History of a Sharjah landmark
BY MONA EL MOUSFY
The Flying Saucer is a Sharjah landmark and an icon of the era’s futuristic vision. It sits at the intersection of multiple residential areas, Dasman, Ghubaibah, Yarmouk, and Ramla, overlooking what was previously referred to as “The Flying Saucer Roundabout.” Likely built between 1974 and 1976 (based on aerial archives), facing the entrance to the British camp, for a long time it remained an isolated structure.
The building has a unique and relatively simple silhouette defined by a circular footprint topped by a central circular dome. V-shaped angled pillars mark the triangular glazing that surrounds it. A star-shaped canopy projects beyond the façade giving it its unique character.
During this period the government was relocating families from older coastal neighbourhoods to the newly developed Dasman and surrounding neighbourhoods. The Flying Saucer undoubtedly stands in contrast to its surroundings, and particularly to the mosque next to it, also built in the 70s. Over the years the site has undergone substantial urban transformations. It currently sits on the corner of Sheikh Zayed Street and Al Wahda Street, both congested multi-lane roads. The architect is unknown, but the space-age influences of Western 60s-70s pop culture and those of Brutalist architecture of the same period are evident.
Prior to its opening, advertisements in local newspapers used the metaphor of the Flying Saucer to set the tone for the project’s futuristic ambition. A 1978 ad in Al Khaleej Times teases, along with a futuristic abstract drawing, that “The Flying Saucer will be soon landing in Sharjah.” An advertisement in Gulf News announces “Space Age Shopping comes to Sharjah” and lists what a visitor can treat himself to at the restaurant: “authentic French and Italian food, freshly made pizza, spaghetti, homemade French ice-creams, pastries, croissants freshly made at the patisserie.” This one-stop-shop included a restaurant, newsstand, tobacconist, gift shop, patisserie, and delicatessen. French patissier Gerard Reymond ran the store before establishing his café in Dubai in the early 1980s.
Despite architectural and interior transformations made by changing occupants, the Flying Saucer never lost its identity and formal features. Most people recall it as the Al Maya Lal’s Supermarket (1988-1997) with a pharmacy (Life Pharmacy) added to it as an independent annex towards the adjacent gas station.
I first visited the Flying Saucer in 2002, when it housed a Sharjah Co-operative Society Supermarket (1997-2008), right after my arrival as a faculty member at the American University of Sharjah, College of Architecture, Art and Design. Intrigued by the architecture, I wondered how it landed there and was deceived by its interior crammed with display shelves.
My most vivid recollection of the Flying Saucer’s interior is during its occupation by Al Taza restaurant (2008 to 2015). The annex was connected to the interior; wood and glass partitions were built in the now-semispherical public area of the restaurant to provide family sections. A white false ceiling completely hid the concrete dome from the inside. The peripheral structural pillars were clad with bright orange aluminium panels, hiding all the concrete columns to the outside, and signifying a new beginning through the erasure of ‘70s Modern connotations. From 2008 until 2010, access to the area was severed due to the construction of Al Wahda bridge, which now overlooks the plot, replacing the historical roundabout. The flyover’s transformation of the site may have triggered the decision to clad the columns with bright colours, to restore the visual supremacy of the Flying Saucer, although at the expense of erasing an important architectural aspect.
In 2015, as Architecture Consultant for the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), my engagement with the Flying Saucer became more intimate. The Sharjah government had acquired it as a venue for the Foundation and first used it for Sharjah Biennial 12. An Egyptian artist, Hassan Khan, created a site-specific installation, UFO! UFO?, in collaboration with Andeel, one of Egypt’s best-known cartoonists. Two billboards punctuated the passerby’s changing perspective with cartoons that used humour as social critique. Inside, the artist introduced coloured light filters on the façade as a mediator between the internal and external experience of the building as a monument.
A year later, SAF undertook a temporary renovation of the building in preparation for the exhibition, 1980-Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi and presented by the National Pavilion UAE la Biennale di Venezia at the 56th International Art Exhibition, 2015. The building was stripped of its exterior cladding and interior elements, ceiling and partitions, fully revealing its 7.3-metre-high dome and impressive structure. Eight columns support the dome. Sixteen peripheral spaces, defined by concrete beams running overhead, fan around the central space. The V-shaped pillars are tapered and tilted, creating a complex three-dimensional structural grid arrayed in a circle and creating a fully glazed façade that gives a 360-degree view of the surroundings. A 16-point cantilevered canopy extends beyond the façade and is partially merged into the annex structure. Cleared from all partitions, the annex opened up into the Flying Saucer, acting as a temporary threshold for the exhibition. A new concrete floor complemented the concrete materiality of the building. While the multilayered geometric complexity can prove challenging for dense exhibitions, the diaphanous spatial quality of the cleared Flying Saucer interior is in harmony with fluid and airy exhibitions such as Robert Breer’s 2017 retrospective Time Flies.
The Flying Saucer shows the adaptability and resilience of an iconic building that has undergone layers of changes and transformations.
Mona El Mousfy is Architecture Consultant for the Sharjah Art Foundation. She founded her research-based studio, SpaceContinuum, in 2014.
