What may be missing in tangible heritage is made up fully by the new iconic architecture that is not only bagging lots of entries in the Guinness Book of World Records, but it is igniting the world’s interest. Setting aside future projects, here are the top five most admired structures in Abu Dhabi, picked by Silvia Radan.

CAPITAL GATE

It’s not finished yet, but when it will, by the end of this year, the Capital Gate will shade off the fame of the12th century Tower of Pisa, as it inclines almost five times more than the Italian stone structure.

Owned and developed by Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC), adjacent to its location on the edge of the city, there is nothing usual, not to mention symmetrical, about the Capital Gate. It looks a bit like a tornado or a rising wave, ready to collapse any minute.

Built to lean 18 degrees westwards, all is well and safe about the building, but it did take a lot of brainstorming and hard work for engineers and designers to make it stand up and, as Shaikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of ADNEC, put it, “it was a true design-and-build project from the very start”.

The hard work and bold concept paid off in more ways than one, as the Capital Gate was certified this summer the World’s Furthest Leaning Manmade Tower by Guinness World Records.

So what’s inside the 35-storey building? Well, floors two to 16 will be office space, floors 18 onwards will house the 189-room five-star Hyatt Capital Gate hotel, while floors one and 17 are for plant rooms.

Due to the unique design, each room is different, as are each pane of façade glass and every interior angle.

An outdoor swimming pool will be located on the 19^th floor and a cantilevered tea lounge will overhang the tower’s exterior, 80 metres above the ground.

If you wonder what is that trail hanging from the 19^th floor down, it is a distinctive stainless steel “splash”, which, apart from being pretty, is meant to eliminate over 30 per cent of the sun’s heat before it reaches the building.

EMIRATES PALACE

From Big Red Bus tours to the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority’s London, Australian and other oversees offices, Emirates Palace is a top recommendation for any tourist coming to the city.

Yes, in true Arab style, it is grand and it is opulent, but all in good taste. It stands out at the western side of the Corniche, like something coming out of Harun Al Rashid’s world, a poetry in concrete.

The building was designed by Wimberly, Allison, Tong and Goo architects, an international firm specialising in luxury hotels. It all started in 2001 and, five years and Dh 11 billion later, the palace was opened. Before the Marina Bay Sands was recently completed in Singapore, Emirates Palace was the world’s most expensive hotel ever built.

Managed by Kempinski Group, Emirates Palace is far more than a hotel. Michelin star chefs, art galleries, an amphitheatre, some of the world’s most famous pearls, a rather unique gold coin ATM machine, the occasional camel have all found temporary or permanent home here.

In the 850,000 square metres of floor space, there are 114 domes rising to 60 metres. Overall, the hotel has 302 rooms and 92 suites, with the topmost seventh floor reserved for six rulers’ suites, which are only offered to top-level officials visiting the UAE.

Some of the suites offered are furnished in gold and marble. The main central area houses an expansive marble floor, balconies and a large patterned dome above, picked out in gold, but the shiny metal was initial meant to reflect not only the region’s rich hospitality, but also Arabia’s desert colours

ALDAR HQ

It’s been called the disk, the coin, the full moon, the button etc. It was inspired by a pearl. It is the world’s only spherical building. Just completed this summer, Aldar HQ has just become the latest landmark of Abu Dhabi.

Located at Al Dana end of Al Raha beach, Aldar’s 11 kilometre-long waterfront development just outside the city, the massive, striking building is visible from miles around, as one enters or exits Abu Dhabi.

The top 23^rd floor is about 110 metres above ground and spans across 24 metres, but in the middle the width reaches 36 metres, making its diametre an impressive 124 metres! The fact that it stands up is close to a miracle made possible by MZ and Partners architects, who used in the building 5,700 tonnes of steel and 25,000 cubic metres of concrete. The glass area is a whopping 25,000 cubic metres, and for the whole thing it was necessary to excavate 90,000 cubic metres of sand.

It is also said (by a UK building magazine) that the cost was in the vicinity of Dh 5.6 billion.

SHAIKH ZAYED MOSQUE

By now, most of us know the fact and figures of the Shaikh Zayed Mosque, as it is, for good reasons, the talk of the town the world over. What is not so commonly known, though, is that its design was inspired by Mughal and Moorish mosque architecture, especially the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore and the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca.

Nicknamed the White or the Grand Mosque, this most important landmark of Abu Dhabi was the much beloved project of Shaikh Zayed. He never saw it finished, though, as the years of planning and construction pushed the opening to Ramadan 2007.

It was worth it, though. Said to be the fourth largest in the world, the Shaikh Zayed Mosque is large enough to accommodate 40,000 worshippers.

The building is flanked by four minarets rising to 115 metres high and no less than 57 domes cover the exterior. The sheer scale of the structure is all the more impressive as it is all done in white marble. The courtyard itself, measuring 17,000 square metres, is paved with floral marble designs, some of which reminding of India’s Taj Mahal.

Indoors, mosque decorators managed a few world records, one of which being the world’s largest carpet (5627 square metres), hand woven by an army of workers (around 1,200 weavers, 20 technicians, and 30 workers) and designed by Iranian artist Ali Khaliqi, using 35 tonnes of wool and 12 tonnes of cotton.

Rumour has it that when brought from Iran, the delivery van arrived at night and simply dumped the carpet at the gates of the mosque, only to be found accidently the next day.

The other rare object is the world’s largest chandelier. In fact, the mosque holds seven chandeliers, imported from Germany, all copper and gold-plated, but the largest one, at 10 metres diameter and 15 metres height, is covered in Swarovski crystals.

MAQTA BRIDGE

The Abu Dhabi island is separated from the mainland by a shallow channel of water, which, in the troublesome past, was a strategic advantage, but it also meant an obstruction to trade and transport. Only a few decades ago, the only way to go in and out of the city was to wait for the low tide and simply walk or ride the camel across the wet sand.

The story of Al Maqta Bridge, meaning “Crossing Point”, starts from those days, when, with oil discovery imminent, a proper link with the mainland was becoming essential.

Thus in the early 1950’s Petroleum Development, later to become Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company, paid £1000 for a narrow causeway to be built across the channel. Until 1968 it remained the only way in and out of Abu Dhabi.

Soon after he became ruler of the emirate, Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan realised the need to improve both communications and transport with the western and eastern regions of Abu Dhabi, so one of his first decisions was to turn the causeway to a bridge.

Consult firms were chosen to design Al Maqta Bridge and in 1968 the work was done, which also included new approach roads and dredging to use the channel at all stages of tides.

With nothing but sands and water around, the building of Abu Dhabi’s first bridge was neither easy nor cheap, the final bill being a thousand times higher than the one for the causeway - one million pounds!

With its beautiful green-blue arches and wide lanes, Al Maqta Bridge remains a major landmark of Abu Dhabi and a reminder of the distant past, as the small watch-tower in the middle of the channel is the only standing “participant” in the last battle to take place on the island, back in 1856.

· —silvia@khaleejtimes.com