ABSTRACT
The very condition of transience may thus allude to a certain detachment from one’s physical surroundings. The narrative of transformation offers a rare look into the mindset of Arabia’s citizens. The city becomes an echo of one’s inner struggle, its spaces and expression of transience and anomie. Cities have physical qualities which impact how people feel about ourselves and others. Abu Dhabi is at some level no different from any other modern metropolis. In the Gulf, and particularly in Abu Dhabi, there is a constant erasure of history and policies that promote homogeneity and frown upon any hint of disorder which would signify some sort of lived-in quality. At the heart of such inquiries is the notion that modern city life is characterized by anomie because it promotes individualism which is contrasted with a communal village life. A hotel for example is built to ‘bear no evidence of its existence within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
