The Plover

Lukas Sokol, Urban Design Manager at the Abu Dhabi Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities, took some of us on a remarkable walk through central Abu Dhabi as part of Inter-Emirates Weekend 2018 to point out the areas where the city’s historical roots can still be seen. He built on the topic this past May, with his lecture, “The Abu Dhabi Superblock: Adaptation, Evolution, and Livability in the Modernist Grid,” an overarching look at how, and more importantly, why Abu Dhabi developed the way it did. In a word: Modernism. In a name: Sheikh Zayed. Photo from  https://yallaabudhabi.ae/featured_events/humanity-in-the-poetry-of-the-late-sheikh-zayed/ It cannot be overstated how profoundly Sheikh Zayed influenced the development of Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE. He left no stone unturned in constructing the best future for his people, and in fact his famed attention to detail can be seen in the fabric of the city itself.     Pre-oil, Abu Dhabi was