Obituary: The architect who helped shape Abu Dhabi
An urban planner who sketched out much of downtown Abu Dhabi for Sheikh Zayed in the early days of the union has died aged 98.
Dr Abdulrahman Makhlouf planned the capital's grid system while sitting on the floor with the country's Founding Father at Qasr Al Bahr, the Sea Palace.
The result was a modern city built in a Manhattan-style grid with a striking Corniche and dotted with modernist-era marvels.
On Tuesday, his family confirmed that he had died. The National was able to visit his studio office several months ago to document his designs.
Sheikh Zayed said to me ... 'we want a capital city for Abu Dhabi, and we need to get there as quickly as possible'
Dr Abdulrahman Makhlouf,
2013 interview
Dr Makhlouf, an Egyptian with an architecture degree from Cairo University and a doctorate from Germany, first arrived in Abu Dhabi in October 1968.
He came to work for Sheikh Zayed after completing projects in Saudi Arabia, and answered a cable and offer of work from a UN technical office official who was supporting the emirate.
He fell in love with the city and never left.
“I said yes. I had already worked on cities in Saudi Arabia, like Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah. So I was familiar with the Gulf,” he told The National in 2013. “My father’s name was also famous in the Islamic world, Sheikh Hassanian Mohammed Makhlouf, Mufti of Egypt. So my name sounded familiar.”
“His Highness was away in Geneva when I arrived. By the time he arrived, I had already done a survey of the area and done rough sketches of how the city should be developed. I headed to the airport when I heard he was arriving and I was perhaps the only Arab man standing in a tailored suit there. So when Sheikh Zayed noticed me and shook my hand and greeted me, he asked one of his advisers, ‘Who is this man?’ ”
Dr Makhlouf said Sheikh Zayed was told he was “the expert city planner, the one the United Nations mentioned”.
“I am always in an elegant suit. It is not dignified to be seen in public without a tie.”
Dr Makhlouf came to replace Katsuhiko Takahashi, from Japan, who was Sheikh Zayed’s first city planner and whose plan Dr Makhlouf supported.
“I thought it was clever. It had the straight roads that we still see today.”
The end result was a linear plan for the island, with Airport Road as the main spine, which is largely unchanged today.
In the upper part of the island towards the Corniche, which is wider, the pattern is a grid.
In our 2013 interview, Dr Makhlouf recalled asking the late president why he preferred straight lines and quickly realised he was a man who was going places in a hurry.
“Sheikh Zayed said to me, ‘I know where I am, and I know where I want to go, so why not use a straight line between the two points?
"We want a capital city for Abu Dhabi, and we need to get there as quickly as possible’.”
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
