Dubai is known as the height of excess but it is also one of the world’s centers for innovative construction methods and architecture. The construction of Dubai’s trademark Palm Islands exemplifies this. When Dubai sought to construct islands of sand in the middle of the Arabian Gulf it took on a land reclamation task unlike any other before it. Hiring experts from abroad and arming itself with a nearly limitless budget, the Palm Islands of Dubai are, in many ways, much more of a “wonder of the world” than the famed Burj Khalifa tower.