Aldar Headquarters building

The Aldar Headquarters is the first fully circular building in the Middle East, a striking coin-shaped tower on the Al Raha waterfront between Abu Dhabi city and the airport. Completed in 2010 for the property developer Aldar, it has become one of the capital's most instantly recognisable modern landmarks and a favourite of photographers along the coast road.

Its form is as clever as it is bold. Two vast convex glass discs are held apart by a diagonal steel diagrid, creating a perfect circle some 110 metres across when seen from the front. The curved facade is a genuine feat of engineering, using thousands of individually shaped glass and steel panels to wrap the round profile smoothly, and the design collected several international awards for structural innovation.

The circle was chosen as a symbol of stability, unity and completeness, and the building deliberately breaks with the tall, tapering towers that dominate most Gulf skylines. Facing the marina at Al Raha Beach, it catches and reflects the sky and water differently through the day, appearing almost weightless and mirror-like from some angles and monolithic and solid from others.

It is an office headquarters rather than a visitor attraction, so there is no public interior access, but it is well worth seeing from outside. The best views are from the Al Raha waterfront promenade and the surrounding beachside development, where cafés and walkways look directly across to the disc. It sits right on the main highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, making it an easy photo stop, particularly striking in the low, warm light of early morning or late afternoon when the glass turns gold. A small marina and a run of waterfront cafés opposite give somewhere to sit and take in the improbable circular form.