They are just some of the buildings that define the UAE. But what is the story behind them? In the fifth part of our summer series celebrating the country’s architecture, we look at the history behind Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace.
The Hilton was Abu Dhabi’s first five-star hotel and a Corniche landmark that ushered in a new era of internationalism for the city.
When it opened in 1973, the Hilton brought with it delicacies such as smoked salmon, and signalled to the world the emirate had arrived.
As the city grew during the 1980s and 1990s, new hotels opened that challenged Hilton’s supremacy.
But by the early 2000s, a new hotel was planned that would eclipse them all.
In the very rooms of the old Hilton in the early 2000s, a team from one of the world’s top architectural firms was overseeing something special being built only a stone’s throw away.
This red-hued structure, already rising on the Corniche, would become a global landmark and major tourist attraction as much as a top hotel.
About 20 years on, one of the architects behind Emirates Palace has reflected on how they designed one of the world’s most exclusive hotels.
'Intriguing new project'
Jeremy Heyes, of the global architectural firm Wimberly, Allison, Tong and Goo (WATG), remembers a call coming through from Abu Dhabi about an intriguing new project that had to be ready by December 2005.
“Abu Dhabi had been chosen to host the next GCC summit,” Mr Heyes told The National. “It was incredibly significant and there was massive ambition to get it done as quickly as possible. Not only had we won [the design brief], there was a huge amount of protocol about how the place was organised.”
WATG sent a team to Abu Dhabi to oversee the project as it rose from the site at Ras Al Akhdar. At its peak, 80 design professionals from the firm worked on site, including interior designers, architects and engineers.
Mr Heyes, who is from the UK, said he spent 70 per cent of his time in Abu Dhabi during the project working under chief architect, John Elliott, who died in 2010. About 20,000 construction workers made it happen.
WATG’s design starts to work before a guest even gets into the main building. The hotel, in an elevated position, can be seen from kilometres away and the drive up to the entrance slowly takes people through gardens, past water fountains and under arches. “It is clearly meant to be inspiring,” said Mr Heyes. “The arrival sequence is meant to heighten expectations.”
From there guests are brought into the reception area and, then, ushered in under the spectacular 72.6 metre dome. “Floor to ceiling, it is one of the biggest internal spaces you get anywhere in the world. It is physically bigger than St Paul’s Cathedral. It is absolutely enormous, yet feels like a sanctuary,” said Mr Heyes. “It is beautiful and serene.”
Emirates Palace has 114 domes, 1,002 crystal chandeliers, more than 92,900 sq m of marble, 200 fountains, a triumphal arch and pristine white sand imported from Algeria for the beach.
The design speaks to a classical regional architectural language through this use of domes, columns, arches and light. It was important, Mr Heyes said, that it did not ape other styles or recreate structures such as a Mughal palace. One of the reasons the hotel feels serene, he said, is that modern laser-cutting techniques allowed them to use larger pieces of granite in places such as the floors than was previously possible.
“The reason why Emirates Palace is a calmer design is because we supersized it,” said Mr Heyes. “Look at the floor in the main space: that is jet-cut granite that is supersized. That is why I think technology influenced how we designed it.”
Inside, there is a blend of natural stone, antique gold and mother of pearl, while the stone of the hotel’s exterior reflects the deep red sand of Al Ain.
“As the sun sets, it hits the sands and the colour turns pink. That’s the inspiration. It is also practical and means if there is a dust storm we are not white, and don’t have to get the jet washer out.”
One of the most interesting facets to the project was the relative rarity of a palace being situated on a beachfront. “Beaches are about swimming and people in bathing suits yet a palace is about significant royal events,” said Mr Heyes. “It was an extraordinary choice of site and pretty visionary.”
Apart from the private chambers and rooms for the royals attending the 2005 GCC summit, it also boasts a massive theatre the size of any West End facility and a 2,500 capacity ballroom. There are secret doors and floors so guests do not see what is happening.
“You never see things being delivered to restaurants,” said Mr Heyes. “There is a two-lane carriageway that goes underneath the entire property to deliver guest services to conference facilities. All is done as if by magic.”
Emirates Palace has 394 rooms including 92 suites and 22 residential suites for heads of state. It boasts 7,000 doors, 128 kitchens, a marina, four helipads and the interior is decorated with 26,247 metres of 22-carat gold leaf (it even has its own in-house gold leaf specialist). Outside are verdant gardens with 8,000 trees that have attracted more than 150 species of birds, while staff harvest 20 tonnes of dates from its palms every year. Emirates Palace was built on 1,000,000 square metres of reclaimed land — equalling half the area of Monaco, the hotel says.
More than 15 years after it opened, the hotel is now looking to the future. Mandarin Oriental took over as operators in 2020 and a new era began.
Mr Heyes worked on other landmark projects such as the refurbishment of Claridge’s Hotel in London but Emirates Palace remains a highlight of his career.
“We used to stay at the Hilton and walk across to the site and see this beautiful palace coming up out of the ground,” he said, of the early design phases.
“It was quite clearly a career-defining moment for me. Even today, when I come up to that main drive and get out of the car, I think, 'Wow!' I’m very proud of it.”
A version of this article was first published on August 14, 2022
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Schedule
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Europe wide
Some of French groups are threatening Friday to continue their journey to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the European Union, and to meet up with drivers from other countries on Monday.
Belgian authorities joined French police in banning the threatened blockade. A similar lorry cavalcade was planned for Friday in Vienna but cancelled after authorities prohibited it.
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
The design
The protective shell is covered in solar panels to make use of light and produce energy. This will drastically reduce energy loss.
More than 80 per cent of the energy consumed by the French pavilion will be produced by the sun.
The architecture will control light sources to provide a highly insulated and airtight building.
The forecourt is protected from the sun and the plants will refresh the inner spaces.
A micro water treatment plant will recycle used water to supply the irrigation for the plants and to flush the toilets. This will reduce the pavilion’s need for fresh water by 30 per cent.
Energy-saving equipment will be used for all lighting and projections.
Beyond its use for the expo, the pavilion will be easy to dismantle and reuse the material.
Some elements of the metal frame can be prefabricated in a factory.
From architects to sound technicians and construction companies, a group of experts from 10 companies have created the pavilion.
Work will begin in May; the first stone will be laid in Dubai in the second quarter of 2019.
Construction of the pavilion will take 17 months from May 2019 to September 2020.
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