Places

ADGM Building (Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange)

A glass hall the size of a football pitch, lifted 27 metres into the air on four granite piers above a circular pool.

Abu Dhabi

ADNOC Headquarters

342 metres of granite-framed restraint on the Corniche — a monumental arch standing against the Gulf.

Abu Dhabi

Abrahamic Family House

A mosque, a church and a synagogue as three identical 30-metre cubes — equality argued in Omani limestone.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station

Mint-green concrete wings folded over a 1989 terminal — Gulf modernism still doing its day job.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Corniche Promenade

Eight kilometres of reclaimed waterfront on an undulating line — the city's front room, facing the Gulf.

Abu Dhabi

Al Ain Oasis & the Falaj Channels

147,000 date palms watered by channels dug three thousand years ago — and still running.

Abu Dhabi

Al Bahr Towers Responsive Façade

Twin cylinders wrapped in 2,000 folding umbrellas — a mashrabiya that opens and closes with the sun.

Abu Dhabi

Al Fay Park

The Middle East's first urban biodiversity park — 2,000 native trees, textile canopies, and a hundred-per-cent birdsong guarantee.

Abu Dhabi

Al Gurm Corniche & Eastern Mangroves Promenade

3.5 kilometres of continuous shade pushed six metres out over the water, facing the mangrove forest.

Abu Dhabi

Al Maqta Bridge

A pale blue steel truss from 1968 — the first permanent way onto the island, and still carrying traffic.

Abu Dhabi

Al Maqta Watchtower

A coral-stone tower on an islet in the channel — one of Abu Dhabi's oldest buildings, and you cannot reach it.

Abu Dhabi

Al Maryah Island Waterfront Promenade

A financial district with a waterside walk around its edge — planned to ring the whole island at 5.4 kilometres.

Abu Dhabi

Al Qana Waterfront Promenade

2.4 kilometres of canal-side promenade with buildings cantilevered twenty metres into the air above it.

Abu Dhabi

Aldar Headquarters (The Coin Building)

A 121-metre glass disc standing on its edge — the Middle East's first circular skyscraper, and its most-photographed silhouette.

Abu Dhabi

Capital Gate (The Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi)

An 18-degree lean, four times Pisa's — a skyscraper built deliberately off-balance and held there by steel.

Abu Dhabi

Emirates Palace Domes & Archways

A kilometre of sand-coloured palace under 114 domes — built for a summit, opened as a hotel, lit like a jewel.

Abu Dhabi

Etihad Arena

A woven gold shell on the Yas Bay waterfront — shade by day, lantern by night, 18,000 seats inside.

Abu Dhabi

Flower Parent and Child by Takashi Murakami

Ten metres of gold leaf and grinning flowers on the waterfront — one of Murakami's largest works anywhere.

Abu Dhabi

Hudayriyat Bridge

The UAE's first cable-stayed bridge — 1.3 kilometres out to an island that was closed to the public until it opened.

Abu Dhabi

Jubail Mangrove Park Boardwalk

2.6 kilometres of timber walkway threaded through grey mangroves on stilts — with a net you can lie on above the water.

Abu Dhabi

Mamsha Al Khair

A granite monolith and limestone blocks along the Corniche, carrying a quotation every thirty metres.

Abu Dhabi

Marsa Mina Murals

1,163 metres of painted wall along the old port — the longest continuous mural in the capital.

Abu Dhabi

Masdar City Central Park Camel Sculpture

A camel in twisted metal with an impossibly stretched middle, standing in a solar-powered park.

Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi Campus

Twenty-nine buildings, one shaded pedestrian street grid — a liberal-arts campus built as a small city on Saadiyat.

Abu Dhabi