Abu Dhabi is a metropolis of 4 base components: solar, sea, sand and security (earlier this yr, it was topped the world’s most secure metropolis for the sixth time). With immaculate seashores, jaw-dropping structure, a local weather that hardly ever goes south of twenty-two levels, and a burgeoning cultural scene, there’s one thing for each temper, style and traveller.
Like different cities within the GCC area, together with its shut (however very distinct) neighbour Dubai, the UAE capital’s speedy urbanisation from desert to international vacation spot (underpinned by plentiful oil and fuel assets) has reworked town into an impressive metropolis of retail, commerce, hospitality and business.
Abu Dhabi tour: 8 highlights within the UAE capital
What units Abu Dhabi aside is its cultural revolution. By 2025, town’s Saadiyat Island is ready to turn out to be a cultural tourism masterpiece, firmly inserting Abu Dhabi on the world stage for Emirati heritage, tradition and worldwide trade. Arts editor Harriet Lloyd-Smith travelled to Abu Dhabi to uncover one of the best of town now, and within the years to return.
Saadiyat Island
Aerial view render of the The Abrahamic Household Home by Adjaye Associates on Saadiyat Island
(Picture credit score: Adjaye Associates)
The pure island of Saadiyat, positioned 500m off the coast of Abu Dhabi island, is ready to turn out to be one thing of an artwork and structure mega-hub within the coming years. Already dwelling to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, future additions, now beneath development, embrace the Phenomena Abu Dhabi gallery (opening 2024), Adamson Associates’ Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (opening 2025) and Foster + Companion’s Zayed Nationwide Museum (opening 2025). Elsewhere, David Adjaye’s Abrahamic Household Home, opening in 2023, will comprise three non secular areas in a single – a mosque, a synagogue and a church – in search of to nurture acceptance and peaceable coexistence throughout all faiths.
saadiyat-island.ae (opens in new tab)
The Bridge Wellness Hub
(Picture credit score: The Bridge Abu Dhabi)
Spanning an enormous 8,000 sq m area – together with a fitness center, a spa, a restaurant, a juice bar, a vitamin nook, a store, an indoor operating observe and a rooftop backyard – The Bridge Wellness Hub is Abu Dhabi’s all-in-one life-style ecosystem for the physique and thoughts. The hub boasts a minimal design, a variety of wellness therapies, and the newest Technogym gear, topped off with beautiful views of the Al Qana canal. Past an easy fitness center, the hub goals to remodel members’ lives by means of a holistic method to wellness, reforming the best way ‘well being’ is known consistent with the UAE’s Nationwide Technique for Wellbeing 2031. If there’s wherever to kick off a New Yr’s Decision health plan, it’s most likely right here.
thebridgehub.com (opens in new tab)
Al Maryah Island Apple Retailer by Foster + Companions
Exterior view of the Al Maryah Island Apple Retailer, designed by Foster + Companions
(Picture credit score: Foster + Companions)
Earlier this yr, Foster + Companions unveiled their multisensory design for the Al Maryah Island Apple Retailer, providing a brand new mannequin of retail expertise. Perched atop a pyramid of Absolute Black granite stone steps cascading with water, the design is outlined by a stainless-steel portal entrance welcoming guests into the single-level inside providing panoramic views of the Abu Dhabi shoreline. Elsewhere, a 72ft-long mirrored foil ceiling provides a kaleidoscopic impact, accompanied by a soundtrack of water flowing down the outside glass partitions.
fosterandpartners.com (opens in new tab)
The Louvre Abu Dhabi
(Picture credit score: Division of Tradition and Tourism, Abu Dhabi. Images: Yiorgis Yerolymbos)
Conceived of an settlement with the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Louvre Abu Dhabi celebrates its fifth anniversary this yr. The Jean Nouvel-designed construction of gleaming white geometric buildings enveloped by a colossal dome of intersecting aluminium lattices proved an immediate worldwide sensation when it opened in 2017. Thought-about the primary common museum within the Arab world and the primary addition to the foremost Saadiyat Island cultural growth, the Louvre Abu Dhabi seeks to advertise historic and up to date cultural trade by means of its huge everlasting assortment and non permanent exhibits, together with its present Artwork Right here 2022, an exhibition of ten GCC artists shortlisted for the Richard Mille Artwork Prize.
louvreabudhabi.ae (opens in new tab)
Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Motherhood & Childhood by Studio Roar
The inside area on the Supreme Council for Motherhood & Childhood, designed by Studio Roar
(Picture credit score: Chris Goldstraw)
For its newest mission in Abu Dhabi, inside design and structure studio Roar has blended work, play and performance for the UAE’s Supreme Council for Motherhood & Childhood. Spanning three ranges, the area is a haven for conventional Emirati design codes with a recent edge, from dynamic Lego partitions to pastel-hued furnishings, play areas and workspaces. As founder and artistic director of Roar, Pallavi Dean, advised us: ‘We wished the design narrative to subtly allude to totally different cultural components from the area whereas drawing consideration to the SCMC’s core mission: to foster innovation and creativity within the fields of motherhood and childhood.’
The Abu Dhabi Version Resort
Market, an all-day eating idea on the Abu Dhabi Version resort
(Picture credit score: The Abu Dhabi Version)
For these in search of a home-from-home with a luxurious Emirati twist, the Abu Dhabi Version Resort has all of it, three signature eating places, a three-storey social area, two swimming pools, two state-of-the-art health centres and a spa. The resort’s 198 visitor rooms are accented by a gray oak herringbone sample that pulls on native basket weaving strategies and images by Brett Weston, which references Abu Dhabi’s desert environment. Three distinct culinary choices are helmed by Michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens: Market, an all-day eating idea that makes use of native components for an imaginative, no-waste menu; the Oak Room, providing a dose of British rock ‘n’ roll aptitude; and the al fresco Alba Terrace, which evokes elegant Mediterranean summers.
editionhotels.com (opens in new tab)
Abu Dhabi Artwork: Artist Commissions in Cultural Websites
StillTheyKnowNotWhatIDream by Shilpa Gupta
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the artist)
Unveiled for the opening of the Abu Dhabi Artwork truthful on 16 November 2022, public artwork installations are actually in situ throughout websites of historic significance as a part of the truthful’s Commissions in Cultural Websites programme. On view till 22 January 2023, the mission sees main up to date artists occupy areas within the historic Al Ain within the emirate of Abu Dhabi. At Al Jahili Fort, Al Saadi’s Quipu Alphabet attracts on the Incan writing system of the identical title, whereas Shilpa Gupta’s video StillTheyKnowNotWhatIDream makes use of the artist’s signature double flat board format, harking back to discover boards in railway stations. At Al Ain Oasis, Conrad Shawcross’ Patterns of Absence (Bb36D10) – Desert Beacon responds to the contemplative efficiency of the desert.
abudhabiart.ae
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
(Picture credit score: Harriet Lloyd-Smith)
For anybody visiting Abu Dhabi, the landscape-dominating Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is a must-see. With 82 domes, 1,000 columns and 24ct gilded chandeliers, this architectural feat was unveiled in 2007 to embody the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s imaginative and prescient to convey the Islamic message of peace, tolerance and variety. Notable options embrace the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet in the principle prayer corridor, and the Mosque’s astonishing 2,000 sq m floral marble ornament, designed by British artist Kevin Dean.
szgmc.gov.ae (opens in new tab)
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