Dubai’s ruler offers Victoria Beckham $25m to design hotel

Move over Zaha, because a new designer could be about to rock the architecture world.

As Dubai grapples with it property market crash, debt crisis and widespread attacks on the quality of its architecture, its ruler has turned to a former Spice Girl in a bid to boost the emirate’s reputation.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has reportedly emailed Victoria Beckham offering her $25m to help design a luxury hotel as part of Nakheel’s World islands development.

Victoria, who is married to David Beckham, is said to be considering the offer, which would entail her putting her name to the hotel on Isla Moda, a fashion-themed island in the archipelago of country-shaped artificial land masses known as the World.

The World development is understood to have been put on hold since the downturn kicked in Dubai, with many of the islands in place but with little building work having taken place on them, however, Nakheel said today “construction on several islands (would start) in the coming months”.