Last week, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism announced a new campaign to raise awareness of architectural gems such as Al Ibrahimi Building. Other sites include Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station, Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre and the Cultural Foundation.

This is part of a conservation plan by Abu Dhabi’s Modern Heritage Initiative, which started in 2011 by identifying sites for preservation. Often, these are buildings in lower-income areas. Details on the campaign are yet to be announced.

The stories of these buildings and their tenants tell of the transition from pearling village to glass metropolis.123

....

• 1. “We have a lot of then-and-now-style books, which show the UAE’s history as ‘pre-oil’ and ‘today’ but this implies nothing happened in between,” says Matthew Maclean, a historian specialised in late 20th-century UAE history. 
• 2. “What we see in daily life in Abu Dhabi didn’t spring up from nowhere. These buildings represent a stage between those times, the country’s early modernisation, which was a period of 20, 30 years.
• 3. “They represent the UAE in which many Emiratis and expats grew up, so for a lot of people, modern heritage has nostalgic value. For people newer to Abu Dhabi, their preservation tells us that this is a place with history, even in a very young city.”