To live here for even a few years is to witness dreams become reality.
Take Masdar City, the ecologically sustainable community envisaged on land near the international airport.
As shown here in 2008, it was no more than a building site, the grand design existing only as builders’ models and artists’ impressions.
Two years later, the first part of Masdar was open, with students attending classes at the new Institute of Science and Technology. Visitors were whisked around in driverless pods.
This year, Masdar has opened a second phase, which includes a Middle Eastern headquarters of the engineering and technology company Siemens.
Their 700-strong workforce is the vanguard of up to 60,000 people who will eventually work there. This weekend is a good time to check out Masdar, with a two-day family festival that runs from 11am to 8pm.
* James Langton