspiring reading for experts from various fields, includingbut not limited to, geographers, urban planners, designers, architects, and historians ofcontemporary Middle East."Mohamad Gharipour, Morgan State University, USA"[This book] makes a substantial contribution to the discourse of landscape architecture in the Middle East." - Julian Raxworthy, (Landscape Review), University of Queensland, Australia