The meaning about the origins of Al-Ain, the second largest city of Abu Dhabi Emirate in the UAE, resides in its name, which in Arabic means 'The spring'. The presence of abundant groundwater has allowed human settlements since the Neolithic period, marking this city as one of the oldest settlements continuously inhabited in the Gulf region. Under the rule of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nayan , Al-Ain received special attention in order to preserve its character and identity, due also to the presence of historical heritage which forms a strong sense of belonging for its community. With the establishment of the UAE in 1971, and the institution of its municipality council in 1992, a special ordinance fixed a strict limit on building height, giving also particular attention to conservation of the original landscape formed by the seven ancient oases of palm trees and their irrigation systems of aflaj, an ancient irrigation system common in most arid zones of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean. Despite all these efforts spent in order to keep its original identity, nowadays this approach appears to be scrutinised under the pressures for further expansion and innovation in response to an increasingly challenging economy. With an increasing acceleration in the process of expansion and renovation, most of Al-Ain's urban fabric, realized after oil discovery in the 1960s, and still belonging to traditional typologies, has been replaced with new constructions inspired by different models, and new large developments have been laid out to cope with the increasing demand for dwellings. After recognition in 2011 of Al-Ain's archaeological sites and oases as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city's popularity rose as a tourist destination and place of cultural interest but has revealed in the meantime its systemic fragility. This paper focuses on the process of urban growth according to the nature of place, which characterized Al-Ain's history and currently forms the substrate of its cultural identity, and the mechanism of conflict/interaction between identity and innovation towards the definition of Al-Ain's urban transformation and regenerative process.
Contemporary urbanism and architecture in cities in the United Arab Emirates are becoming more aware of issues such as improving energy consumption and constructing a local identity as mandated in the Abu Dhabi 2030 master plan. Remnants of Emirati heritage is currently being revisited such as the majlis, a space of meeting that was part of local vernacular expression in the UAE, and the liwan, the shaded portico preceding private spaces in the Emirati housing. The majlis provided an autonomous space that retained family privacy by providing a male space on the boundaries of the domestic one. These phenomena are being revived in contemporary architecture signalling their socio-cultural needs that cannot be satisfied by western styled villas. This paper studies contemporary Emirati housing typologies in Abu Dhabi and the emerging hybridization of designs that allow for modifications/cultural expression within their walled boundaries. This research highlights also highlights the re-emergence of the majlis and the liwan as a cultural counter space to the rapid sprawl of modernity in the UAE.
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