A Trip Through Abu Dhabi’s Planning History

Transportation in Abu Dhabi began on camels, horses and fishing boats. Bedouin tribes would ride their camels across large swaths of unforgiving desert in search of water and pastoral land, while the pearl divers would sail out into the Gulf for months on end to catch fish and oysters during the non-fishing months. Legend goes that in the mid-1700s, Bedouin hunters from Liwa Oasis followed a gazelle to the seashore. Here they found pearls in the sea and fresh water under the ground. The place became known as ‘Father of the Gazelle’ or Abu Dhabi. It was only after the discovery of oil in 1958 and the astute leadership of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, that Abu Dhabi began urbanising.

The first master plan was a curvilinear layout proposed by the British architect Sir William Halcrow. Sheikh Zayed rejected this Garden City inspired plan and instead opted for a gridiron plan proposed by the Arabic speaking Egyptian Dr. Abdulrahman Makhlouf. “A straight line is the fastest way to travel between two places,” Sheikh Zayed had said. A main road connecting the airport to a souk in the heart of Abu Dhabi was built; it was the fastest way to connect Abu Dhabi with the rest of the world. While at the neighbourhood level, Makhlouf proposed a community-oriented plan clustered around a mosque or park, another architect, Katsuhiko Takahashi, proposed commercial buildings along the perimeter around the neighbourhood. This formed an active road interface as well as a buffer for the neighbourhood from traffic. Together this formed what Apostolos Kyriazis in his research paper, The Morphology of Abu Dhabi’s Superblocks calls a ‘watermelon’ superblock module. This planning strategy for the city ensured a sensitive transition from the fast main road to the slow neighbourhood street along with a network of shaded alleys (sikkas) connecting buildings, open spaces and community facilities for people.

By the early 1980s, people started coming in by the thousands to participate in the creation of this brave new world. A British engineering and project management firm, Atkins, was appointed to prevent uncontrolled development, enhance efficiency of land uses, formalise community planning and account for residential areas for Emiratis and non-Emiratis.

The Atkins plan recommended a development pattern characterised by dominance of single-family housing, heavy reliance on automobile transportation and segregated land uses (as noted by Hashim Bani in The History of Planning Residential Neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi - In Transformation: The Emirati National Housing), resulting in suburbanisation. The latest American, European and Japanese cars ruled the straight wide roads and the tall buildings along the Corniche modulated the previously horizontal skyline. The interconnected superblock pattern that accommodated a complete neighbourhood as proposed by Makhlouf, Elliot and Takahashi was replaced with asymmetrical street systems made of larger superblocks (approximately 1 sq.km), broken streets, curves, looping streets surrounded by multi-lane highways and grade-separated interchanges that constrain integration and accessibility. Neighbourhoods increased in scale and lost the ability to expand contiguously and to connect with existing and new neighbourhoods.

Increasing foreign investment inspired the need to create a globally recognisable image. Gleaming steel, concrete and glass skyscrapers were desired. Architects who specialised in designing them were invited. The people’s Souk became a swanky indoor mall underneath the city’s tallest towers. New apartment buildings came up with facades of aluminium composite panels, glass and steel. Such materials mandated installing large air conditioning systems for maintaining comfortable interiors. One would move from an air-conditioned building to an air-conditioned car or air-conditioned bus shelter and air-conditioned bus and then into the air-conditioned destination building. Fetishised imagery from other countries was sold as aspirational.

Such contrasting places, each with their own microclimate, demography and landscapes, reflect a unique character-based segregated urbanscape. 

New residential townships and Emirati villa communities were scattered away from the city centre to ensure a quieter living environment. However, in doing so, utility infrastructure had to be stretched far and wide. As such, the land use split adversely affected accessibility and walkability. Car dependency increased, adding to the continued reliance on oil and playing a large role in making Abu Dhabi one of the highest per capita carbon emitters in the world.

To address these challenges and focus on a sustainable, comprehensive approach away from oil-centric piecemeal development strategies, the Urban Planning Council (UPC) was set up in 2007 by the Executive Council and Sheikh Zayed’s successor, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The UPC created an urban framework for Abu Dhabi’s Plan 2030. It is supported by the Department of Transport’s Surface Transport Master Plan (STMP) for 2030, integrating various transport services (rail, metro, light rail, buses, taxis, park and ride, highways and more) to promote economic competitiveness and urban vitality. Plan Capital 2030 further regulated and formalised planning in Abu Dhabi by introducing new standards, including a public realm manual, a community facilities manual, an urban street design manual, mosque planning and sikka design manuals as well as Estidama, a sustainability rating system aimed at enhancing current and future development conditions to fulfill Abu Dhabi’s 2030 vision. UPC manuals and Estidama promote many New Urbanist principles, including walkability, connectivity, density, mixed land use, place-making, traditional neighbourhood structure and participatory planning.

According to the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development, it is estimated that once fully operational, Abu Dhabi’s public transport network is slated to save 102 million hours of travelling time a year, in addition to potentially building one of the most modern, efficient and effective infrastructure networks in the world. 

The STMP proposes multiple scenarios, one of them intends to add 590 km of inter-regional rail and 1,300 km of freight rail connecting Abu Dhabi and the rest of the UAE with key cities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). 

There may also be 130 km of metro rail in Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area and 340 km of light rail running on boulevards and avenues, demand-responsive Personal Rapid Transit System for new innovative developments, a fine grained bus network for all urban areas not served by light rail or metro and a system of ferry services may also be introduced along with 1500 kms of highway. The plan also considers introducing global fuel tax and area-based congestion charges.

Once implemented, the STMP intends to achieve the following goals:
• Develop a low carbon emitting economy.
• Preserve Abu Dhabi’s unique but critical natural environment.
• Protect and enhance Abu Dhabi’s cultural heritage, landmarks, national symbols and monuments.
• Improve local air quality and reduce noise.
• Improve international, connectivity with other GCC countries, regional connectivity within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and within the Abu Dhabi metropolitan area.
• Encourage sustainable and efficient freight distribution.
• Improve health and safety for the workforce.
• Enhance the pedestrian realm.
• Minimise congestion on the road.
• Reduce reliance on automobiles and encourage alternative modes of travel.

Upcoming developments such as the Saadiyat Island Cultural District have been designed to conform with relevant UPC guidelines and manuals and in keeping with requirements of Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 and the STMP. The land use mix is set to foster a live-work-play atmosphere complemented by light rail and bus transportation. Two world famous museums and a performance hall are planned. Dedicated as well as shared bicycle paths provided along wide pedestrian-friendly right of ways are meant to promote healthy, sustainable living. Community facilities, schools, mosques and homes have been built within walking distance from one another. At the city scale, Saadiyat Island works as an early activation development along the previously dull corridor between the airport and city centre providing encouragement for other developments as envisioned in Plan 2030.

Even the new Emirati neighbourhoods are mandated to follow a similar approach integrating land use distribution with transportation ensuring efficient connectivity. The layout and design language illustrate a return to Makhlouf-ian neighbourhood typology focused around community facilities and open spaces. Based on lessons learnt from previous master plans, commercial land uses that not only cater to the neighbourhood, but also the surrounding context, have been introduced. Additionally, in pursuit of reducing car dependency, not only are potential employment centres planned in close proximity, but also rigorous assessment of all potential trips generated is being performed to determine permissible densities.

In less than half a century, Abu Dhabi has achieved what most countries haven’t even after several centuries. 

If urban mobility is a key element in the economic development of a city, then Abu Dhabi has the potential to top the list. From camels to cars to even (perhaps) pneumatic tubes, Abu Dhabi has come a long way at a hypersonic pace. In the past there have been distractions, mistakes and deviations but, each time, the city has acknowledged the problems, learnt from them and grown stronger. Perhaps it is the nomadic mindset that allows Emiratis to readily adapt to change and surge ahead.  Abu Dhabi has evolved from what Alawadi and Benkraouda call ‘tumultuous inception’ (1967-1975) and an ‘automobile-oriented period’ (1975-2007) to what it is now, attempting to return to the path of Sheikh Zayed’s ideals: maintaining connections with Emirati roots through social and environmental sustainability. Even today, Abu Dhabi is the palimpsest that architects and planners continue learning from. In the words of Sheikh Zayed, “He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and future, for it is from the past that we learn.”