Dubai has already earned a reputation for pushing the boundaries with its architecture, having built the world’s tallest building, a hotel shaped like a sail and a palm tree shaped archipelago of luxury properties.

 

But now developers have unveiled plans for the city’s most ambitious project yet: to build the world’s largest shopping centre inside a 48 million square-foot climate-controlled “city”.

 

Billed as the first “temperature-controlled, pedestrian city”, the sprawling complex will feature the world’s largest theme park, more than 100 hotels and apartments, a shopping area based on London’s Oxford Street and theatre district modelled around Broadway in New York. The site will connect its facilities with promenades that stretch almost 4.5 miles long.

 

The Mall of the World, which was unveiled by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is designed to help the city become a year-round destination that authorities hope will pull in 180 million visitors annually when it is completed.

 

The development is expected to be Dubai’s main focus at the UAE World Expo trade fair in 2020.

 

A number of equally esoteric developments are already under way, including an underwater hotel and a replica of India’s Taj Mahal, except this one will be four times the size of the original.

 

The city is also home to the world’s tallest building – the 829.8-metre Burj Khalifa – and the world’s biggest natural flower garden, which contains over 45 million flowers.

 

PHOTO: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum (left), ruler of Dubai, looking at a model of the 'Mall of the World' project during its presentation in Dubai