ABSTRACT
The first decade of the 21st century embraced gargantuan architectural and urban scale in Abu Dhabi, introducing the currently accepted hyper-modernism' direction into built form in city. This chapter investigates the particularities and ways in which these dynamic inter-relationships, which can be seen as urban thresholds', have impacted upon Abu Dhabi's physical evolution. It discovers how forces of globalism influenced changes in the traditional delineation of social space, the private versus the public, and the introduction of pseudo-traditional Islamic principles in urban design and architecture. Today the Abu Dhabi Emirate is the largest of the seven Emirate states, since it includes Abu Dhabi Island and numerous smaller islands nearby along with regions to the west and east on the mainland. Large projects such as the Grand Mosque showcase the city's desire to portray bold architecture that reflects the country's Islamic religion, while at the same time symbolising the desirable institutional power for both the royal family and ordinary UAE nationals.
