אדריכלות ישראלית - גיליון 123

Architecture with no Tradition אדריכלותישראלית Architecture of Israel # 123 November 2020 78 | | Spontaneous reactions of several ״architectural tourists" to the Peace declaration with the UAE included many posts in the spirit of: ״great, now we can visit the wonders of fantastic architecture.” However, my own somewhat conservative reaction was that impressive as they may be, most buildings have no relevance either to the place or the UAE inhabitants. In order to examine this unusual social issue in greater depth, we have decided to devote the following pages to it. The United Arab Emirates is a collection of seven (out of nine) kingdoms in the Persian Gulf amalgamated in 1971 into a single sovereign state. However, each of them still has its own judicial system and is ruled over by an iron-fisted Khalif who is a member of the Federal Council, very much like the American system. Geographically, the UAE is located in the southern Persian Gulf at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south west, sharing maritime borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north. Of the seven Emirates that make up the state, Abu Dhabi is the largest and richest. It constitutes about 86% of the entire area of the state and owns one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. This is why it serves as the capital of the UAE and its Emir - Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan – is its elected President. The other Emirates are: Sharjah; Ajaman (the smallest); Um al-Qawin; Ras al- Khaimeh; Fujairah; and Dubai – the most populated city in the Union with the most famous buildings, such as Burj al-Arab Hotel with the highest atrium in the world and the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, formerly known as Burj Dubai, but renamed as a gesture to the Khalif of Abu-Dhabi who helped Dubai during its severe economic crisis in 2010. According to widely accepted definitions, architecture is the physical realization of a functional, social or cultural need, built at a given location and time. food for thought architecture without heritage Dr. Hillit Mazor In this context, an architectural heritage develops over time, expressing all stages of building evolution including materials and technology learned over the years and, after standing the test of time, has become a characteristic expression of the place and its population. It goes without saying that world-renowned architects such as Jean Nouvel and Zaha Hadid who were invited there to design whatever came to mind for huge sums of money, were well aware of the importance of place. Evidently, every explanation related to their buildings includes the term vernacular. However, they were chosen to design "peak buildings", such as the tallest, most impressive and most sophisticated building in the world, such as the dynamic residential tower that enables residents to rotate the façade of their apartment in whatever direction they wish. One of the sentences I picked from the Arabian Nights, intending to explain the absence of any connection between architecture and the inhabitants who, not long ago, made their living by diving for pearls and, one fine day, found themselves among the wealthiest in the world, is: ״What does a man do when he suddenly finds himself as rich as Korach - he thinks about tomorrow!” Korach – the wisest and richest man in the Levy tribe knew that the reason for his bad end was ultimately his relentless pursuit of wealth and honor. As we know, Korach’s wealth was of no help to him and the story ends with his being swallowed up by the earth. In order to understand the risk inherent in the architectures evolutionary leap, such as the one that took place in the UAE, one must turn to King Solomon, who spent most of his days and money collecting his thousand wives. However, at the end of his life, he realized that beautiful women aren’t everything, and he turned to God: ״Two things I ask of You— do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion. Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ (Proverbs 30: 7-9). Many in the Western World know what the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab Hotel looks like, but only a few are aware of the sad story of abandoned ghost villages and towns, al-Madame, sinking into the desert sands of Dubai, or the ghost town Ras al- Khaimah Jazira in al-Hamra, Abu Dhabi; an authentic town whose ornamentation, courtyards and wind-chimneys beautifully express centuries of local architectural heritage; an evolutionary stage that demonstrates a praiseworthy adaptation to the extreme weather, as well as the modesty and privacy advocated by Islam. The first sign of the sudden evolutionary leap was the establishment of the World Trade Center in 1979, when the tall building stood like an alien against the background of the desert and the sea. Tourists and locals alike scratched their heads, asking themselves what was the point of erecting a 180 meter building in such low surroundings. Today, forty years later, the building, once considered alien, appears low and old fashioned against a background of skyscrapers that challenge all familiar architectural principles. The answer to the question of what might happen to a society that disconnects from its building heritage was already evident in the 2008-9 economic crisis in Dubai, when a quarter of the building cranes fell silent because they were constructing buildings intended for tourists and international offices that found in the Emirates a comfortable setting. This created a situation during the last decade whereby eight million inhabitants of the Emirates are foreigners and only approximately a million and half are wealthy locals who feel they own the place… and the world. Dubai’s economy at the time was salvaged from crisis thanks to the generosity of the wealthy Emir of Abu-Dhabi. However, the Union learned not to put all its golden