Contribution to Book
URBAN PORTRAITS Preserving the memory of modern architectural heritage in the United Arab Emirates
Urban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf: Obsolescence and Opportunities
(2022)
Abstract
This chapter describes adopted processes for developing different methodologies to record the United Arab Emirates’s (UAE) architectural modern heritage. The buildings from the post-etihad period can be categorized as ‘recent or modern’ architectural heritage. The UAE is among the few nations to experience fast, pervasive economic growth and social change. The concept of adaptive reuse in UAE architecture and its built environment is a new ‘ideology’. Until very recently, buildings tended to have a lifespan of 30 to 40 years before being demolished and replaced by newer, more ‘trendy’ structures. The timeframe of development, between 1971 – 1990, is relatively short when compared to many European and even North American cities yet nevertheless important to document and preserve as it constitutes part the young’s nation history. The buildings have a physicality that is at once predominant in the contemporaneous Middle East and Gulf region and representative of a modernist ‘tradition’.
Keywords
- heritage Architecture,
- Architecture
Disciplines
Publication Date
Winter 2022
Editor
Fabbri, R., & Al-Qassemi, S. S.
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
ISBN
978-0-367-74192-1
DOI
10.4324/9781003156529
Publisher Statement
Urban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf offers a timely and engaging discussion on architectural production in the modernization era in the Arabian Peninsula. Focusing on the 20th century as a starting point, the book explores the display of transnational architectural practices resulting in different notions of locality, cosmopolitanism, and modernity. Contextually, with an eye on the present, the book reflects on the initiatives that recently re-engaged with the once ville moderne which, meanwhile, lost its pivotal function and meaning.
Citation Information
Marco Sosa and Lina Ahmad. "URBAN PORTRAITS Preserving the memory of modern architectural heritage in the United Arab Emirates" 1stNew YorkUrban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf: Obsolescence and Opportunities (2022) p. 246 - 263 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/marco-sosa/6/