Abu Dhabi – ALL I NEED IS MY PASSPORT

Architecture of Abu Dhabi – Part 1

Jan 132023

January 2023

Abu Dhabi is an Emirate in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi has 200 islands, and the country is developing the larger ones as, essentially, theme parks.

There is a conservation island with an Arabian Wildlife Park, Zaya Nurai, a boutique island resort, Al Maryah Island for business and high-end shopping, Yas Island with theme parks, Saadiyat Island, built as a culture island with museums from around the world, and Peal-diving island, with historical recreations of this ancient industry, to name just a few.

For this reason, their architecture is more planned, but just as over the top in many cases. Abu Dhabi also has the truly good, the bad and the truly ugly.

The Truly Ugly

Qasr al Watan

Qaṣr Al-Waṭan is the presidential palace of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I could have skipped this monstrosity in a heart beat, but the building we were scheduled to see was closed for an event.

Covered in white marble, the craftsman ship in this building is over the top, wrong.

Interior work of Qasr al Watam

Everything is machine made giving it a feel of flatness. There is no one overriding theme thus, the jarring feeling one gets inside is difficult to experience at best. All of this being said, most people find it incredibly lovely; I found it gauche, and it appears to be built more for shock and awe for tourists than anything else.

Chandelier with 350 pieces, a bragging point for the building, that is pointed out rather firmly when you tour.

This egg is placed in one of the halls specifically as a photo opportunity.

This sculpture was created by Mattar Bin Lahej. It is a quote from the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan: “Wealth is not money and oil. Wealth lies in people, and it is worthless if not dedicated to serve the people”.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in the country. It has a mall underneath with shops, Starbucks, and a Mcdonalds.

You walk through a long hallway of these shops, ride up several escalators and emerge at the front of the mosque, While it is a mosque, it is not really used for much more than herding tourists through and taking their money.

The exterior of the mosque

The finest materials were used in the construction of the mosque, but again the craftsmanship is so poor.

Some of the marblework in the interior

The prayer room with what is touted as the world’s largest carpet

Marina Residence Building in the center of the photo.

A Few Random Buildings Around Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Headquarters

The tall building in the center is the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Headquarters, designed by HOK. Clad in granite tower sits on the Corniche.

Etihad Towers.

Close to the ADNOC headquarters building are the Etihad Towers, designed by the Australian firm DBI. This project consists of five towers with multiple uses, the tallest of which is 76 stories. The copper building is the Bab Al Qasr Hotel, with the Grand Hyatt directly behind it.

Al Dar Headquarters

The blue circle was designed by MZ Architects of Abu Dhabi. They say that the circle symbolizes unity, stability, and rationality. It is also the symbol of infinity, without beginning or end, perfection, the ultimate geometric symbol. It represents a completeness that encompasses all space and Time.

Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid

Designed by the British firm Foster and Partners in 2014, the Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid is presently the tallest building in Abu Dhabi.

The Architecture of Abu Dhabi Part 2

Abu Dhabi, Arabian Peninsula, UAE

Jan 132023

December 2023

As I mentioned in my last post, there is some excellent architecture in Abu Dhabi, and this post is going to concentrate on that.

Al Bahar Towers now called the Pineapple Buildings.

Designed by the firm Aedas, one tower is the headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, an investment arm of the Government of Abu Dhabi. The other serves as the head office of Al Hilal Bank.

The eye-catching aspect of the towers is the protective skin of 2,000 umbrella-like glass elements that automatically open and close depending on the intensity of sunlight. Inspired by the ‘mashrabiya’, geometrically-designed wooden lattice screens that have been used to fill windows of traditional Arabic architecture that allow women to see out and yet remain unseen.

Sheikh Zayed Bridge (I had to take this off of the internet as it is impossible to take a picture of this bridge except from the water)

Designed by the late Israeli -British architect Zaha Hadid, the one-half-mile-long bridge is said to be the most complex bridge ever built.

The Louvre Museum

The Louvre Museum is just one of several spectacularly designed museums headed to the Cultural Island of Abu Dhabi. While the collection is a little underwhelming, the building is stunning.

Series of paintings by Cy Twombly,

Designed by Jean Nouvel, the museum has an interesting flow to it. After walking through a rather non-descript parking lot and entrance, you enter the galleries where the flooring represents the architecture of the gallery, and the displays attempt to focus, as well, on the purpose of the gallery.

Food for Thought – Al Muallaqat (2013).

Diffused light in one of the corridors.

Looking through an interior wall to the courtyard. Jenny Holzer, limestone relief of three pages with Arabic script from a manuscript of the Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century treatise on the writing of history.

After leaving the galleries you step out into this stunning space and you are under the steel dome.

The first pieces you are confronted with are a sculpture by Auguste Rodin juxtaposed with another limestone relief by Jenny Holzer. Holzer’s work (2017) tells a creation myth story written in bilingual Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform script, taken from a Mesopotamian tablet that was excavated from the ancient city of Assur in present-day Iraq.

Standing next to the cafe looking out onto the sea.

The nearly 200-yard diameter dome comprises eight layers of steel iron and aluminum cladding, separated by a steel frame five meters high. Which Nouvel said was inspired by the fronds of the local date palm tree. It reveals a complex pattern repeated in various scales and angles throughout the layers. When light shines through it, it creates an effect called the “rain of light.”

The exteriors of the pavilions and their enclosing wall are clad in white, precast concrete panels.

As you wander under the dome, you find all types of spaces that are pleasing to the eye.

Another outdoor exhibit titled Ottoman Pavement.

A final encounter with water as you exit the building.

Abrahamic Family House

Sadly, this complex, designed by British architect David Adjaye was not quite complete upon my visit, so this was as close as I could get.

During Pope Francis’s historic trip to the UAE, he met with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, to discuss interfaith harmony in the Arab world and across the globe. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, commemorated the meeting with this interfaith project.

Artists rendering of the Abrahamic Family House with the 5 Wings museum in the back

5 Wings Museum (Zayed National Museum) under construction January 2023

The Zayed National Museum was designed by Atelier Dreiseitl and Foster + Partners. The ‘five wings’ design aims to combine contemporary architecture with the curves of traditional Arabic design. It is also a metaphor for the former leader’s love of falconry, with the towers shaped like wing tips of the falcon.

Other museums I look forward to are by some of my favorite architects, beginning with Tadao Ando’s Maritime Museum and the Performing Arts Center by Zaha Hadid.

Tadao Ando’s Maritime Museum

Rendering of Hadid’s Performing Arts Center

I have so many questions about the viability of a country that sits on the rising seas in a part of the world with rapidly rising temperatures (that eventually will be uninhabitable), but despite that, I can admire the architecture of some of, what I consider, the genii of our era.