Abu Dhabi Corniche Beach
Location Abu Dhabi, UAE | Client Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council | Architects Brune Jatsch Partners | Size 4 km | Status In Planning | Tags Parks and Civic Spaces, Public Realm and Infrastructure, Climate Change
The Abu Dhabi Corniche Beach is located on the North West end of Abu Dhabi Island. The project comprises the existing beach and new reclaimed beaches comprising a total of over 4 kilometers length of Promenade, park and sandy beach. The interface with the main Corniche Road, Scenic Boulevard, proposed marine transport nodes, Corniche Park and the edge of the City were important factors to consider during the Concept Design stage.
Working closely with the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, Martha Schwartz Partners has been tasked with the restoring the Corniche as the landmark of the city, and as a sustainable model for future generations. Key challenges addressed in the design process included how to organize the beach and promenade so that it provides multiple options for occupation and flexibility for seasonal use and for different times of the day; accommodate the heavily programmed mix including changing rooms, snack bars, restaurants, beach clubs, bike trails, sports areas and children’s play areas both for private and public use; maximise the visual connections back into the city and out to the sea, and to mitigate the impact of the busy road using a raised landscape terrain to allow views and provide seclusion for beach users.
The Corniche Beach is the major land mark as you arrive by plane and the prominent foreground to the City skyline. The landscape gesture is important to provide a connection back to the Corniche Park and to create a unique identity for the City. As the total length of beach is over 4 kilometers in length, the design uses a meandering pattern language weave its way down the stretch of the beach. The ‘Meander’ promenade orchestrates a multiplicity of spaces, rooms and experiences, so that one can claim a space to picnic, sunbath, play and read and still be inside the city and on the beach and takes users on a journey of exploration through a shaded landscape of vantage points to sea and city, leading down to beach-side plazas, sports areas and beaches.
