At the city scale it more difficult: but at the same time each city is quite unique. [And I think this true also globally although finding that uniqueness may require different degrees of sensitivity.] So I believe it is possible to ground designing in locale. However, reversing the usual formula I would say, 99% of artisty is in the inspiration, with 1% in the perspiration of realisation.

With the right inspiration perhaps you can throw out the rules book…which says use local materials, understand local forms, observe the climate, use indigenous species and notice local ways of occupation.

In an unfamiliar environment ‘difference’ often stands out more clearly than it does for a resident. Which means the ability to observe the undervalued or the overlooked qualities of place. Or to become enchanted or captured by the magic of the newly discovered or recognised. While for a resident the ‘discordant’ note in a familiar environment is more noticeable. Which means the ability to recognise a strange or quirky interpretation of the familiar, an imported reference insufficiently abstracted or way of resolving issues which doesn’t quite fit the local paradigm.(So there are advantages and disadvantages in both perspectives or ways of seeing and experiencing.)

Not really sure what I think about city plans in the Gulf as apart from a very brief airport transit I have not spent any time there! But yes as a general principle Gulf cities should be refounded, evolved or revisited in their own cultural forms….not sure that the outcome of these processes should be proscribed?

Culture in our ethically mixed and multicultural world is an odd thing…[ http://www.jumeirah.com/en/Hotels-and-Resorts/Destinations/Dubai/Jumeirah-Bab-Al-Shams/Restaurants–Nightlife/Le-Dune-Pizzeria/ ]
Is is possible to have an authentically English experience is London? What would it be?

Ironically, Le Corbusier’s rethinking of the city arose because of the problem of the car (replacing the horse) so with a revision of the car (in its current form) as a mode of transport it is very appropriate to rethink the city.

Re the competition between Masdar One and Masdar Two, the latter should be seen as an Appropriate Technology approach, or an Intermediate Technology approach of the kind favoured by Buckminster Fuller. Culturally, Masdar Two could mark a turning away from the last half century of building American cities in the Gulf. They should also stop building ‘Block-Villa-Highway Cities’ (BVH Cities) in America. They are the urban equivalent of gas guzzlers – archaic examples of old technology which cock a snoot at Nature with a flip ‘we know better’. The Arab Street should base its cities on Arab streets!

Tom how would you describe the ancient gardens of Mesopotamia as a garden type?