Dubai, Kuwait and Riyadh turned away from the past to make way for modern skyscrapers, but UAE’s Sharjah takes a different tack. Bloomberg economist Ziad Daoud interviews Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi for his take on how Sharjah aims to “acknowledge our distant as well as our recent past” through art and architecture. Read more »
Architecture
‘Building Sharjah’: Book Documents the Rise of a Modern Gulf City
A new book titled “Building Sharjah” traces the architectural history of the city of Sharjah and the social and political contexts of its urbanization from the mid-20th century, from before the discovery of oil off its shores until the present day. Read more »
Sultan Al Qassemi on Modern Middle Eastern art and architecture
Sultan Al Qassemi talks about Modern Middle Eastern art and architecture in the May 1 episode of The Macmillan Report. Read more »
Collecting Art for the Public Good
In this feature interview, Shawati speaks to Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi about his passion for Arab arts and culture, and his personal journey as an art collector and curator through the years. Read more »
Rising Gulf cities look to protect landmarks
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi discusses the need for Gulf states to recognize the value that the modern architecture holds in a historical context, which tell countless stories of the immigrants and the residents who made the UAE and the Gulf their homes. Read more »
Indian architect Ashok Mody shares memories of building Sharjah
Ashok Mody was a young architect from India on his first international assignment when he arrived in Sharjah in 1975. Over the next five years, he worked on projects that have become enduring landmarks of the emirate such as Al Zahra Hospital, the Oceanic Hotel in Khorfakkan and the biggest public housing development — the 1000 Villas project in Al Ghubaiba. Four decades later, Mody still cherishes his memories of living and working in Sharjah and acknowledges that the experience was invaluable to his career. Weekend Review caught up with Ashok Mody during his visit to the city, in this interview. Read more »