Emaar Development, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Emaar Development PJSC, the property development business of Emaar Properties, commissioned a special executive education custom program by Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design on Dubai Creek Harbor: The Happy City. Through four Harvard Executive Education programs offered over two years, Emaar aimed to put the 6 square kilometer mega-development as well as the nation on the global map.

The Program 

The first program focused on defining “Happiness” and how it could be incorporated into strategy when building a new city, with a 4P+T Framework:

• Prosperity – Economic growth, efficiency, productivity and profit
• People – Citizens, municipal stakeholders, collaboration, health and education
• Planet – Environmental sustainability, climate, GHG emissions {resilience}
• Political – governance, policy
• Technology – digital capabilities, advancement, innovation {digital}

A flexible “action map” was developed based on the cross-mapping of the abovementioned guiding principles and the priority areas for the Dubai Creek Harbor new neighborhood, and deep-dives into such areas were addressed in the three follow-up programs, including: Real Estate, Food & Water, and Mobility.

The programs appropriately took place on the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa and were attended by public and private sector participants.