Dubai

You could say that Dubai's leaders have their finger on the pulse of the city's architecture with this newly-unveiled supertall skyscraper, which incorporates the fingerprint of the Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. Measuring 550 m (1,804 ft)-tall, work on the project is due to start immediately.

The carefully planned Dubai Sustainable City is a reminder that between the towering skyscrapers there is plenty of environmental awareness to be found. As cranes hover at its edges expanding its footprint piece by piece, New Atlas ventured into the desert to see it all from the inside out.

Following years of research and development, an accidental fire and rebuild, and around a month in the Dubai desert, Virginia Tech students have won the 2018 Solar Decathlon Middle East with the FutureHaus. The prefabricated modular home runs from solar power and was assembled in under two days.

​With experience putting together exhibitions around the world, Brendan McGetrick knows a good idea when he sees one. We sat down with the curator during Dubai Design Week to chat about the role of student design now and moving into the future.

​Opened last week, the Jameel Arts Centre is the latest impressive building to carry Dubai’s grand ambitions as a cultural destination for the Middle East. New Atlas swung by to check out the opening festivities.

With 150 projects from the world’s leading design schools on show, the Global Grad Show in Dubai is an annual celebration of all the creativity student design has to offer. New Atlas was on the ground at this year’s edition to sniff out the brightest ideas.

The world’s biggest vertical farm is set to be built – like so many other “world’s biggest” things – in Dubai, where it will grow salads and leafy greens for Emirates Airlines passengers.

James Law Cybertecture, the firm behind the concrete tube micro-homes, is nearing completion on another unusual project called The Pad. Located in Dubai, the building's eye-catching design is intended to resemble an iPod in its charging dock.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) has announced plans for a commercial Hyperloop system for the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. All things going to plan, it will be ready just in time for Expo 2020, a festival of human ingenuity to be hosted by nearby Dubai.​

The Queen Elizabeth 2 is set to begin its new life as a floating luxury hotel this week. The last of the Atlantic liners, the 70,000 gross ton Cunard steamship will operate as a major tourist destination at Mina Rashid on the Dubai waterfront.

​Virgin Hyperloop One has been making inroads in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a little while. Now it has unveiled a prototype pod developed together with Dubai's transport authority, offering locals a little glimpse at a potential future of subsonic tube travel.

What do you do when you have too much garbage but not enough energy? Convert one into the other. That’s the thinking behind the waste-to-energy plants that are beginning to pop up around the globe, and now the Government of Dubai has announced plans to build the world’s largest.