Dubai World Trade Center – The building that started the madness

It’s one of the most emblematic buildings in Dubai.

It is not particularly famous for its modernity or even its looks (it was built in 1978), but this 149 meters high tower has something special about it. It stands there, in the middle of Dubai, with the pride of being the first, the first of a long list of Dubai’s tallest buildings.

Dubai World Trade Center Tower, also known as DWTC, is a symbol of prosperity and represents the start of the building madness that has taken over the city in the past decades.

The complex includes, in addition to the tower, the Dubai Convention Center and a lot of space for commercial and residential use.

Its importance as a the first planted seed of progress (and urban speculation) in the city is such, that the building is featured on the 100 Dh notes.

It is important to note that, at the time of its construction, the Dubai World Trade Center Tower meant nothing on the global architecture scene, at that time dominated by American cities like Chicago or New York . However, the construction of this building was a turning point for Dubai, a city that, back then, didn’t have any significant high-rise buildings.

The discovery of oil in the Emirate of Dubai in the late 60s, its independence from Britain in 1971 and the subsequent creation of the state of the United Arab Emirates, were key factors for the unprecedented growth in a city that threw itself head first to the open arms of modernization.

And that is, in the eyes of the Emiratis, the true meaning of this great white tower that seems made of human bones. The DWTC means a point of no return in the way of the small fishing settlement that dreamed of being a macro-metropolis.