Remarkable architecture of the UAE from the 1960s to the 1980s – in pictures
One of the entrances to the Central Market, also known as the Blue Souq, in Sharjah. It was built in 1979 and is adorned with Islamic designs. The market can be seen on the Arabic side of the Dh5 banknote.
Abu Dhabi’s Cultural Foundation was created in 1981. The building has since been renovated.
Abu Dhabi Souq, photographed in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
Dubai World Trade Centre – the grey, rectangular building to the middle left – was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1979. The tallest building in the UAE until 1999, it appears on the Dh100 banknote.
Foggy and cold weather at the Deira Clocktower roundabout. Built in the mid-1960s and designed by Ziki Homsi, the tower was reconstructed in 1989 when its steel supports started to corrode.
The UK ambassador’s residence was completed in 1981. It was designed by John Harris, the British architect behind Dubai World Trade Centre and Rashid Hospital.
Dubai International Airport in the 1960s.
The brutalist Abu Dhabi Bus Terminal, by Bulgarian architect Georgi Kolarov. Also known as Al Wahda station, it opened in 1989.
Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi opened in 1979.
Electra Street’s Saeed Al Kalili Building opened in 1983. Also known as Al Ibrahimi Building, it was designed by Egyptian architect Farouk El Gohary.
Bateen Mall, with its dramatic flying canopies, was completed in 1986.
Completed in 1987, King Faisal Mosque in Sharjah was the largest in the country until Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque opened two decades later. It can accommodate about 16,000 worshippers and was designed by Saudi architect Abdul-Rahman Al Junaidi.
