Places in the Making - Abu Dhabi’s Evolving Public Realm in the Context of Place-Branding

Abstract

As the Gulf cities are in the process of diversifying their economic base, with the vision of transitioning to a sustainable post-oil future, they are positioning themselves as places to visit, work and live. Place-branding has emerged as a significant trend across the Gulf cities in the construction of this image and consequently in the production of places. The past decades have seen Abu Dhabi actively focus on developing and creating an image of the city. While tasked with the immediate requirement of enhancing the visibility of the city and marking it as a destination, the large investments in place-branding are also expected to help realize the vision for a sustainable future. Thus, the evolving urbanism becomes a subject for research with important implications. This paper attempts to contribute towards the body of research on the urban fabric of Abu Dhabi by examining the nature of the contemporary public realm as shaped by place-branding measures. Through a two-stage, mixed-method approach, the paper identifies and discusses related urban patterns, public space typologies and patterns in public life. The paper first outlines the urban trend at the level of two districts – the Yas Leisure District and the Sadiyat Cultural District, due to the active place-branding measures involved in their conception. After an initial scoping exercise, smaller units of study are identified within Yas Island to allow more detailed study in order to record aspects of public life and social use of space. Carefully-timed spot observations are used to record public life and to examine the temporal variation in the use of public spaces. The paper concludes with a discussion on emerging patterns observed in the public realm created through place-branding.