Liminal: The Curious Case of the Modern Emirati Hotel

Atheer Al Mulla

The Bartlett School of Architecture

Supervisors: Professor Iain Borden & Dr Tania Sengupta

From the arrival of the first branded ‘modern hotel’ in UAE – the Hilton Al Ain, which opened in 1971 – and the contemporary thriving luxury-hotel scenes of Dubai and Abu Dhabi – orchestrated by Burj Al Arab and the Emirates Palace Hotels – this research will address the curious case of the modern Emirati hotel.

This research explores the role of the modern hotel as a significant spatial and cultural experience of the post-oil modern era. This experience, situated at the junction between notions of ‘embodiment’ and ‘liminality’, make the modern Emirati hotel a ‘third cultural space’ where, in an exploratory scenario, a succession of ceremonial events take place. A modern Emirati rite of passage (a wedding) is performed within the premises of a luxury institution. The protagonist is the female body of the bride engaged in a ritualistic performance, framed within the postulates of modern architecture. In this hybrid ‘third space’ that defies traditions, a culturally-conditioned body negotiates her existence between the private and the public, the sacred and the mundane, the ‘threshold’ of her wedding night and the ‘liminality’ of a space where she is only a fleeting guest. As a series of juxtaposed spatial real-life wedding experiences, this research is rooted in the traditions of architectural phenomenology, cultural theory, and anthropology.

The existing literature on modern architecture in the United Arab Emirates often showcases the hotel as only a fancy façade: a mundane commercial space devoid of meaning. Conversely, this doctoral research explores the modern Emirati hotel beyond its heavily commercial image focusing on its role as a space that has influenced new social and cultural attitudes within the Emirati ceremonial landscape.

Image: Infinite Corridor, The Dorchester, London (Photograph: Atheer Al Mulla, 2019)