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5 Favourite Buildings of Abu Dhabi

The editorial team has strong opinions about what it does and doesn’t like, and that applies to Abu Dhabi’s architecture among (many) other things. Here are five Abu Dhabi buildings we like:

Terminal One
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Now this is what air travel ought to be like, a combination of a flying saucer and Bedouin tent that merges the future with the past … albeit an unapologetically 1970s vision of both.

The recent renovation has improved your chances of appreciating the place, and the formerly crazed melée of incoming and outgoing passengers (few of whom knew exactly where they were going) has been sorted out. So take in the windows, the curves, and the lovely Islamic mosaic filling the roof – deep blue at the edges, merging into a vivid lime green at the centre, a gorgeous organic concrete imagining of a giant Majlis tent.

“Definitely not your average terminal building,” as architect Deborah Bentley put it a couple of years ago.

Etihad Towers
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There’s a muddle of tall buildings at the Emirates Palace end of the Corniche, but the ones that stand out are the beautifully elegant blade-like Etihad Towers.

There are five of them, the tallest being 76 storeys and over 300m high; that’s one of three residential towers, and there’s also an office tower (48 floors) and the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers hotel – 65 floors in total.

The design came from an international architectural competition in 2005 that was won by the Australian practice DBI Design; subsequently the project and the hotel have regularly been winning awards of their own.

This is a real statement development – sleek, elegant and confident, a strong reflection of how Abu Dhabi would like to see itself.

Sheikh Zayed Bridge
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Okay, so we said this was our top five buildings – and bridges are supposed to be merely functional: it’s obvious what they’re supposed to do, and they can easily be judged on how well they do it.

But the Sheikh Zayed Bridge is different. Zaha Hadid, architect superstar, obviously put a lot of thought into it – and it shows.

It’s best seen from a distance of course; a couple of waves are propelled over the Khor al Maqta’a channel as a sinuous commentary on its location – it evokes sand dunes, references the water below, carries traffic, people, news from Abu Dhabi island. Asymmetric steel arches swoop, split and splay as they bring 840m of road from one shore to the other.

At night the programmed lights wash colour over the fluid structure, a programmed dynamic light show that is meant (according to one of the designers) “to reflect Abu Dhabi’s soul”. During a new moon, for instance, the bridge lighting echoes the light programming of the Grand Mosque with a deep blue look.

This is bridge building as poetry. It turned out to be really tough to build – eight years in the making – but maybe that’s how it has to be if you want a structure to look this good.

Aldar HQ
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Voted Best Futuristic Design in 2008 and included in a list of the world’s 30 ugliest buildings a couple of years ago, Aldar HQ clearly divides opinion. It shouldn’t; this is a genuinely iconic addition to the Abu Dhabi skyline, the kind of building that makes Abu Dhabi instantly identifiable in silhouette.

In brief, it has two circular convex façades linked by a belt of indented glazing. The circle obviously symbolises unity, stability, rationality, perfection – the kind of messages a property developer would like to be associated with. Architect Marwan Zgheib was also inspired by clamshells, a nod to the pearling heritage, but it’s the circular form and the curved glass skin that you notice.

Inside it’s also pretty clever. The building uses a diagrid, a steel exoskeleton which keeps everything together but also means the interior spaces don’t need pillars and beams to support themselves. This provides maximum flexibility for the offices: although there are just 23 floors, the building has the same floor area as a typical 40-storey tower.

And notice the orientation: the west-east alignment allows both the sunset and sunrise to be seen in the glass, along with the island of Abu Dhabi and the new ‘greater’ Abu Dhabi along the road past Yas and KCA. It’s literally a reflection of Abu Dhabi and where it’s going.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
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The ADIA HQ on the Corniche ought to be one of the capital’s special places. Sadly it has been overshadowed by the newer and higher Landmark tower built right next to it, which is a shame – the Landmark is less elegant, less interesting and less distinguished.

For the ADIA contract, architects KPF (who are currently working on the new Midfield Complex at Abu Dhabi International Airport) took inspiration from local elements like billowing sails and swooping sand dunes to come up with a fluid, folded design – it’s actually three folds in total, a soft and open design that contrasts with the hard-edged styles around it.

The building was also well up on ergonomic technology for its 2006 design; the ‘active’ façade actually comprises three layers (a double-glazed outer skin, single-glazed internal skin, solar-controlled blinds) that significantly lower the cooling load on the building.

What do you think of our choice? Email [email protected]

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