The Archivist
An Emirati creative is documenting the UAE’s urban evolution, one facade at a time.
By Nicola Chilton
Photos by Hussain AlMoosawi
The 16-storey concrete cylinder of interlocking squares known locally as the Al Ibrahimi Building (in fact, it is the Saeed Al Kalili Building). Built in 1983, it embodies Abu Dhabi’s modernist aspirations of the time.
When Hussain AlMoosawi returned to Abu Dhabi from Australia, where he had spent eight years studying and working, he hardly recognised his home. It was 2013, and the United Arab Emirates had experienced a building boom that had replaced many of the modernist office and residential buildings that were the backdrop to his youth with the superlative contemporary architecture that defines its skyline today.
It sparked something in him, a desire to understand the urban identity of his home. “A quest,” he says, “to discover a sense of order.”
AlMoosawi set out to capture the country’s overlooked modern architecture. With a forensic focus, he went neighbourhood by neighbourhood photographing buildings, particularly those from the 1970s and 80s. He approached the task like an archivist, seeking out sites not for their intrinsic beauty but for their historical and architectural value. He considers his images to be a documentation of the UAE’s rapid urban evolution rather than an artistic endeavour. AlMoosawi’s Facade to Facade series showcases a side of the UAE that is less about a march towards the future and more about the foundations that paved the way.
Born in Dubai, AlMoosawi moved to Australia in 2005 to study design at the Queensland College of Art and Design in Brisbane and later at the Swinburne School of Design and Architecture in Melbourne. He credits the time in Melbourne with redefining his relationship with photography. It was there he began using it as a tool for research and the documentation of urban typologies. He would explore neighbourhoods, street by street, using annotated maps he had printed. This time in Australia also transformed his relationship with the architecture of the UAE.
The Obeid Al Mazrouei Building, a 10-storey residential structure, is another notable landmark in Abu Dhabi. Commonly referred to as the “Connect Four” Building for its circular facade openings, it was constructed in the 1980s.
His zoomed-in images of the facades of buildings are instantly recognisable. The symmetry of their repeated patterns is a recurring motif, and the conceptual lens through which he views the buildings he photographs. “I believe this was a practical and powerful way to start,” AlMoosawi says. “Symmetry is the common element between the house where I grew up in Dubai and ancient buildings such as the Pantheon, which says a lot about our preference for symmetry as human beings.”
Through photography, he was able to gain a deeper understanding of the UAE’s architectural identity by collecting “samples” that he later analysed. Through that also came an awareness of the need to preserve older buildings that were at risk of being demolished in a country that, until recently, had little sentimentality for its modernist architecture and its role in the story of the modern UAE. “Each facade might not have a strong identity on its own, but collectively they say something,” he says.
AlMoosawi’s “stripped-back, typological approach presents the most visually striking and interesting perspective of the UAE’s architecture.”
—Raz Hansrod
In 2023, the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi introduced the Modern Heritage Conservation Initiative. It identifies and safeguards 64 buildings that contribute to Abu Dhabi’s cultural identity, preserving them for future generations. Among these are some of AlMoosawi’s favourites, including the Butti Al Otaiba building with its rows of tightly packed lozenge-shaped windows, the 10-storey Obeid Al Mazrouei building with its circular, porthole-style windows reminiscent of a giant game of Connect Four, and the Al Omaira building. “Most buildings from thew 1970s and 80s are beige, but the Al Omaira stands out with a green facade exhibiting a form of geometry that cannot be seen in most other buildings of its era,” he says.
AlMoosawi’s signature symmetry can appear almost too perfect at first glance, but closer inspection reveals hanging laundry, an open window, brightly coloured curtains, or peeling paintwork, rendering the facades much more human.
Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown, top. AlMoosawi was drawn to its sleek, geometric, light-reflecting facade. While most buildings from the 1970s and 1980s are beige, the Al Omaira Building, above, stands out for its green facade, exhibiting a form of geometry that cannot be seen in most other buildings of its era.
He excludes the contextual elements—people, lampposts, trees and cars—that detract from the building’s character and analysis of its architectural form. “My photography is stripped of the aspects that add glitter so we can appreciate the architectural details as they are,” he says. His chosen angles and carefully measured light (he typically shoots at sunrise or sunset to avoid harsh shadows) capture a building’s true hues. “Perhaps my photographs are the opposite of the cityscape photography which is often created to project an impression. My objective is to understand and study.”
AlMoosawi’s “stripped-back, typological approach presents the most visually striking and interesting perspective of the UAE’s architecture,” says Raz Hansrod, general manager of photography centre Gulf Photo Plus. “No project speaks to us and our audience like Facade to Facade does.”
The project began in Abu Dhabi, but AlMoosawi has since branched out. The first building he shot in Dubai was Sheikh Rashid Tower. Also known as the Dubai World Trade Centre, the 39-storey building, designed by British architect John R. Harris (also responsible for Dubai’s early master plan), was the tallest in the Middle East when it was completed in 1979 and symbolised the embrace of imported modernism. Today, it stands in stark contrast with its sleek, ultra-modern neighbours, like the new One Za’abeel towers.
The Butti Al Otaiba Building, distinguished by its rows of tightly packed, lozenge-shaped windows, is among those safeguarded by Abu Dhabi’s Modern Heritage Conservation Initiative.
While he focuses on the UAE’s modernist architecture, AlMoosawi doesn’t completely avoid contemporary buildings. “Contemporary structures seem to have way less personality compared to [those] built in the 1970s and 80s,” he says. “I still photograph contemporary buildings with the purpose of documenting them as typologies, where collectively they say something about the identity of a specific district. Whether we like the identity of that district is another question. My task is to encapsulate that and present it to the audience in the most clear and objective fashion—which itself is, I could argue, a form of art.”
Some view AlMoosawi’s work through the lens of nostalgia. His images of older buildings, some of which no longer stand, convey a sense of longing for a simpler time, an emotional connection to a place that existed before consecutive construction and redevelopment changed the face of neighbourhoods that were once loved. But this is not his intent. “Nostalgia still doesn’t drive me, but I don’t mind audiences seeing what speaks to them in my photography,” he says. “Though I’m objective and driven by a strong urge to understand, I won’t deny that somewhere in my subconscious hides a form of emotion.”
Whether it is considered art or documentation, AlMoosawi hopes his photography encourages people to pay more attention to their surroundings. “I keep getting feedback from people that I have changed the way they see our cities,” he says. “That’s something that brings me absolute joy.”
