A TIMELESS APPEAL
Icame to Dubai looking for an identity, to discover myself,” says Sumaya Dabbagh (above), principal of the award-winning firm in Dubai, Dabbagh Architects. The Saudi Arabian architect first came to the UAE in the early nineties, after spending the early part of her life in England and France. “I was impressed by Dubai and how progressive it was. I loved the fascinating diversity of cultures here and the city seemed the perfect place for me to start living and working.”
Since setting up her firm in 1993, Sumaya has worked on several cultural projects in the UAE as well as on commercial offices, hospitality and residential projects. Her office is housed in the boutique Al Maktab building, designed by her firm, in the densely populated area of Al Barsha. Her most famous work has been the awardwinning Mleiha Archaeological Centre in Sharjah, a delightful building that majestically rises from the ground and gracefully sweeps around the ancient Bronze Age Um Al Nar tomb, blending with the spectacular desert setting. She was awarded the Middle East Architect Award and the Cityscape Award in 2016.
Sumaya was born in Jeddah and grew up with a love for natural geological forms. As a child, she moved between the openness of the coastal city and its jagged hills and was awestruck by the mountains of Ta’if that rose to around 1,800m above sea level in some areas. After moving to the UK at 13, Sumaya went to the University of Bath and studied architecture. “I had the opportunity to study under well-known architects such as Peter Smithson and was greatly influenced by Modernist architecture.” After her education she travelled around the continent and fell in love with Paris, deciding to work there while also studying French. “In the UK I had become accustomed to the British culture and had adapted their ways from a young age. However, I found Paris very different culturally. There I felt like an outsider again. Although I lived in France for just a year, it was pivotal in my personal development and sparked off that search for identity,” says Sumaya. She observed that while in the UK and France she had to conform to the society and culture in order to integrate, in the UAE, the diversity was so rich that it she felt comfortable living and working here.
Sumaya started her career in Dubai at Schuster Pechtold & Partners, where she had the opportunity to work on the award-winning Children’s City project. Having worked in the UAE since 1993 and having witnessed the tremendous development in Dubai, Sumaya continues to be drawn to the vernacular city street pattern of the emirate, found in its older parts. “That has a timeless appeal,’ she admits. “Bur Dubai and other parts around the creek follow the vernacular city street pattern. The ground plus three buildings with the shops on the ground floor make for a rich experience when you walk around the place. You
Old Dubai has the feel of a closely knit community... the narrowroads and sikkas created an environment for pedestrians
can connect with city life here, you can wander around and your senses are engaged. I truly believe that through architecture and good urban planning you can create good communities.”
In Paris, where she lived for a while, she recalls living in an apartment on a small street with a few local shops, like a hardware store and a Fromagerie (a cheese store). “The store owners used to stand on the street watching people go by. After two weeks of living there, they began to recognize me and started to greet me. It immediately gave me the feeling of belonging and a sense of neighbourhood.” Architecture, Sumaya feels, creates an identity for a city by creating memorable experiences of people living in that place. “It’s important to give people a connection to their environment, to engage all of our senses. The identity of the city slowly builds on the identity of its people”
I really love visiting old Dubai, she says. “It has the feel of a closely knit community. Almost 10 years ago I worked in that area on the refurbishment of a building near the creek. I used to notice a guy who sat behind the HSBC building by the Dubai Creek selling newspapers under a make-shift shaded kiosk. He picked a location where there was breeze off the creek. I used to go and get a few things from his kiosk and I found it was cool enough even in high summer. So yes the old architecture of that area, the vernacular style of the buildings, the sikkas and narrow roads created an environment for pedestrians,” explains Sumaya, who feels that the newer areas of Dubai are still very car centric.
“The city has these really nice areas or pockets like the Dubai Downtown that are very nicely done but in between these pockets or islands there are spaces that are isolated and totally neglected. It would be really good to see that in the next phase of development, Dubai starts to connect these spaces together. Something has already started along these lines with the Meraas projects creating pedestrian movement along the beachfront and the creek. It seems that the city is beginning to move towards this direction. It’s also encouraging to find that the bigger developers see the value of creating these public realm/ spaces that are for all. Most of these spaces have so far been neglected and these are now being addressed and reconnected.”
According to her, the role of architects is not just to design buildings, but to look at the spaces between the objects so that the city can be experienced as a whole.