The Reconstruction of Abu Dhabi’s Central Market
Yasser Elsheshtawy
Yasser Elsheshtawy is
Associate Professor of
Architecture at the Unit-
ed Arab Emirates Uni-
versity. He has published
several books on Middle
Eastern cities, the latest
is “The Evolving Arab
City,” and he is currently
completing a book on
Dubai titled Dubai: An
emerging urbanity to be
published by Routledge
in Spring 2009.In emerging cities with no substantive urban history such as Abu Dhabi, the capital of
the United Arab Emirates, the notion of identity and tradition becomes a tool through
which different, and at times conflicting, political agendas are pursued. With respect
to the built environment, this politicization of tradition responds to, and is guided by
the varying interests of different actors: the “messianic” vision of its rulers (legitimizing
power) and the interests of policymakers, planners, and architects (making profit). The
reconstruction of the central market project in the city’s downtown area is illustrative of
this process. Moving through a series of iterations and cycles in which notions of iden-
tity and tradition are used to varying degrees, the project transformed from an informal
marketplace in the midst of Abu Dhabi to a globalizing city center representative of a
new Middle East.
THE CASE OF THE CENTRAL SOUQ: TRANSFORMING URBAN MEMORY
One of the memorable sights for anyone visiting Abu Dhabi in the 1990s was the cen-
tral market nestled between high-rise buildings in its central business district. Entering
it was like encountering a different world — a
Foucaultian Heterotopia composed of small, in-
formal shops and low-income migrant workers
— a sense of chaos contrasting sharply with the
ordered appearance of its immediate context. It
projected an air of provinciality and informal-
ity (Fig. 1). Ironically, in Abu Dhabi this was the
only place that conveyed some sense of history
and tradition, even though the market was built
in the early 1970s.
One could argue that this project’s story cap-
tures the transformation currently underway
in Abu Dhabi — in all its contradictions. It was
part of a general scheme devised by the city’s planner, the Egyptian ‘Abd al-Rahman
Makhluf, to modernize. That was in 1972. The project remained a major landmark not
just for foreign tourists and travel writers^1 but also for residents of Abu Dhabi. Popular
- See J. Raban, Arabia through the Looking Glass (London: Collins, 1979).
Figure 1: Abu Dhabi’s original central market