Abu Dhabi’s Downtown Area, An Examination of Modernist Applications of the international style; Superblocks in a Modern Arab City, Improving Visibility and Social Space

Abstract

Currently Abu Dhabi is expanding along its shorefronts and urban Islands creating many iconic buildings and social spaces, however, the downtown area is in need of regeneration. The city centre remains popular for a multi-cultural community because it was shaped by the modernist/International style and abstract Arab ornaments namely in the form of screens on the facades that attempted to fit within the climatic context of a desert city. The 'modernist' designs of the downtown buildings reflect practicality and pragmatism supported by Abu Dhabi's grid street pattern that created rectangular land plots on which high-rise buildings were constructed-known today as downtown 'Superblocks'. Abu Dhabi's downtown architecture reflect the ideas of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and other influential theoreticians of the International Style, the architects invited to participate in creating a modern Arab City in the 1980's did not attempt to create a post-modernist pastiche of a Arab/Islamic vernacular expression, in contrast facades of the concrete high-rise buildings reflect attempts to deal with the hot humid environment of the Gulf. This research examines means of regeneration of Abu Dhabi's downtown area, through the study of modernist buildings and the spaces between the superblocks. The area of study is the zone between Zayed the 1st street and Hamadan Street in the downtown area. We study selected buildings in downtown Abu Dhabi and offer recommendations for improving the social experience and liveability of in-between spaces, especially in the large asphalt parking lots created by the superblocks.