Ex-pat reflections

"Sometimes I yearn to be in a place where I don't just know more or less what people are saying,
but know exactly what they mean." 

The other day I read a thoughtful and funny article in the International New York Times (once called, much more borderlessly, the International Herald Tribune). My copy of the paper was five days old, but hey! At least there was a copy to be had in the small Italian village. The writer was Pamela Druckerman, author of "Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting." Her subject was ostensibly the experience of taking psychotherapy in French, but was really a few reflections on life as an ex-pat, in her case in France.

After my three-and-a-bit years in Europe, there was much that resonated. A few examples:

"I wasn't sure how long I'd live here, but I did expect my stay to follow a certain ex-pat narrative: You arrive; you struggle to understand the place; you finally crack the codes and are transformed; you triumphantly return home, with a halo of foreign wisdom and your stylish bilingual children in tow."

Bar the children, that's just about my mindset. She goes on:

"But 10 years on, I've gone way off that script...Sometimes I yearn to be in a place where I don't just know more or less what people are saying, but know exactly what they mean." Yup.

Though very funny too, Pamela can get wistful:

" ...there are people like me, who study France and then describe it to the folks back home. We're determined to have an "authentic" French experience. And yet, by mining every encounter for its anthropological significance, we keep our distance, too. No matter how familiar Paris becomes, something always reminds me that I don't belong..."

 Read the full article here.

These are appropriate reflections as I make a few changes...back to Australia for a few months, for one thing. And this blog moving over to Wordpress, for another. I hope regular readers will follow me....

...hasta la vista....a presto....

Abu Dhabi Buildings...wow!

The “Circle Building” - Aldar HQ; Abu Dhabi

Have Money, Will Build: One rather glorious off-shoot of a rich Arab oil Emirate, and its need to build a modern new city fast, is that you can end up with a collection of exceptional modern architecture. You might also have a few tasteless bits in there too, but there’s the potential...

In Abu Dhabi, they’ve amassed an impressive collection. My favourites are the Sheikh Zayed Bridge by Zaha Hadid, (built 1997 - 2010) and Etihad Towers by Australian architects DBI Design.

Hadid's Sheikh Zayed Bridge, at 842 meter long, is said to be the most intricate bridge ever constructed. Its curved design arches evoke undulating sand dunes of the desert. "The bridge features - besides its striking architecture - a dynamic lighting design that is based on subtle colours that flow across the bridge's spine, symbolising the connecting nature of the bridge and the energy that the capital city Abu Dhabi radiates. The bridge is the third traffic route connecting the mainland to the island of Abu Dhabi and the new main gateway over the Maqtah channel. The bridge was designed by architect Zaha Hadid as the grandeur landmark for the UAE's capital city." (source)

Sheikh Zayed Bridge

Driving across Zaha Hadid's bridge.

Aerial view. (source)

Etihad Towers.

The Etihad Towers website waxes lyrical about these five delicate skyscrapers, clustered together, reaching 74 storeys:

With five stunning towers that sparkle iridescently in the never-ending sunshine – Etihad Towers is a reflection of  everything that Abu Dhabi is and will be… modern, sophisticated and luxurious.. 

After several years of planning and design, 2006 was a special year for His Highness Sheikh Suroor Bin Mohammed Al Nahyan and his Projects Department, for this was when construction work got underway. His Highness can be proud of succeeding in creating a very inspirational, prestigious and desirable landmark in the UAE. The scope, magnitude and uniqueness is breathtaking. 

The Australian architects DBI Design have created a sculptural feat that is a true landmark of the City. Changing the Abu Dhabi skyline forever the towers offer the most amazing vantage points – with sweeping panoramic views over the vibrant city and Arabian Sea.

Foyer of the Jumierah Hotel, Etihad Towers

One of the slim and beautiful Etihad Towers houses the Jumierah Hotel where I stayed in Abu Dhabi - great choice. The interior, slathered with the marble that the Gulf States seems to love so much (I guess it's cool and luxurious, so why not?), is actually quite impressive. The lobby soars, the exotic slabs of coloured marble entice, the glass curtain windows look out over the sea and city - and you can visit the bar on the 74 floor of Tower Three for afternoon tea.

Side view of the Circle Building, Aldar HQ. 

But let’s also mention the “Circle Building” - Aldar HQ. The 23-storey circular building at the capital’s Al Raha Beach has been named in a list of 16 eye-catching structures compiled by a jury of experts. Designed by MZ Architects, which has offices in Abu Dhabi and Lebanon, the 110-metre tall building, which opened in 2010, was the first upright circular building in the Middle East.

This is not the first time the building has won international recognition – it was named Best Futuristic Design at the 2008 Building Exchange Conference in Spain. (source)

Pineapple Building: Abu Dhabi’s Al Bahr Towers

"Abu Dhabi’s striking Al Bahr Towers, their design inspiring comparisons with exotic pineapples and honeycombs, have been named among the world’s best towers in a highly regarded award for high-rise architecture. The twin 29-storey super-green Abu Dhabi Investment Council headquarters came second in the Emporis skyscraper awards for projects completed last year.
The buildings are known for their distinctive covering of 2,000 umbrella-like elements that can be opened and closed to keep the sun off the glass building as it moves across the sky but also let in daylight. The German-based skyscraper data company Emporis praised the Aedis-designed office towers for providing “a dynamic, translucent facade that runs off power generated by photovoltaic panels and which reacts to sunlight.” The towers have already featured on the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s “Innovative 20” list of buildings that “challenge the typology of tall buildings in the 21st century”. The latest award comes after Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Towers was awarded third place in the competition last year." (source)

Yas Viceroy Hotel over an F1 racetrack (image source)

Then there’s the Yas Viceroy Hotel with the F1 race track going right through it...

Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi Hotel is located within the Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi. It is the first new hotel in the world to be built over an F1 race circuit. The Hotel, designed by Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture, principals of New York based Asymptote Architecture, consists of two twelve story hotel towers, one set within the race circuit and another placed in the Marina itself, linked together by a monocoquesteel and glass bridge and Grid Shell structure that both cross above and over the Yas Marina Circuit F1 race track.
Asymptote created and conceived of the building as an architectural landmark embodying key influences and local and global inspirations ranging from the aesthetics and forms associated with speed and spectacle to the artistry and geometries that form the basis of ancient Islamic art and craft traditions.
Of architectural and engineering significance is the main feature of the hotelʼs design: a 217-meter expanse of sweeping, curvilinear glass and steel covering known as the Grid Shell: it features an LED lighting system incorporating video feeds that are transmitted over the 5,389 pivoting diamond-shaped colour changing LED panes. This Grid-Shell component is a key aspect of the overall architectural design and significance of the project by producing an atmospheric-like veil visible from miles away. (source: Wiki) . A interesting footnote: the "Grid-Shell Building Information Modeling Consultants" were none other than Gehry Technologies.

View of the F1 racetrack on the approach to the Yas Viecroy Hotel.

Capital Gate, the ‘Leaning Building’

Wiki has the info: "Capital Gate is a skyscraper in Abu Dhabi adjacent to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre designed with a striking lean. At 160 m (520 ft) and 35 stories, it is one of the tallest buildings in the city and features an 18-degree incline to the west... The tower (also known as the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi) is the focal point of the Capital Center/Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre master development....In June 2010, the Guinness Book of World Records certified Capital Gate as the "World’s furthest leaning man-made tower."...
The building has a diagrid especially designed to absorb and channel the forces created by wind and seismic pressure, as well as the gradient of Capital Gate. Capital Gate is thought to be the Middle East's first building to use a diagrid; others around the world include London's 30 St Mary Axe (Gherkin), New York's Hearst Tower and Beijing's National Stadium.
The Capital Gate project was able to achieve its inclination through an engineering program that allows floor plates to be stacked vertically up to the 12th storey, and staggered over each other by between 300mm to 1400mm, which allows for the tower's lean.
Capital Gate was designed by architectural firm RMJM and was due for completed in 2011. Capital Gate houses the 5-star Hyatt Capital Gate hotel and office space."

Abu Dhabi
Try this blog for info on some interesting buildings of Au Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi skyline from the Etihad Towers.

Mosque Visit

In Abu Dhabi there's one major tourist attraction - and local attraction, too. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. My guide (an Indian) just knew I'd be impressed - "40,000 worshippers! Third-largest in the world! Biggest carpet in the world!" I thought I remembered being given similar statistics when I visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman. But modern mosque stats are like that - big, bigger, biggest. It turned out that, wherever it falls in the rankings, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi is a very beautiful thing.

The building of the mosque was initiated by the late President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. His final resting place is located in the grounds of the mosque. It was constructed between 1996 and 2007, and Wiki claims that it's the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates and the eighth largest in the world.

I looked up the design and building details. To me, there seemed a very strong Persian and even Mughal influence. The entire place is draped in spectacular marble. Here's what Wiki told me:

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque's design and construction 'unites the world', using artisans and materials from many countries including Italy, Germany, Morocco, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Iran, China, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Greece and United Arab Emirates. More than 3,000 workers and 38 renowned contracting companies took part in the construction of the mosque.  

Natural materials were chosen for much of its design and construction due to their long-lasting qualities, including marble stone, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics. It was built by the Italian company Impregilo. 

The design of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque has been inspired by Persian, Mughal and Moorish mosque architecture, particularly the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan and the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco being direct influences. The dome layout and floorplan of the mosque was inspired by the Badshahi Mosque and the architecture was inspired by Persian, Mughal and Moorish design. Its archways are quintessentially Moorish and its minarets classically Arab. The design of the mosque can be best described as a fusion of Arab, Persian, Mughal and Moorish architecture.

The marble used includes Sivec from Prilep, Macedonia on the external cladding. 115,119 m2 (1,239,130 sq ft) of cladding has been used on the mosque, including the minarets. Lasa from Laas, South Tyrol, Italy was used in the internal elevations. Makrana from Makrana, India was used in the annexes and offices; Aquabiana and Biano from Italy in the East White and Ming Green from China.
Wow.

The stats (all from Wiki): The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshipers. The main prayer hall can accommodate over 7,000 worshipers. There are two smaller prayer halls, with a 1,500-capacity each, one of which is the female prayer hall. There are four minarets on the four corners of the courtyard which rise about 107 m (351 ft) in height. The courtyard, with its floral design, measures about 17,000 m2(180,000 sq ft),and is considered to be the largest example of marble mosaic in the world.

The 96 columns in the main prayer hall are clad with marble and inlaid with mother of pearl, one of the few places where you will see this craftsmanship.

The carpet in the main prayer hall is considered to be the world's largest carpet made by Iran's Carpet Company and designed by Iranian artist Ali Khaliqi. This carpet measures 5,627 m2 (60,570 sq ft), and was made by around 1,200-1,300 carpet knotters. The weight of the carpet is 35 tons and is predominantly made from wool (originating from New Zealand and Iran). There are 2,268,000,000 knots within the carpet and it took approximately two years to complete.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque has seven imported chandeliers from Germany that incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals. The largest chandelier is the second largest known chandelier inside a mosque, the third largest in the world and has a 10 m (33 ft) diameter and a 15 m (49 ft) height.

The 99 names (qualities or attributes) of God (Allah) are featured on the Qibla wall in traditional Kufic calligraphy, designed by the prominent UAE calligrapher, Mohammed Mandi Al Tamimi.

The Mosque's official website waxes lyrical, as well it might:

As a testament to the vision of its founder, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque sits majestically at the entrance to Abu Dhabi City Island, distinctly visible from the three main bridges connecting the island to the main land, the Maqta, Mussafah and the Sheikh Zayed Bridge. The strategic geographical location of the Mosque is a symbolic expression of the emotional connection the Mosque has in the hearts of all UAE citizens particularly because the burial place of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, first President of the UAE, is located beside the mosque.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is well recognised by its pure colour, as it is clad with SIVEC marble from Macedonia.  Every artistic design element was carefully considered and fits into the overall vision of the Mosque.

But one last thing - I expect you might be wondering how a visiting Western woman gets on in a mosque (assuming they're allowed in at all, and as you can see from my pictures, I was.) There are clothing rules: male visitors should avoid wearing shorts and singlets. Female visitors to the mosque are required to wear either a full length abaya (which can be supplied at the reception area) or a head scarf. In addition, tight and revealing clothing is not allowed. Luckily, my guide had a spare abaya for just this very circumstance, and here's me full rigged out (though not wearing it properly - oops! - that bit of neck shouldn't be showing. I spent most of the visit very hot, and constantly tugging at the headscarf to try to cover all hair and skin. I was only giving an admonitory finger-wag by a guard once.

Oil, Water and Royalty

Abu Dhabi: “Where petrol is cheap but water is expensive” - my Indian guide.

Price of one litre of petrol: 1.72 dirhams (51 AU cents)
Price of 250 mls San Pelegrino bottled water: 12 dirhams (AU$3.58) (hotel minibar)

Driving from the airport into the gleaming new city of Abu Dhabi, you could be forgiven a little surprise. This place seems to have discovered the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, which as fans of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ will know, is 42. Signs along the Corniche highway, brightly lit in the evening, proudly proclaim: ’42’. It turns out that this is not about metaphysics, however, but rather the 42nd anniversary of the establishment of the United Arab Emirates. And of course, the 42nd anniversary is a very important one...er, isn’t it? (Like many things to my Western eyes here, something might have become a little lost in translation.)

You can lookup the history of the Emirates on Wiki which will tell you the important details:

The United Arab Emirates i(Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة Dawlat al-ʾImārāt al-ʿArabiyyah al-Muttaḥidah), sometimes simply called the Emirates or the UAE, is an Arab country located in the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing sea borders with Qatar and Iran.
The UAE is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities). Each emirate is governed by an hereditary emir who jointly form the Federal Supreme Council which is the highest legislative and executive body in the country. One of the emirs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah,Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is one of the two centers of commercial and cultural activities, together with Dubai. Islam is the official religion of the UAE, and Arabic is the official language.

The Royal Family plays a prominent role in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, from its patriarch Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, to his son the current ruler Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the numerous family members. The ruler’s half-brother is a kind of second-in-command, known as the Crown Prince (or “an extra”, as my guide put it). The patriarch is said to have had 19 sons (and an indeterminate number of daughters) from four wives. Knowing this helps explain why the city is stuffed with royal palaces (and new ones are being built everywhere), public buildings have large ‘VIP’ entrances, and there is a separate airport terminal for the Royal Family. It might also explain why said patriarch looks so fierce on the posters of him around town.

Abu Dhabi seems to run on the untiring work of thousands of immigrants. Though the Arab men in their cool, handsome white dishdash are at the immigration desks at the airport, and wait with their briefcases for luxury cars at the hotels, the waiters, doormen, check-in clerks, cooks, guides, cleaners, security staff, manicurists, hotel managers, taxi drivers, market sellers, construction workers...all seem to be immigrants, many from the Indian subcontinent and Asia, but with a good sprinkling of other nationalities too (including Polish and Australian). Arabic may be the official language, but English is the way of communication in the hotels.

Wiki tells us:

Abu Dhabi is the second most expensive city for expatriate employees in the region, and 67th most expensive city in the world. Fortune magazine and CNN stated in 2007 that Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the world. However, many residents of Abu Dhabi are blue collared workers who get paid very little, work in relative unsafe environments and live in squalid labour camps; this contrasts with senior managers or executives who earn exorbitant annual salaries and work in plush offices. Thus, it can be understood that the wealth is not shared equally.

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is the largest area of the UAE, with a land surface of about 67,340 square kilometres, which is equivalent to about 87% of the UAE’s total land area. It has a population of around 920,000, although only 30% of the emirate is inhabited, with the remaining vast expanses covered mainly by desert and arid land — constituting about 93% of the total land area.

The land is utterly barren - flat desert as far as the eye can see (from a plane, or a high-rise). The city is situated on an island, with a number of smaller islands, natural and reclaimed, surrounding the city. There is a tiny pocket of the original mangrove left - where gazelle used to roam (giving the city its name: ‘Abu Dhabi’ means ‘Father of the Gazelle’). But any other trees you see are planted, and watered. Actually, the place is not completely barren - they do grow a lot of dates. Lovely dates, actually.

As is well-known, Abu Dhabi and the Emirates sprang from poor, backward fishing villages and desert encampments into high-tech modern cities in the space of only one generation, fueled (pun intended) by the discovery of oil. A LOT of oil. Before the oil, the area was known for pirates, British colonial meddling, and pearls. People began looking for oil as early as the 1930s, but the big strikes were made in the 1960s. And the rest is history, as they say. However, it doesn’t take much imagination to appreciate that such a dramatic transformation in such a short time cannot have been easy, either for the people, or politically. According to the adulatory posters around town, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is much revered for the steady hand with which he navigated these times.

And the weather? In December, temperatures were around the mid-20s (Celsius), the humidity high but not uncomfortable. There was a light breeze from the sea. However, in high summer the temperatures are in the high 30s on average, and can reach the 50s, with sand-storms not uncommon. Luckily, someone invented air-conditioning, without which modern Abu Dhabi probably wouldn’t exist.

Here's a photo journal of some aspects of Abu Dhabi -- much to understand and investigate.

The Fourth Estate

"The Fourth Estate',  Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1901)

This fascinating painting hangs as an introductory and special exhibition on your way into the  Museo del Novecento, which houses twentieth-century Italian art. The Novecento site tells us:

Opening the Museo del Novecento with The Fourth Estate by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo means attesting to a divide more than preparing the visitor for what he or she is about to see in the rooms that follow. The purpose of this painting, which was completed in 1901, was to celebrate the ideals of humanitarian socialism using the theme of a procession of workers advancing and the pictorial technique of scientifically-based Divisionism; but it also marked the final important episode, for Italy’s figurative civilization, in artwork as program, thereby characterized by a search for a superior and concomitant clarity of form and content. But that was not all. The Fourth Estate also identified the end of a season in which the painter’s trade was governed by a respectful, almost natural coming to terms with the museum (here, in particular, the reference is to Raphael’s School of Athens, whose cartoon Pellizza had studied at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), based on the belief that historic styles traced a continuity that was not just formal but also ideal between past and present.

The painting is an interesting example of the 'socialist ideal' school, painted quite early (well before the rise of Lenin and his crew, for example). The advancing workers are characterised by some as strikers. The point it marks in Italian history is an interesting as the point it marks in art history. The technique used - "Divisionism" - can't really be appreciated from a reproduction, but up-close-in-real-life you can see that the colours are all formed not by mixed but by the very careful placements of lines of colours next to each other, giving a subtle, and surprisingly gentle, result. The painting. by the way, is very big - 293 cm × 545 cm. The Novecento has devoted a great deal of research to this painting, and it includes and exhibition of the artist's preparatory drawings and sketches. The website goes on"

Notwithstanding its ambitiousness, the painting attracted little attention at the time: when it was first displayed at the 1902 Turin exhibition it was neither purchased by the royals (the subject was obviously a sensitive one) nor was it awarded the Premio degli Artisti. The great disappointment that came with these failures contributed to the artist’s deep crisis, which culminated in his committing suicide just a few years later.  After entering the Civiche Gallerie by public subscription in 1920 at a time when Milan was led by a Socialist council and the political climate seemed to be ripe for the concrete prospect of revolution, The Fourth Estate, especially in the aftermath of the Second World War, was considered to be on a par with a manifesto-painting of the ideals of the Left, whether reformist or revolutionary. Hence, for a great deal of time it was denied the status of representing a crucial episode in the history of Italian art, until its lofty pictorial values were reestablished with its restoration and permanent display at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna as of 1980.

 The painting was originally entitled 'The Path of Workers', and the artist had dealt with a similar theme in earlier works such as 'Ambassadors of Hunger', 'Stream of People' and a preparatory sketch of 1898, 'The Path of Workers.' It's said that the inclusion of a woman int he front-line of the workers was ground-breaking in its day. Whatever the politics of it, the painting is incredibly effective in suggesting that a crowd of people is about to walk straight out at you.

Wiki gives a short potted bio of the painter, Pellizza:

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (July 28, 1868 – June 14, 1907) was an Italian neo-impressionist painter. He was born and died in Volpedo, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. He was a pupil of Pio Sanquirico. Pellizza used a divisionist technique in which a painting is created by juxtaposing small dots of paint according to specific colour theory. His most famous work, Il Quarto Stato ("The Fourth Estate"), has become a well-known symbol for progressive and socialist causes in Italy, and throughout Europe. The painting is shown during the opening credits of Bernardo Bertolucci's film 1900.

Have a look at this blog by Settimio Benedusi and the moving photograph he's made below. Pellizza might have been impressed?

Settimio Benedusi.