Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi

This guide to the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi opens at the children's library, where a channel carved like a dry riverbed winds across three floors carrying books instead of water. It traces the site's earlier life as the ground beside Qasr Al Hosn, the coral and stone watchtower that once guarded the island's only freshwater well, and the 1973 competition that brought architect Hisham Ashkouri's fortress-like design for a national library and theatre. In the courtyard, look up at the pierced concrete screens breaking the sunlight into patterns on the ground.