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The ‘master’ planner of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain

ABU DHABI – The man who ‘shaped’ the cities of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. This epithet sits pretty on Dr Abdul Rahman Makhlouf, the Director of Town Planning Department of the emirate from 1968 to 1976.

An engineer, Dr Makhlouf was appointed by the late Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to plan the cities of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain — the streets, marketplaces, locations of buildings, the infrastructure etc. Needless to say, Dr Makhlouf did a great job.

Once the mission was completed, he decided to start his own work venture. Thus was born his Abu Dhabi-based company — Arabi Bureau of Architecture.

For all his achievements, he owes a great deal to his sterling educational background.

Dr Makhlouf, who comes from Egypt, graduated in Architecture Engineering from Cairo University in the year 1950. After that he went on to complete his post-graduate studies in Munich, Germany, where he later obtained a Ph.D. in Town Planning.

“I was lucky to be studying architecture in Germany at that time. The American raids in the last year of World War II had completely destroyed the country. So this was the phase of rebuilding for Germany,” he recollects.

Dr Makhlouf first came to the UAE in 1968 as an expert at the UN Technical Support Office in the Middle East. “I was supposed to plan the city in the deserts. It was a tall task. Few could have imagined the eventual shape that this land was going to take in future. It had to be a miracle.”

He says the country owes its miraculous development to the late Shaikh Zayed, who gave his everything for the sake of the country.

“History shows that towns take hundreds of years to take shape. But the approach of Shaikh Zayed changed all that. He made history by leading this phenomenal development in such a short span of time,” Dr Makhlouf says.

“During the eight years that I worked with Shaikh Zayed, I saw him personally supervising the implementation of the plans,” Dr Makhlouf reminiscences, adding that is the hallmark of great men.

Dr Makhlouf believes in the principle that human beings were created to work, and worship God. “The mastering of the work is more important than the work itself, because we must be faithful to what we are doing. This is the secret of success that I learnt while working with the visionary Shaikh Zayed,” he notes.

“The late Shaikh Zayed had a vision, and a plan. The UAE is still benefiting from and will continue to benefit from his vision,” Dr Makhlouf says.

Dr Makhlouf is proud of the fact that The Economist magazine has cited Abu Dhabi as the best city in the Arab world with regard to the infrastructure, buildings and roads. For, he has played a crucial role too. As the master planner.