Al Mutanabbi Bookshop Building aka Old Sharjah Electricit...

The National
  • Al Mutanabbi Bookshop Building aka Old Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority building, Mina Road, Sharjah. Designed: 1974 by Egyptian architect: Ali Nassar of the International Company for Construction and Trade. Photo / Reem Khorshid
    Al Mutanabbi Bookshop Building aka Old Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority building, Mina Road, Sharjah. Designed: 1974 by Egyptian architect: Ali Nassar of the International Company for Construction and Trade. Photo / Reem Khorshid
  • Sultan Al Qassemi pictured at Al Qasba in Sharjah. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
    Sultan Al Qassemi pictured at Al Qasba in Sharjah. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
  • Al Qassemi has gone to great lengths to name the architects that designed Sharjah. Al Boorj Avenue, part of the 1977 Cordoba Buildings, is by Spanish architects Tecnica y Proyectos (TYPSA). Photo / Ammar Al Attar
    Al Qassemi has gone to great lengths to name the architects that designed Sharjah. Al Boorj Avenue, part of the 1977 Cordoba Buildings, is by Spanish architects Tecnica y Proyectos (TYPSA). Photo / Ammar Al Attar
  • Another view of the Cordoba Buildings. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
    Another view of the Cordoba Buildings. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
  • The Al Saud Co Building, which houses the offices of Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, was designed by British architect Alistair McCowen in 1978. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
    The Al Saud Co Building, which houses the offices of Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, was designed by British architect Alistair McCowen in 1978. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
  • A building in King Faisal Street being renovated. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
    A building in King Faisal Street being renovated. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
  • “I want to show people that there was a history between the arish houses and the glass towers,” Al Qassemi says of his new project. Building Sharjah is working to celebrate this under-studied era – and to help galvanise the preservation of the history. A number of these buildings are being torn down or renovated beyond all recognition. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
    “I want to show people that there was a history between the arish houses and the glass towers,” Al Qassemi says of his new project. Building Sharjah is working to celebrate this under-studied era – and to help galvanise the preservation of the history. A number of these buildings are being torn down or renovated beyond all recognition. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
  • A building in the Naba'ah area: Sharjah, like the other emirates, benefited architecturally from the UAE being part of the Non-Aligned Movement, or the countries that sided neither with the US nor the USSR during the Cold War. Among them, they developed an architectural style that captured a kind of utopian optimism: often expressed in residential complexes for middle-income housing, and referring, via Modernism’s architectural motifs, to the social ideals of that movement. Photo / Ammar Al Attar
    A building in the Naba'ah area: Sharjah, like the other emirates, benefited architecturally from the UAE being part of the Non-Aligned Movement, or the countries that sided neither with the US nor the USSR during the Cold War. Among them, they developed an architectural style that captured a kind of utopian optimism: often expressed in residential complexes for middle-income housing, and referring, via Modernism’s architectural motifs, to the social ideals of that movement. Photo / Ammar Al Attar