Lina Ahmad

Research

Thesis

In-Betweenness: Hybrid Ephemerality within Abu Dhabi's Architecture and Urban Fabric

Abu Dhabi city has undergone rapid urban expansion in the past four decades. The PhD candidacy seeks to explore 'ultra-light' user-generated, human-scaled urbanisms in Abu Dhabi Emirate, emphasizing the accessibility, intimacy, immediacy, and light construction, along with the memories and feelings the spaces they relate to evoke. These spaces, born out of necessity or cultural practices, represent the symbiotic relationship between the transient nature of their construction and the enduring impact they leave on the city's social fabric and collective memory. They echo the region's nomadic transitionary lifestyle of the past and resonate with the recent inhabitants' multiculturalism and tapestry of traditions, thus encapsulating the diverse social identity of Abu Dhabi.

How can studying Abu Dhabi’s diverse socio-cultural and economic architectural landscape reveal hidden micro-urban informal occupations?

The PhD sits at the intersections between urbanism, architecture, and interiority. It aims to uncover the richness of everyday life in Abu Dhabi within an archetypical space of the UAE. It will research the urban settings that transcend traditional architectural boundaries, thus advocating for shifting the focus from affluent, durable structures to explore more nuanced, socio-economically diverse fabrics that often remain overshadowed. An initial investigation has identified four typologies: Structures where occupants' activities mask and overtake its architecture; Unofficial ephemeral settings in modern Emirati Villas; User-generated spaces by long-term Arab expatriates in low-rise residential areas; and Lower-class social urban contexts in industrial and rural areas. The spaces' tectonics, appearances, materiality, spatial setting, and object selection all insinuate their light-ephemeral nature.

The informal occupations are hybrid. They evolve in response to seasonal change, regional and social contexts, usage patterns, and inhabitants' needs. The research will investigate the relationships and tensions between spatial, material, and social fabrics. The methodology will draw on innovative techniques from architecture and digital humanities and participant observation work from the social science field. Observational walking will be used as a method and framework to discover, identify, map, document, and draw connections between various unofficial inhabitation narratives. For data collection, the intention is to utilize innovative techniques, including time-lapse photography, photomontages, collages, documentary filmmaking, interviews, 3D-scanning, point-cloud, GIS, and sensors to capture the subtle transformations. Methods from creative practice fields encompassing film, digital, virtual, and immersive installations will be used to map, study, document, and analyze these informal spaces. 

The theoretical background delves into the history of small-scale urban interventions, drawing from scholars like Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and Lewis Mumford, examining the incremental change and its correlation to the overall urban fabric. Other references include Fran Tonkiss’s narration on the social process of city-making and the close relationship between the social and physical shaping of urban environments, Suzanne Hall’s theories on multiculturism within the contemporary city, and Richard Sennett's notions on introducing qualities of interiority in public spaces within the open city.

The PhD candidacy intends to draw from the specificity of the UAE context, focusing on the informal makeshift of place-making within the Abu Dhabi Emirate while also drawing from and speaking to the present global phenomenon of urban interiority and hybrid unordered inhabitation.