Painstaking restoration of historic district proceeds slowly

The Municipality has completed 10 per cent of the restoration of historic buildings in the Al Shindagha area. The project, which began in 1981, involves restoring 60 historically significant buildings by December 2008.

Experts are using old photographs and paintings to capture the authenticity of the buildings and ensure that they reflect the local heritage. Rashaad Mohammed Buhash, head of the Historic Buildings Section, said, "There are many children who haven't seen the old way of life. This project will let them see how their ancestors lived as they shouldn't lose touch with the past.

"It will help preserve the culture and traditions of the country, and also promote tourism. We have seen an increase in the number of tourists after the restoration work began two decades ago."

The first building to be rebuilt was Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's house in 1981. "In 1996 we rebuilt a few mosques and the diving and heritage villages," Buhash said. "Then the Sheikh Obaid bin Thani house was worked on and converted into a museum of local architecture.

"Al Ahmadiyah school was restored and also converted into a museum showing how education has evolved over the past century." The latest building to be restored is the Sheikh Juma bin Maktoum Al Maktoum House, originally built in the first quarter of the last century, which will be used as a specialised museum.

"Sheikh Juma was Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's brother, so the house is very important as it belonged to the ruling family of Dubai," Buhash said. The Shindagha area has a lot of historic buildings, including those which belonged to the ruling family, because of its strategic location.

"It is near the entrance to the Dubai Creek, so it was extremely significant when the primary source of income was trade at the ports and pearling," Buhash said. "Work on Sheikh Juma's house began in April and will be completed by December 2001. It will have two storeys, with 11 rooms on the first level and three on the ground floor. There will be an eastern and southern entrance to the house for men and women respectively.

"It is based on the traditional plan which we created after spending months talking to old people from the area who remembered how it looked. We also studied old photographs and paintings of the area.

"It is a long process. For every building we spend about three to four months just gathering information. It then goes into a design and planning stage, followed by the implementation stage. "The Sheikh Juma house has a budget of over Dh2 million for the entire process."

The houses are being restored with local coral, with gypsum and lime used as mortar. The main structure of the roof is made from Chandelwood from Zanzibar, covered with palm fronds. "The windows and doors were made of teak from India, but we're currently sourcing it from Burma," Buhash said.