Construction of Sabla: The Palm-leaf Shelters in the Middle East. Constructions built of date palm have been in use for around 7,000–8,000 years. Sabla: The Palm-leaf Shelters was conceived as a contemporary, modular gridshell construction that offers an example of how traditional technologies can be adapted for use today, and scaled up or down to provide for a variety of applications in over 46 countries of the United Arab Emirates.. Image © Dr Sandra Piesik