The clear highlight for me on the 6-day whirlwind architecture delegation to the UAE with Meridian International @meridianintl and the UAE Embassy @uaeusaunited last fall, was the day spent at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, whereby we were the first group to venture underneath the massive and iconic steel and aluminum domed roof structure. We were also sheparded through the galleries and plazas via guided tours with the museum's Director General, along with other art historians and experts in the field. This architectural masterwork by Ateliers Jean Nouvelle of Paris fuses indoor and outdoor spaces seamlessly and is cast in a broken light evocative of a desert oasis, all floating in the water as part of a future museum island. It is breathtaking on every level.
With more mid-century modernism than anyone would expect, our group had the pleasure of a walking tour with local Emirati architecture historian and preservationist, Sultan Al Ramahi @vertorsandstuff, through the main business district of old Abu Dhabi, which included the iconic basket-woven Al Ibrahimi Tower, the Madinat Zayed Vegetable & Fish Market, and the Abu Dhabi Bus Terminal.
Qasr Al Hosn, in the heart of central Abu Dhabi, hosts an old fort that is the city's oldest building (1795) that once housed the royal family and is now a museum, the modern mosque by CEBRA Architecture, along with the Cultural Foundation containing a fantastic childrens library. As usual, our group started out behind schedule and arriving near to sunset, ran from one cultural site to the next, trying to soak in as much as possible, including a traditional tea service, a maker session with couturiers from around the globe, a tour and a visit to the sacred prayer spaces (womens side for us), all while attempting to capture views of the beauty and magnitude of all that we were experiencing. Bravo to Dana Al Marashi and Haitham Al Mussawi with the UAE Embassy for sheparding us along this journey! And to Lindsay Amini and TK Harvey from Meridian International as well! @UAEUSAUNITED @uaeembassyus @meridianintl
This post is a glimpse into the fantastic Al Shindagha and Perfume museums on Old Dubai Creek, impeccable modern museums design rife with interactive displays that shed light onto the history of the region's culture and commercer. Absolutely loved these spaces. Then after crossing the creek by boat we were toured in the old commercial district of Dubai and got to shoot some very cool MCM buildings on the fly, all while trying to keep up with the group and our fantastic giude.
