Everyday Icons / Hiding In Plain Sight (Abu Dhabi) No.0014
Everyday Icons / Hiding In Plain Sight (Abu Dhabi)
No.0014 - Al Shaheen Tower, Al Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi
First things first - Al Shaheen Tower isn’t really a tower.
Standing at just seven stories high and stretching to a length of almost 200m, this building is much more of a horizontal ‘slab’. With the development of buildings around it (true towers), it is now a literal hidden gem. I recall my early days in Abu Dhabi and an impromptu walk through the Khalidiya area. Stumbling upon this building and its equally intriguing neighbor (the subject of a future post), I was pleasantly surprised to see something different to the all too familiar glass and aluminum clad towers that are found in most parts of the city nowadays.
I’m not familiar with the internal layout of this building, but I assume from the arrangement of balconies that each unit is a duplex. The resulting facade treatment, combined with the sculptural staircases that book-end the building, create a wonderful play of light and shadow across the buildings elevation throughout the day.
