2030 Vision
Abu Dhabi’s ‘2030 Vision’ was launched in September 2008. Essentially it’s an economic strategy that embraced ecology, tourism, self-sustainability and transport. The idea is to ensure that, 20 years from now, the city is a global contender. However, many of the key highlights have been in development for some time, some of them a matter of months away, if not upon us already.
Sport
The first notable attempt to attract large-scale tourism to the region came in 2005, when Red Bull added Abu Dhabi to its list of Air Race venues. Sports fans have been further sated by the launch of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, centred on a state-of-the-art F1 circuit on Yas Island, just off the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway. Yas Marina Circuit was the first of the city’s grand plans to be successfully completed, making the 2030 Vision something of a tangible reality. The custom-built track is a race fanatic’s dream come true, with 22 corners and a straight that will allow a top speed of 317kmph. The Yas Marina Hotel offers the ultimate view, actually straddling the track; unique in the world of Grand Prix.
In December 2009, the Fifa Club World Cup will also arrive, followed by the Capitala World Tennis Championship, the first of which was won by Andy Murray in January 2009.
Arts
In April 2009, the corniche played host to 80,000 music lovers when the Womad festival set up shop for three nights, culminating in a performance by Led Zepplin legend Robert Plant.
Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi Classics provides relief for lovers of the more sedate arts, while the Middle East Film Festival, brings some of Hollywood’s biggest names for 10-day festivities.
However, the most eagerly anticipated development is the Cultural District of Saadiyat Island, a US$27billion project located 500m off the city coast. In March 2007, art lovers were astounded to hear that the island would house an outpost of the Louvre art gallery. The license was granted for a rumoured US$555million and it’s due to open in 2012, with construction costing as much as US$154million. The collection will not be restricted to UAE art, encouraging the idea that this will be an international collaboration. Henri Loyrette, the director of the Louvre Paris, hopes that the museum ‘will set up a dialogue between west and east, between north and south’.
When completed, the Louvre will stand alongside Abu Dhabi’s branch of the Guggenheim, designed by Frank Gehry, expected in 2011 (see page 149 for more information). It will cost an estimated US$200million and will house contemporary art that fits with Islamic values, in that they will be culturally cooperative rather than controversial.
Ecology
To the west of the main island lies 6.5 sq km of dust, from the middle of which sprouts a construction site that promises to become Masdar City. The area will be the first full-scale eco city; entirely carbon neutral, absolutely waste-free, and home to 1,500 clean-tech businesses and their employees. Top of the green gadget list is the PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) – an underground maglev that performs in much the same way as Roald Dahl’s great glass elevator. Leaving their cars at the city gates, inhabitants board their electric pod and zip to any of portals beneath the city’s buildings. Now that’s cool.
Transport
The city is currently a hodgepodge of sliced-up streets and roads that lead to frustration. However, rail and waterways are on the cards and the LRT (Light Rail Transit) could be with us by 2014. A metro system, similar to Dubai’s, is also in the pipeline. It’s rumoured a rail link between the country’s two biggest cities is also in development, but for now it remains a little too far down the line – you’ll need 2030 vision to see it.
For Louvre and money
The Louvre Abu Dhabi will be something new, something unique. That’s the message coming from the museum’s curatorial team.
Judging by the scale of the project it is not short on ambition. In terms of subject matter and period, exhibitions range from 100,000 BCE up to the present day, covering everything from armour to fine art.
The works that went on display at a pre-show in Emirates Palace in July 2009 were no less than a manifesto – a declaration of intent. A sixth-century Chinese white marble Buddha from the Northern Qi Dynasty faced Bellini’s 15th-century ‘Madonna and Child’, just across from a 14th century Qur’an. The message is clear: this is not a mini-Louvre, or – dare we say it – a franchise, but a blending of Eastern and Western cultures.
But, as the Manets, Bellinis and Mondrians go back into storage and the first bricks in Jean Nouvel’s ambitious building are laid, one question remains unanswered: can they pull it off? Certainly, if they do, Abu Dhabi will have one of the greatest art museums in the world.
