Roberto Fabbri: Nomadic Narratives.Architectural Transplants

Roberto Fabbri

Roberto Fabbri is an architect and associate professor at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. His research interest focuses on urban development, architecture, and heritage in Gulf cities. As a United Nations Development Programme consultant, he contributed to heritage rehabilitation projects in Kuwait and is currently a member of the Modern Heritage Technical Committee in the UAE. He co-authored the double volume “Modern Architecture Kuwait 1949-89” (2016 and 2017), “Urban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf” (2021), and “Impatient Cities of the Gulf” (2022). In 2024, Roberto is the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture Fellow at MIT.

Abstract The talk explores Abu Dhabi's ongoing urban transformation, focusing on Saadiyat Island’s cultural plans and the country's strategies for a post-oil economy. In the early 2000s, Saadiyat offered an investment opportunity for upscale residential land and a tourist attraction anchored by renowned museum architecture. Later, the project evolved beyond shaping a new urban fabric, now defining the city's brandscape and contributing to the national narrative. While retracing the trajectories of recent architectures on the island, the talk explores the notion of context, challenging the idea of a tabula rasa often associated with Gulf cities. Instead, it studies preexisting conditions and narratives and how architects, clients, and developers choose to embrace or deliberately ignore them.