Castles made of sand
The Discovery Channel’s camera crews focus their lenses on Dubai’s skeletal skyline for a pair of fascinating documentaries.
Dubai has been subject to the keen and watchful eye of the world’s media in recent years, thanks largely to the ambitious nature of Sheikh Mohammed – who once tellingly remarked ‘no-one remembers the second man in space’. A number of documentaries – the most recent being Dubai Dreams – have attempted to see beyond the sheen of the City of Gold, but only now have the lenses turned to the city’s most talked about development: its construction industry. Dubai Building Stories are a brace of Discovery Channel documentaries that chart the construction of two of the city’s key projects: Ski Dubai and The Palm Islands.
The shows – which screen back-to-back on Wednesday April 19 – promise to take the cameras behind the scenes at the two construction sites revealing the human side of the projects alongside the groundbreaking technical wizardry it takes to complete the structures. And because it is entertainment at the end of the day, they will also chart the tears and tantrums as well as the hazards and successes involved in the phenomenal projects.
Mega Builders: Fantasy Islands starts the evening with a bang and illustrates the technological difficulties, financial pressure and natural limitations faced by the teams creating three of the world’s largest manmade islands, including the Palm Islands, just off our shores. With enough rocks to circle the globe three times and 35,000 tonnes of material on the move everyday, at this scale, the smallest of task can become a possible disaster. The cameras are never far away from the unfolding dramas – including the potentially catastrophic discovery that desert sand cannot be used in the construction of ocean water structures.
The evening continues with the premiere of Kings of Construction Dubai: The Ski Resort In The Desert, which takes viewers through thedrama of building a manmade ski dome in the heat of the Arabian Gulf, recording from start to finish the tasks it took to cover 22,500 square meters of desert sand with year-round snow. Tensions escalate and arguments ensue as the teams of engineers and construction workers attempt to build the 3,000 tonne ski slope 60 metres into the air – battling sand-storms and computer crashes on the way: All par for the course when you attempt to build a Ski Dome in the most unlikely setting thinkable.
With plans underway to erect a rotating ski mountain, a econstruction of the Eiffel Tower (bigger than the Paris icon, naturally), an underwater hotel, the tallest tower in the world and the space station to be constructed in Ras Al Khamiah, it seems the UAE will keep the Discovery Channel supplied with documentary material for years to come. Michelle Byrne
The Dubai Building Stories evening premieres midnight, Wednesday April 19 on the Discovery Channel.