Thanks to the 10th edition of Cityscape, the annual property expo, the headlines have been full of announcements about the thousands of shiny new homes developers have planned for the capital.
Featuring luxury gyms, golf courses, pools, parks and schools, this latest wave of development will represent, its developers insist, greater choice for home buyers and a good investment.
What’s unlikely to be achieved are the kind of profound social and cultural changes that were observed by journalist John Putman and photographer Winfield Parks when they toured the Gulf states for an award-winning story for National Geographic in 1975.
“How is an instant city created?” Putman asked in a 38-page feature that included interviews with Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, and Abdulrahman Makhlouf, one of Abu Dhabi’s earliest town planners.
One of the answers was through housing, which was viewed at the time not only as a tool for the redistribution of oil wealth but for the creation of a modern citizenry and an urban and settled society.
The early generations of Abu Dhabi’s housing, “designed with tradition in mind,” according to Putman, featured separate areas for men and women, internal courtyards, date stores and access to rooftops where residents could sleep in the summer.
* Nick Leech
