Built on Collaboration

I've just got back from spending a week in our Dubai office and the speed and scale of development there never ceases to amaze me. I remember when we first decided to set up an office there in 2003; it was an absolute no-brainer. At the time, we had one international office in London and so I was stopping over in Dubai on the way there. I stepped off the plane and within ten seconds was on the phone to Rob saying, "We have to set up here!" The amount of construction in the airport alone would be worth the investment, and that was before seeing the rest of the city.

Dubai has obviously now become the global poster-child of the extremes of construction - both in the size and scale of the developments and the audacity of some of the concepts and designs. Developments such as Dubailand, The Lagoons, Burj Dubai, The Palms, Sports City and The World are all multi-billion dollar projects on a scale never seen before. Building a world-class city virtually from scratch has required expertise that has need to be sourced from around the world - architects from UK, project managers from the US, consultants from Hong Kong and Australia - there's an eclectic mix of cultures and expertise coming together to help build a city.

It's this globalization of the construction industry that has driven the need for tools that help people work together across borders, and this is one of the most exciting aspects of our industry at the moment.

Labels: Global trends