Abu Dhabi Builds Its Architectural Cred

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Proven Strategy to Attract Attention

The precedent, however, was set by Gehry's design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the sweeping metallic structure that has attracted millions of visitors to a sleepy fishing town since its opening in 1997. Now Abu Dhabi will get a Gehry-designed Guggenheim.

Other high-profile buildings, such as Hadid's performing arts center, Ando's maritime museum, and Nouvel's Louvre tap into a proven strategy to attract attention on a global level. And, important for Abu Dhabi, the move toward highbrow institutions by marquee-name architects contrasts with Dubai's Las Vegas-style array of spectacular, theme park-like developments, such as man-made islands shaped like miniature versions of the world's continents or soaring skyscrapers.

But Abu Dhabi's instant cultural district drew critics from around the world. In France, for example, resistance to the Jean Nouvel Louvre was so strong that thousands of people signed a petition against the project, the result of a whopping $1.3 billion deal with France for the use of the Louvre name and to borrow from its art collection. And experts on the region also began looking at Abu Dhabi's building boom as a dubious way to boost its already robust economy.

What's Inside the Buildings

"Architecture does not make a great economy, especially when the architects are foreign. Economic activity (technology, including inventions and innovations, production, and marketing are the main tools for economic development and growth," writes Elias Tuma, professor emeritus of economics at the University of California-Davis, a specialist in the political economy in the Middle East, in an e-mail.

"Architecture may help in marketing, but what do you market if you do not design and produce? Architecture could help if it is efficiency-oriented and not only an image-making instrument," Tuma observes. In other words, it's what's inside the fancy buildings that will really count.

Some Western architects involved in the green-building projects—truly "efficiency-oriented" architecture, as Tuma puts it—are seeing Abu Dhabi's evolving green mandate as a way to challenge themselves, by researching and implementing traditional Islamic architectural ideas to offer centuries-old inspiration for contemporary, eco-friendly design.

Middle East-Meets-West Design

"We noticed that the orientation of traditional buildings in historic settlements placed them closer together; they had high thermal mass, and were oriented to the right direction in relation to the sun to avoid high thermal heat, and to have shading," says Gerard Evenden, senior partner at Foster + Partners in London, who is in charge of the Masdar design. "We looked at that scientifically and asked, can it be translated into a new city? We learned that streets that are 70 meters in length have a better microclimate than those that are 150 meters in length because of the way wind moves through them, and then we started to design."

The Middle East-meets-West approach to design is sure to provoke critics, who might interpret such a strategy as a superficial Western nod to Islamic architecture. But given Foster + Partners' emphasis on incorporating research on wind, thermal effects, and other climate-related aspects of ancient Islamic architecture, rather than simply slapping on mosaics or other regional design elements to the Masdar buildings, it is sure to draw applause, too. Such an approach not only keeps regional architecture alive in the area, but also updates the efficiencies of many centuries-old Islamic design elements to a 21st-century environment.

Evenden emphasizes that the Islamic references in Masdar's design also will help Abu Dhabi brand itself as a unique tourist destination, compared to other areas relying on starchitect buildings to draw attention, such as Beijing or Dubai.

An Architect's Dream City

"Abu Dhabi sees itself as the mature older brother. Dubai is the runaway child who does all the crazy things. Abu Dhabi is far wealthier," says Duncan Swinhoe, Gensler's design director for the Tameer Towers. "Abu Dhabi is becoming assertive now. They are projecting the emirate as more restrained and responsible than Dubai."

Swinhoe adds that furthering sustainable architecture is one reason international architects are drawn to the emirate. The large budgets of real estate developers in Abu Dhabi—not to mention the lack of planning permits and historical zoning committees that can slow down projects in cities such as London and New York-—mean inventive architectural designs can be transformed into concrete, glass, and, well, solar panels more quickly than in other parts of the world.

"Abu Dhabi sees it is defining the region," Swinhoe concludes. "Architects realize that their wild imaginations have the chance to be realized. It's a huge motivation."

Jana is the Innovation Dept. editor for BusinessWeek.