interACT Part 1 Project 2025 Shefin Shaji Abu Dhabi University | UAE Abu Dhabi, known for its bold architecture and rapid growth, stands as a symbol of innovation and prosperity. However, a key challenge remains: the city’s urban landscape is largely shaped by vehicles, limiting the potential for truly connected, pedestrian-friendly spaces. interACT explores the potential for community-centric interventions of various scales within the city. Adopting an experimental approach, the project’s concept emerged through close engagement with the site and draws inspiration from plug-in structures, parasitic architecture, and modular systems. In line with the UAE’s declaration of 2025 as the “Year of Community,” interACT envisions architecture not as a fixed object, but as a living infrastructure that supports interaction, learning, and rest for both locals and travellers. Instead of seeing spaces as static, it explores new possibilities: lifting them above the street, weaving them underground, attaching ‘plug-ins’ to in-between spaces, and creating structures that evolve over time. The chosen site is a bustling downtown block, adjacent to the Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station, a modernist heritage landmark, which this project seeks to re-activate and complement through thoughtful urban regeneration. Ultimately, the project aims to transform the city into a pedestrian-first environment, one that prioritizes community, connectivity, and sustainability over car-dominated infrastructure. Tutor(s) Nadia Mounajjed