this international competition was meant to design of a tall emblem structure to promote the city of dubai. in full this concept endeavors to interweave and help commemorate and experience the many aspects of life in modern-day dubai, where nabati poetry continues to be heralded and trade routes continue to meet. in its comprehensive emblematic nature, it represents to an utmost degree the past, present and future of dubai. it were the bedouins, and in due time their settled peers, that made up the building blocks for the structure of dubai society as it emerged. the bedouins created the initial trade routes wandering through the desert in search for water and food. their long tradition of tribal affiliations, hospitality, communally debating and reciting poetry gives dubai society its basic cohesion. the fruits, fronds and branches of the date palm have always been, and continue to be, an important product in dubai’s everyday life, both as commodity and as a material used in local palm frond houses, fishing boats and the local palm-weaving craft. it refers par excellence to the interaction of dubai’s inhabitants with their environment. since time immemorial, networks of trade and commerce have arrived and departed from dubai. it has always been a particularly active centre of regional and interregional trade, on the arabian peninsula, in the gulf region and in the wider context of contacts between the mediterranean, africa and india.