Dubai built a legacy that bridges generations, brick by brick – and it goes far beyond wind towers
▶ Emirati architect Maryam Ahli reflects on the impact late modernism still has on the city, reports
Today, the areas on either side of Dubai Creek are known as Old Dubai. UAE residents and tourists alike can often be found exploring the alleyways in the shadows of old merchant homes and wind towers.
In the 1960s, though, this was Downtown Dubai. Soon after, the city underwent a vast building boom that tilted it away from Dubai Creek.
And while these new buildings were not made of coral or palm fronds, and though they didn’t have wind towers, they did have a story to tell.
The new hotels, hospitals and schools represented Dubai’s take on the modernist architectural movement that thrived in the US and Europe in the early 20th century and is known for its clean lines devoid of ornamentation.
“Some people think history stopped with the wind tower,” Maryam Ahli, an Emirati architect and architectural historian, tells The National.
“But that’s not true. It continues to be written in these modernist structures.”
Ahli is speaking at NYU Abu Dhabi Institute. Her talk – The Arrival of Late Modernism in Dubai – reflects on how architects tweaked characteristics of the movement to suit the needs of Dubai in terms of style and practicalities, such as ventilation and privacy.
It also looks at what the buildings mean to the city and how they can be preserved.
“A lot of people think it [late modernism] never came to this part of the world,” says Ahli. “But it came to Dubai in the 1960s and 1970s. This is why I call it late.
“Then came a series of firsts: the first bank; the first hospital; the first hotel; and all have a clear distinctive stylistic approach that has not been practised in the region.
“But it doesn’t 100 per cent follow the international movement. It responded to regional needs.”
Some of these buildings include Dubai World Trade Centre; Zabeel School for Girls; the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Deira; and the now-demolished Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital on Al Wasl Road.
The hospital, for example, was built in the early 1980s near where City Walk is today. Ahli says it was designed by British architect John Harris – the man behind the famous Dubai World Trade Centre – as a one-storey building constructed around courtyards.
“It resembled a traditional house and was very sensitive to the region,” says Ahli. Photographs taken before it was demolished several years ago show a low-rise building sympathetic to the environment with palm trees providing greenery and shade in the peaceful open-air areas. These buildings, according to Ahli, should be considered as much a part of Dubai’s modern heritage as older coral stone buildings and wind towers.
As well as their architectural significance, they also act as a bridge between the different generations in Dubai and provide a sense of what is local in a globalised world.
“Those buildings have memories,” she says. “Older people saw them being built and contributed to their construction whether through investment or other ways.
“Then our generation used them. I went ice skating at the Hyatt Regency. Now the new generation sees them, but they don’t know what they are.
“So this architecture bridges the gap.”
There has been a sharp increase in interest over the past few years in the country’s older buildings. Restoration projects such as the Heart of Sharjah, Abu Dhabi’s Qasr Al Hosn, Sharjah Art Foundation’s rejuvenation of the Flying Saucer and the current project to restore Dubai’s Al Fahidi Fort have all helped to raise awareness about the country’s rich architectural heritage.
In Abu Dhabi, the Modern Heritage initiative aims to safeguard the capital’s architectural history. Additionally, in 2018, Dubai Municipality launched one of its own.
Books such as Building Sharjah, edited by Sultan Al Qassemi and Todd Reisz, have also helped.
As a result, Ahli believes in not only preserving buildings, but adapting them for the modern world.
She points to the restoration of Union House in Dubai – where the documents to form the UAE were signed in 1971 – as a good example of how an old building can be repurposed for life today.
And as projects manager at Dubai Culture, one of her current priorities is the restoration work of the Zabeel School for Girls building. It closed in 2010, though articles and a documentary about its history helped to save it.
Questions will always be asked about the fate of older buildings, but for Ahli, many of these modernist buildings were later demolished because people didn’t understand how important they were in telling the urban history of the city.
“I feel it is my responsibility as an Emirati to preserve rather than build; and to find new uses rather than construct new buildings,” Ahli adds.
“We need to make a conscious decision before building new things.
“I’m not against building new things, but we need to look at what worked in the past. Architecture doesn’t fail people, but people can sometimes fail architecture.”