What you do have now is a district that is about a lot more than art. Dubai finally has an area that is edgy and real, a world away from the gold-plated façade that makes up much of the rest of the city, or at least the part most tourists see.
So after the galleries come the corporations. Design houses and architects are now converting warehouse space into offices. Where even two years ago the area was seen as one of the worst to work in the city, it is now seen as a selling point, a branding tool.
This meeting point between business and creativity can be seen in the Shelter, a converted warehouse that now combines office space with a screening room, a coffee shop and a store that sells everything from German design magazines to DVDs.
Set up by Emirati twin brothers Rashid and Ahmed bin Shabib, the Shelter has proved a roaring success, with its business incubator units nearly full and its regular events attracting large, diverse crowds.
‘We wanted to create a venue that people would be drawn to, that offered something different,’ says Rashid. ‘Al Quoz was perfect for us, it has the biggest spaces, the cheapest rents and a very diverse crowd now.’
The Shelter certainly looks the part. Hundreds of magazines line shelves while architects, artists and DJs tap away on laptops. It could be London, New York or Tokyo, and for a city as obsessed with branding as Dubai is, global credibility is coming from the most unlikely of districts.
More importantly, for the galleries at least, the area has the tools they need to run their businesses. ‘It’s turning from an industrial area to a creative area,’ says Brown, ‘everything we need is here: printing presses, carpentry shops, so the area is self-sustainable.’
In many ways Al Quoz is a miniature version of Dubai: creative, lucrative and entrepreneurial. And, just like Dubai, Al Quoz emerged from nowhere. Where it goes from here, though, is anyone’s guess.
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