Six degrees in construction

The six degrees rule normally applies to people, but in the peculiar case of Philippe Dessoy, it seems to apply between him and his job too.

The six degrees rule normally applies to people, but in the peculiar case of Philippe Dessoy, it seems to apply between him and his job too. well over six feet tall and heading up Six Construct in Dubai, he helped build the tallest tower in the world. It’s destiny.

Before the towering Belgian stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac at Dubai International Airport sixteen years ago in 1992, he’d never heard of the emirate.

He joined Besix in 1989 and had worked at the head office in Belgium for three and half years when he was asked by the company if he fancied moving to Dubai.

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Confused and unfamiliar with a name that was destined to become one of the most well known cities in the world, Dessoy feebly asked “Where?”

“The company asked me to go, so I went,” says Dessoy. “I had never heard of Dubai before that, but I had of Saudi Arabia of course.

Some friends from university had gone to work in Saudi and they weren’t very happy, so I wasn’t too keen to come to the Middle East or anywhere in the Gulf for that matter,” he adds.

For Dessoy, the Middle East consisted of Saudi Arabia and little other versions of it. Names like Dubai and Sharjah were of no particular relevance and idea of the Gulf in his head painted classic story book tales of shifting dunes, camels and oases.

“My company then convinced me to go to Dubai for two weeks to see if I liked it. I came, I saw and thought why not. I went back to Belgium and said ‘okay’ but also that I would stay for only two years.” It’s been sixteen years since then.

“When I got here I was surprised to see that it was quite well developed and open. I was not expecting that. I was expecting Saudi Arabia.

At that time, the company had a compound there where all the staff was staying and I thought living in a compound was not the type of life I wanted. So I went to the city and the company put me in an apartment where it was okay,” he reminisces.

“Dubai on the other hand was quite well developed at that time, I mean Sheikh Zayed Road was being developed into four lanes; some parts were already four lanes to Jebel Ali. Since then I don’t think Dubai ever looked back.

Development went well until, I’d say 2003 or 2004, when it began to go too fast and it became a nightmare.