Off the Dubai Coast

The Dubai architectural scene exploded like a red-hot rocket a few years ago, and only the global economic meltdown has brought it back to a bit more sanity. Yet the housing and building fever continues still as witnessed by the ambitious, yet very-Dubai-like scale of The World, a series of offshore islands that can be privately colonized for private get-aways, resorts, high-density housing, retail, and other imaginative uses. Isla Moda is an entire fashion-oriented enclave being planned within The World complex, with the world's fashion designers (like Karl Lagerfeld, pictured below) designing elements of this development.