Teaching Urban Futures in the Gulf: Climate-Resilient Design Proposals for Public Space in Dubai

This chapter investigates how architectural and urban design education can foster climate-resilient approaches to public space in Gulf cities, focusing on Dubai as a case study. Situated within the framework of the ARC431 Urban Planning and Design course at Canadian University Dubai, it presents a curated collection of student projects that address urgent ecological and social challenges in one of the world’s most rapidly urbanising desert contexts. Students are engaged with real-world conditions such as extreme heat, sea-level rise, ecological degradation, and socio-economic density. Using site analysis, scenario development, and stakeholder mapping, they developed speculative yet feasible design interventions, including passive cooling systems, water-sensitive infrastructure, adaptive street reuse, and biodiversity-supportive public spaces. The pedagogical model, initially inspired by an international design competition, was restructured to emphasise critical thinking, climate empathy, and spatial equity. The chapter contributes to the book’s Part I: Principles and Innovative Design Approaches for Climate-Resilience by positioning education as a laboratory of innovation. It highlights how interdisciplinary and place-based design pedagogy can generate climate-responsive proposals while cultivating the mindset necessary for systemic and adaptive thinking. Student projects demonstrate how small-scale interventions, low-tech innovation, and green–blue infrastructures can catalyse broader ecological cycles and social resilience in hyper-urbanised contexts. Ultimately, this chapter argues that design education in the Gulf is not only a tool for generating innovative climate-resilient strategies but also a means of shaping future practitioners capable of addressing uncertainty and impermanence. By framing education as both research and experimentation, the chapter advances the discourse on climate-resilient urbanism, showing how teaching urban futures can empower emerging designers to imagine and implement transformative changes in local and global contexts.