Al Manama installation will be on display until April 23. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Al Manama installation will be on display until April 23. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Al Manama installation will be on display until April 23. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Al Manama installation will be on display until April 23. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Louvre Abu Dhabi's Al Manama celebrates overlooked element of UAE architecture


Razmig Bedirian
  • English
  • Arabic

The manama, an often overlooked but integral aspect of traditional local architecture, has been given the Cartier treatment at Louvre Abu Dhabi.

In Arabic, al manama means “a place to rest and sleep”. It also refers to the summer pavilions built across the Arabian Gulf. In the local context of the UAE, the manama is a structure often seen in mountains and along the coast. It allows heat to be trapped within the ground and keeps animals outside.

In its essence, the manama is an elevated plinth that is designed with the aim of promoting airflow during summer. It uses sustainable forms of construction to keep the temperature cool, much like Japanese tea houses or Mongolian yurts.

For the showcase, titled Al Manama, three structures have been installed under the museum's characteristic dome. They will be on display until April 23, as part of Louvre Abu Dhabi's Ramadan celebrations.

The manamas were designed by architects and urban researchers Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib, in collaboration with luxury brand Cartier. All three feature cotton walls, which, when wetted, will cool the breeze ventilating the space..

However, for the purpose of the exhibit, each is dedicated to a specific function. While one houses a majlis, another is designed as a library. The third, meanwhile, features a recessed seating area that promotes gathering. Archival footage highlighting the significance of the manama is projected on the fabric of its walls.

“The idea of the manama came from my grandmother,” Rashid says. “When we used to talk to her in the majlis, she’d tell us about the manama and how they used to gather there during the summers. It was also a communal sleeping area, where my grandmother would sleep with other women from the neighbourhood.”

One of the three manamas features a recessed seating area with historical footage highlighting the architectural feature displayed on its cotton walls. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi
One of the three manamas features a recessed seating area with historical footage highlighting the architectural feature displayed on its cotton walls. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi

Rashid defines the manama as a communal structure, rising between 50cm and 1.5m above the ground. The fabric that made up its walls and act as a tarp was often made of abandoned sails.

“They would soak the sail in the ocean and tie it from the sides around the bottom,” he says. “The air would pull in from the bottom because it is an elevated structure into this wet sail. Then you’d have a windtower above with a pitched roof.

“The manama is [an early] example of air conditioning, a passive cooling system,” he says. “Everybody asks how people used to survive the summers, and how they were able to withstand the heat. It was through the manama.”

As far as traditional architectural features go, the manama is not as widely celebrated as, for example, the barjeel wind towers, but still serve as an important facet to understanding the scope of Emirati architecture.

Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib stand with Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth, alongside the UAE Pavilion's Golden Lion Award for Architecture 2021. Photo: Ahmed bin Shabib
Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib stand with Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth, alongside the UAE Pavilion's Golden Lion Award for Architecture 2021. Photo: Ahmed bin Shabib

As manamas can be easily assembled and disassembled, they allow for a certain modularity.

They can be grouped together into a larger space. The form, and its passive cooling system, also makes it ideal to use in public locations, including bus stops or rest areas.

“Engineering companies can easily reimagine manamas as bus stops,” Rashid says. “They can take a budget of 10 bus stops and invest them in 10 prototypes of manamas and give them to architecture students. Or expand the approach to passive cooling, where one person might take inspiration from a wind tower, or another passive cooling fan, and it can serve as a bus stop or shelter.”

Ahmed echoed the sentiment in a speech at the Louvre last Saturday, saying manamas can also be utilised in response to global needs in the face of climate change and population increase.

“We really have to reevaluate our relationship with nature and one form of that is looking at architecture,” he said. “We’ve passed the precipice.

The manama is a historic aspect of local architecture, commonly found in coastal and mountainous regions across the Gulf. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi
The manama is a historic aspect of local architecture, commonly found in coastal and mountainous regions across the Gulf. Photo: Louvre Abu Dhabi

“The human population is also expanding significantly. People are moving from one environment to another, so this idea of assembling and dismantling is quite important."

The manamas at Louvre Abu Dhabi are not the first the Bin Shabib brothers have designed. In April last year, they presented an earlier version of the installation at Al Khazzan Park in Dubai and Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi. That project was also supported by Cartier. The brothers have also built a manama in their home in Dubai, using it as a gathering space all year round.

Rashid and Ahmed have long examined the intersection of architecture, cultural identity and sustainability with their work. They produced the accompanying publication, The Anatomy of Sabkha, for the UAE Pavilion's participation at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2021, which won the Golden Lion Award for Architecture.

The brothers also helped shape the final proposal at the Venice Biennale by pointing towards the UAE's sabkhas as troves that could be studied for sustainable urban development.

The Anatomy of Sabkhas. Photo: Rizzoli
The Anatomy of Sabkhas. Photo: Rizzoli

For Expo 2015 in Milan, they created an exhibition for the National Pavilion UAE that looked at how dates, the palm tree and the falaj system produced a social and environmental ecosystem.

A coming exhibition by the brothers will also be opening at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany later this month. Hot Cities: Lessons from Arab Architecture will look at how the region's inhabitants coped with its harsh climate, examining them for solutions that might help us today as climate change becomes more apparent. The significance of manamas in that context will be highlighted in the exhibition.

The brothers have also led public architecture projects, including benches at Al Serkal Avenue and Jameel Arts Centre that are inspired by old high seats with leg rests. They also built pigeon towers in France’s Domaine de Boisbuchet, three hours from Paris.

“We worked with an Egyptian mason who has been producing pigeon towers for decades,” Rashid says. “You can see them across North Africa. The question we were trying to ask here, is whether architecture always have to be for people. Can we produce architecture sometimes just for nature?”

Brownbook, however, is perhaps the Bin Shabib brothers’ most recognisable output. Published between 2007 and 2018, the magazine featured artists and innovators from the region, and “focused on casting a light on the unsung cultural revolutionaries of the Middle East”.

The publication is marking its return this month after a three-year hiatus. Its first reprisal issue will examine the Middle Eastern diaspora in Tokyo, Japan.

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Key findings of Jenkins report
  • Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
  • Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
  • Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
  • Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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Volvo ES90 Specs

Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)

Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp

Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm

On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region

Price: Exact regional pricing TBA

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

Tonight's Chat on The National

Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.

Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.

Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.

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Lexus LX700h specs

Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor

Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm

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On sale: Now

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The specs

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Power: Combined output 920hp

Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic

Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km

On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025

Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000

Graduated from the American University of Sharjah

She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters

Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks

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How Voiss turns words to speech

The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen

The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser

This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen

A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB

The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free

Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards

Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser

Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages

At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness

More than 90 per cent live in developing countries

The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

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UAE v Gibraltar

What: International friendly

When: 7pm kick off

Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City

Admission: Free

Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page

UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)

MATCH DETAILS

Manchester United 3

Greenwood (21), Martial (33), Rashford (49)

Partizan Belgrade 0

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?

The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.

A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.

Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.

The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.

When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.

Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Colomba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe
Gordon Corera, Harper Collins

The specs

AT4 Ultimate, as tested

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)

On sale: Now

MAIN CARD

Bantamweight 56.4kg
Abrorbek Madiminbekov v Mehdi El Jamari

Super heavyweight 94 kg
Adnan Mohammad v Mohammed Ajaraam

Lightweight 60kg
Zakaria Eljamari v Faridoon Alik Zai

Light heavyweight 81.4kg
Mahmood Amin v Taha Marrouni

Light welterweight 64.5kg
Siyovush Gulmamadov v Nouredine Samir

Light heavyweight 81.4kg
Ilyass Habibali v Haroun Baka

THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick

Hometown: Cologne, Germany

Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)

Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes

Favourite hobby: Football

Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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The biog

Nickname: Mama Nadia to children, staff and parents

Education: Bachelors degree in English Literature with Social work from UAE University

As a child: Kept sweets on the window sill for workers, set aside money to pay for education of needy families

Holidays: Spends most of her days off at Senses often with her family who describe the centre as part of their life too

What it means to be a conservationist

Who is Enric Sala?

Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.

What is biodiversity?

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.

Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania ​​​​​​​
Verdict: 4 Stars

BACK%20TO%20ALEXANDRIA
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Best Foreign Language Film nominees

Capernaum (Lebanon)

Cold War (Poland)

Never Look Away (Germany)

Roma (Mexico)

Shoplifters (Japan)

Updated: June 08, 2023, 6:55 AM`