In the shadow of the world's tallest tower, an anti-mall experience takes place at the Burj Park, where you can do your shopping right out of a shipping container. These icons of the warehouse/freight world (and thus of Dubai's status as a global trade hub) have been painted and converted into shops in a Dubai Shopping Festival event called Market OTB, or Outside the Box.
The weather being what it is, it's a great place to relax, enjoy a concert or show, paint, and partake from some of the excellent food options available.
While many nice household items and art works can be found here, the best thing about the market is the selection of clothing stores. I'm not sure to what extent these are actually "sustainable", but they sure look great.
I went to Souk Al Bahar during the weekend to have a look at the latest entrant in Dubai's non-traditional work space: Impact Hub.
It was their "liftoff" week, and everything was wide open. I like the look of the place; it's bright, spacious and open, with colorful lines of contemporary furniture. While the Hub does offer the usual campus/incubator experience (for a membership fee), its core value proposition is its network of global connections with other Hubs; in fact, the basic membership level centers around access to mainly that, with slabs added on for varying amounts of access to physical space.
It's much larger than just the central hall, with numerous satellite rooms suiting diverse aesthetics and space requirements, and an outdoor space and majlis on the cards. Mindful of the wide variety of cafes and restaurants sharing the Souk al Bahar, the Hub has no food service, instead placing only a self-service convenience snack/beverage bar within the campus.
