Kalba Ice Factory

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An abandoned industrial ruin in the southern outskirts of the city, Kalba Ice Factory was built in the 1970s, the brutalist concrete structure, enclosed by the saw-tooth silhouette of a corrugated metal roof, was once a fish feed mill and ice storage facility. It was acquired by Sharjah Art Foundation in 2015 and used as a venue since Sharjah Biennial 12. The factory was recently retrofitted by Lima-based 51-1 Arquitectos for exhibition purposes as well as temporary residence facilities, a pavilion-style restaurant and a shaded walkway.

The area is next to Kalba Creek (Khor) and the Al Qurm Nature Reserve, a mangrove and wildlife sanctuary, home to rare bird species, sea turtles and mammals. Kalba is an exclave of Sharjah on the Gulf of Oman, flanked by the Emirate of Fujairah in the south and a second Sharjah exclave, Khorfakkan, in the east. According to the archaeological record, Kalba has been a site of human settlement since 2,500 BCE, its historical layers suggesting early contact with Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and the northern Arabian Gulf. Briefly under Portuguese colonial control in the seventeenth century, Kalba was recognised by the British as a sheikhdom in 1937 before it was integrated with Sharjah in 1951.