What makes a city special? What makes a place attractive, gives it energy, economic dynamism, cultural appeal, and a particular feel or even buzz? Is it top-down planning by civic leaders and architects? Is it the mix of peoples and cultures mobilizing at the grassroots? Or is it some combination of strategies, peoples, and happenstance? Today as more and more of the global population resides in cities, the question of how to create community in the context of urban living has gained urgency for policymakers, urban designers, and everyday people. This course will explore the dynamism of Dubai through the emerging framework of "placemaking." Placemaking refers to collaborative efforts to shape the places we inhabit in order to foster the conditions for community. Placemaking can vary in scope and scale from a small local park to a major tourist destination. This class, in tandem with a sister class on Manhattan, will examine placemaking through key concepts, starting with the bigger city and ending with the local public spaces. Students will engage in the critical and comparative study of Dubai and Manhattan through field-based research projects culminating in a placemaking proposal for Dubai.