Back to the old drawing board

There were towers entwined in a sensual waltz, a city resembling a chessboard and an underwater hotel straight from the realms of science fiction. Dubai was going to have it all, at a time when the city was a playground for the architectural world.

Of course, these planned developments did not come cheaply. Dancing Towers was part of a multibillion-dollar project, while Chess City was to cost US$2.6 billion (Dh9.55bn). The Hydropolis underwater hotel would have cost $500 million, while the Dynamic Tower was a $700m development.

“In any market that is on the rise there’s always a risk of hubris, and that’s across the world,” says Ian Albert, a regional director at the property consultancy Colliers International.