Building Sharjah reveals how modern architecture unfurled across the United Arab Emirates'
third-largest city. An oil discovery in 1972 positioned Sharjah as one of the world's final
cities shaped by transformative fortune. In the footsteps of Kuwait Riyadh and Dubai Sharjah
faced a metamorphosis: either one that repeated the past's mistakes or one that reimagined how
wealth can build a city. Sharjah's potential enticed an international cast of experts to create
a bold new city. As their projects begin to vanish this book preserves them through unseen
photographs and recovered documents. New writing chronicles how local and arriving residents
arranged the designed concrete environment into a home. Beyond just a local artifact this
book examines the confident promises made by global practices of urbanization.
