Labor camps in Dubai. Amer sent me this: "I found this by accident and I found it quite shocking. Dubai has decided to "improve" the conditions of its laborers (mostly in response to bad PR campaigns) and design new lodging districts for them - which means that they plan on relying on cheap imported labor for years to come. A prototype is this development (), which was presented as A- "luxurious" for laborers and B- a private commercial project - not the result of state planning. It is in fact part of a huge new city (mostly solidere-style luxury) that is being built next to Dubai and designed by no other than Rem Koolhaas, the star postmodern architect. Once you get past the intro page and the pretty photos they have, check the floorplans: it looks exactly like a concentration camp. Most of it is shared rooms where every individual gets 4 sq meters. It is segregated by sex, they have communal dining facilities and there are things called "Isolation Quarters" inside the "development" (prisons.) and "badging offices" and "main gates" (controlled?). Imagine how life will be there once they cram 60,000 laborers into that place, at least now they have some freedom to come and go and can mingle freely in many districts of Dubai (that are mostly inhabited by low-income foreign workers.)"