Shatha Al Mulla

You cannot build culture. You have to mean it.

The core message of the session is that culture cannot be imposed on a city through buildings alone; it has to be lived, produced, protected, and made meaningful by people. The host framed culture as visible in museums, public art, and architecture, but also in traditions, stories, gathering places, and identities formed over time. As cities change, grow, and expand, the session asked how they can welcome new ideas without losing the cultural identity that makes them distinct. A short introductory video led into a keynote by His Highness Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi, UAE Minister of Culture, who argued that cities become meaningful when residents feel belonging and connection, not merely when they build advanced infrastructure or strong economies. Sheikh Salem positioned culture as both a guardian of memory and a driver of future growth. He described the UAE’s effort to preserve modern architectural heritage through a national policy and national register documenting post-1960s development-era buildings. He cited 10 nationally listed sites, including Union House in Dubai, the Islamic Institute Complex, UAE University in Al Ain, and Al Qassimi School in Sharjah, alongside more than 170 architectural heritage sites listed on local registers within a year of the policy’s implementation. He also connected culture to sustainable urban development by highlighting the UAE’s cultural and creative industries and its membership in the UNESCO Creative City Network, with Abu Dhabi designated for music, Dubai for design, and Sharjah for crafts and folk art. The panel then expanded the discussion from policy to the lived qualities of cultural cities. Shatha Al Mulla distinguished between “hard infrastructure,” such as museums and concert halls, and “soft infrastructure,” meaning habits, norms, behaviors, and the things people make in shared spaces. She emphasized that culture is inherited through forms like traditional poetry and songs, but also produced today in contemporary creative spaces such as design studios. For her, cities become culturally meaningful when people generate culture themselves, creating belonging, attachment, and a character that makes a place irreplaceable rather than merely affordable, convenient, or secure. Adrian Lahoud described great cultural cities through intensity, density, and complexity, arguing that no single cultural model works everywhere. Instead, thriving cultural ecosystems depend on diverse institutions, grassroots activity, design practices, galleries, museums, and channels that allow talent to mature across levels. Bjarke Ingels added authenticity and invitation: cities should evolve from deep roots in climate, geography, biology, heritage, and native culture, while designing public buildings and spaces so they benefit more than their primary users. Bill Bragin began by proposing abundance—of stories, perspectives, and diversity—as a defining quality, using the UAE’s population from 200 countries and the clustering of cultural institutions on Saadiyat Island as examples. The provided transcript ends during this part of the panel, before the full session conclusion is available.