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.   ...

We're back from the summer hiatus, and last week we kicked off our 2018-19 lecture series with a visit from Anna Zacharias and Jeff Topping, who shared the story behind their beautiful book of stories, ‘People of Ras Al Khaimah.’ Anna describes the book as “full of superheroes,” many of whom are her friends and neighbors. Originally Canadian, she grew up in RAK, having arrived with her family ‘for a few years’ and stayed on—a story that is so common to many of us in the UAE. She and Jeff, an American photojournalist, met on assignment for the National, and this incredible labour of love is their best attempt to represent RAK in all its diversity. They selected people from the four topographies of the emirate—sea, desert, mountains and cityscape—and all ages and backgrounds. There are sea captains telling stories of shipwrecks off the coast of Oman, honey collectors, former Pakistani champion wrestlers, goat herders, and many entrepreneurs, from hairdressers t...