AL BATEEN MALL: A FORGOTTEN BUS STATION THAT LED THE WAY FOR ABU DHABI’S MODERN EVOLUTION
▶ John Dennehy tells the story of what was once a landmark in the capital. Visit the place now and you will find a supermarket and small shops
Its parking bays are the site of long-departed buses. Its floors echo with the footsteps of bus drivers walked past, while its concrete canopies once shaded weary passengers from the summer heat.
Visit Al Bateen Mall now and you will find only a supermarket and a handful of shops. But like all old buildings in Abu Dhabi, it has a story to tell.
The small shopping mall in the historic neighbourhood was once a bus station, built more than three decades ago in concert with another in Al Zahiyah, also known as Tourist Club, and the main terminal on Muroor Road.
The story begins in the 1980s, a time when Abu Dhabi was on the move. More and more people were coming to the city as oil money spurred enormous expansion.
New bus routes were being announced and more buses ordered. In 1985, for example, there were 40 routes in Abu Dhabi – up from four in 1969 – and plans were being made to increase the number of air-conditioned buses from just 19.
By the mid-1980s it was clear that the bus station on Airport Road, near what is now the World Trade Centre, could not cope. The Tourist Club station opened in late 1985 and Al Bateen a few months later in 1986.
Longer services to the mainland operated from the Tourist Club, while shorter journeys mainly departed from Al Bateen. These routes serviced areas including Mafraq, Mussaffah and Baniyas.
The new, Dh37 million central bus terminal finally opened on March 13, 1989, and the two Dh10m sub-stations also began to operate as its feeder services.
The central station was built by Zakum and the two substations by Shaheen, but the three buildings were designed by Bulgaria’s Technoexportstroy.
It was a state-owned design, engineering and construction company that was established in 1964 and completed hundreds of projects in the Middle East and Africa. In the late ’80s, when Bulgaria was under Soviet rule, about 200 architects and engineers worked there.
The company designed projects such as the “Gold Mohur” hotel in Aden, Yemen; a 35,000-capacity stadium in Benghazi, Libya; and the Rastan Bridge in Homs, Syria. It was also behind the Abu Dhabi Municipality Building on Salam Street.
In a local news report from the 1980s, the main station was perhaps rather ambitiously compared with Sydney Opera House’s shell roof.
But the building is striking: all sweeping concrete and curves, sitting under a roof that comes together via two ramps. An airport-style control tower sits at one side, while four prongs – two at either side – extend out providing space and shelter for buses and passengers.
Al Bateen station was built with a central arch and two concrete canopies on either side.
“The Al Bateen Mall represents a period in history when transport was celebrated,” says Deborah Bentley, who was Abu Dhabi representative for the Royal Institute of British Architects from 2011 to 2014.
“The parabolic main structure with the sweeping cantilevered canopies not only resembles a bird in flight, but also shows the influence to the early structures of the Italian architect and engineer, Peir Luiji Nervi [known for his work with reinforced concrete].
“The celebration of space and the combination of the environmental awareness, by providing shaded canopies
when boarding the bus, create a beautiful symphony in architecture that is rarely seen for ancillary bus terminals anywhere in the world.”
One of the architects who worked on the Abu Dhabi bus project was Georgi Kolarov. Then a young architect in Bulgaria, he spent about seven years at Technoexportstroy before establishing his own company Bulgarconsult.
The chief architect for the bus project has since died but more than three decades on, Mr Kolarav recalls the project fondly.
“I did not go there [Abu Dhabi] at that time,” he says. “It was homework for us but this was our vision. We wanted to integrate these two parts, one in another and to make a specific silhouette of the structure that would be different from the others.”
Mr Kolarov was not personally involved in the Al Bateen and the Tourist Club stations, but he can confirm Technoexportstroy’s role. For the Bulgarian, it was a statement of modernism.
“We very much liked this project because it was different, simple,” he says. “It was one of the early developments in Abu Dhabi. After that it became a big wave.”
Al Bateen and the Tourist Club were still operating as bus stations until the mid1990s. But here the picture becomes foggier. At some point between 1995 and 1998, Al Bateen was converted into a small shopping centre.
Thabet Al Qaissieh attended a school near by in the late 1990s when he was age 14 or 15.
“There was a cafe, and grocery store beside the building,” Mr Al Qaissieh says.
The Abu Dhabi native recalls his family speaking of a bus station that operated until about 1996 or 1997, but closed shortly after.
“I remember a supermarket opening around 1998,” Mr Al Qaissieh says. “I believe the other buildings were gone then. And it was renamed a mall later.”
The Tourist Club station, meanwhile, was turned into City Terminal, an airport check-in facility that opened in June 1999.
While City Terminal still runs bus services to the airport, Al Bateen is a different story. Al Fathima supermarket now occupies most of the building along with a cafeteria, Baskin-Robbins and a money exchange.
The supermarket takes up two floors but if you walk around, you can still get a sense of the arches and architectural ambition of the structure. The concrete canopies are still intact.
Some workers at the cafeteria can faintly recall a bus station but no clear date can be discerned. This is a familiar story in the city. Buildings are demolished or repurposed and no one is ever quite sure when or why they were built.
“These unique buildings illustrate how important public transport was for the emerging nation of the UAE and the importance of ensuring that those without cars could move across the city,” says Ms Bentley, who urges more awareness about these buildings.
“The architecture of the majority of Abu Dhabi’s transport buildings have celebrated the experience of travel. It would be lovely to raise awareness of these unique buildings that combine architecture and engineering.
“There could be an exhibition of the work of architectural engineers in Abu Dhabi. For instance BuroHappold, the engineers of the new Louvre, were key to the success of that building.”
During the 2000s, taxis and private buses operated much of the city routes in Abu Dhabi. A new public network was established in 2008.
Yet outside one of the entrances at Al Bateen Mall is a bus ticket machine – a residual link to its forgotten history as an Abu Dhabi transport centre.
The architecture of the majority of Abu Dhabi’s transport buildings have celebrated the experience of travel. It would be lovely to raise awareness of these unique buildings DEBORAH BENTLEY Former Abu Dhabi representative for the Royal Institute of British Architects