Expo City Dubai: UAE's first 15-minute city & a smart city for the future

Dubai spectacularly closed its doors after six months of welcoming the world to the international event, a first for an Arab country. Unlike a number of previous World Expo sites, the spirit and legacy will continue to live on, as the former exhibition area transitions into a city of the future.

What exactly is Expo City Dubai? Chief Development and Delivery Officer, Ahmed Al Khatib explains the concept,

"It's a combination of education, entertainment, a new way of working, work experience, and just not to mention like the amount of demand on organisations to come and move here is extremely good. A lot of people are coming here actually to dovetail with the vision and with what we are trying to achieve. Between now and the end of the year all the pavilions should be open, of course, the content will be different."

Many of the pavilions will stay and be repurposed with a variety of ideas and development from cultural centres and universities to consulates and restaurants. Expo officials are studying each proposal carefully to align with the city's vision. The sustainable human-centric city will cover 1083 acres. 80% of the site will be reused. Visitors and residents will enjoy ten kilometres of cycle tracks, a 5k jogging track and 45,000 square metres of gardens and parks. When open to the public, visitors will enjoy previous attractions such as the Terra and Alif Pavilions, the Surreal Water Feature, Garden in the Sky, F&B Options and the site's only hotel.

Paul Bridger is the Chief Operating Officer for Rove Hotels and speaks about the impact of the Expo event and what will happen moving forward. 

"The Expo event itself was such a huge thing for this part of the world that with the 80% of the real estate remaining as we move