UAE’S modern heritage between preservation and oblivion in wake of the 2020 World Expo

Abstract eng:
The 2020 World Expo hosted in Dubai is expected to restructure the image of both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, re-framing the urban context mostly of Abu Dhabi because of its existing modern heritage, adopted in the 1970’s from principles of Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. The grid based street pattern of Abu Dhabi’s city center and its Cultural Foundation designed by Iraqi born architect Hisham Askouri from the Architects Collaborative — TAC (1977-81), represent examples of Critical Reconciliation between regional precedents and modern strategies affected by globalization. The hybridization of the Cultural Foundation with the existing heritage Qasr Al-Hosn (1793) through the integration of space within concrete architectural expressions, such as arcades, courtyards, and small windows, manifest a model of productive resistance towards global homogenization and mimicry of the past. Contemporary Interpretations of tradition with a revisiting of modernist ideologies is manifested in Abu Dhabi’s new Central Market-the Souq designed by Norman Foster through its abstract use of the screens, courtyards, stained glass merged with a separation of building skin from structure, use of colonnades and roof garden. Beyond spaces of modern heritage and contemporary interpretations of tradition in Abu Dhabi’s city center, we examine Abu Dhabi’s shorefront pseudo-traditional developments such as the Souq at Qaryat Al-Beri and Shangri La resort (2008), which are Arabian Themed representations of multiple pasts similar to heritage villages that stage hyper-real narratives of local identity and tradition. The aim is to highlight the hybridization of architectural expressions emerging in Abu Dhabi and their themed counter structures. In the process interaction, creative adaptation and emphasizing of a two-way nature of architecture occurs as part of the new urbanization strategies of Abu Dhabi.

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