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Salama, Ashraf M. and Wiedmann, Florian (2013) Evolving of on the Arabian Peninsula. Open House International, 38 (4). pp. 4- 5. ISSN 0168-2601 , This version is available at http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/49928/ Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to Strathprints administrator: [email protected] University, Doha, Qatar Environment Interactions forsubscribers and gives limited access for non-s edonthe following Architectural index lists: RIBA Scopus and all products of THOMSON ISI index bases, Open House International has been selected for cove G T o h C 2 u e p 4 e m s e t e E I ontents d n s 7 s i 7 t u o h e r : :

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VOL. 39.NO.1 2014: OPEN ISSUE Covering:ISSUE39.NO.1Climate-AdaOPENVOL.2014: Florian Wiedmann, Velina Mirincheva and Ashraf M. Salama M. Ashraf and VelinaWiedmann, Mirincheva Florian Salama M. Ashraf and Wiedmann Florian Velina Mirincheva, d THE OF MANAMA'S URBAN PERIPHERY URBAN VERTICALIZATIONMANAMA'S THE OF Ashraf M. Salama, Fatma Khalfani, and Ahood Al-Maimani Ahood and FatmaKhalfani, Salama, M. Ashraf FatmaKhalfani and Al-Maimani, Ahood Salama, M. Ashraf e PUBLIC MEGA PROJECTS IN DOHA'S HISTORICCENTRE DOHA'S IN PROJECTS MEGA PUBLIC THE SPATIALTHE DEVELOPMENTBUSINESS POTENTIALS OF c TRACING THE EVOLUTION OF URBANISM IN KUWAITIN URBANISM EVOLUTIONOF THE TRACING , ARCLIB,, AVERY and EKISTICS. Open House Internatio URBAN TRANSFORMATION IN THE OF RIYADH:OF CITY THE TRANSFORMATIONIN URBAN e ubscribersat www.openhouse-int.com Arabian Peninsula , Department of Architecture and Urban , Co URBAN RECONFIGURATION AND REVITALISATION:RECONFIGURATIONAND URBAN m IN DOHA: THE CASE OF THE WEST BAYWEST THE OF CASE THE DOHA: IN DISTRICTS rage by EBSCO Publishing, the ELSEVIER Bibliographi b THE URBAN TRANSFORMATION OF ABU DHABI ABU TRANSFORMATIONOF URBAN THE SSCI, A&HCI,CC/S&BS and CC/A&H The journal is also ARABIAN PENINSULA INTOSKYSCRAPERPENINSULA CITIES ARABIAN e OF DOHA THROUGH COGNITIVE MAPPING COGNITIVE THROUGH DOHA OF r 2 MANUFACTURING THE IMAGE OF DOHA: DOHA: MANUFACTURINGOF IMAGE THE 0 Ashraf M. Salama and Florian Wiedmann Florian and Salama M. Ashraf Dynamics of Global Flows, Multiple Modernities, and 1 A STUDY OF PLURAL URBAN IDENTITY URBAN PLURAL OF STUDY A 3 E v - M FROM SOUQS TO EMPORIUMS: SOUQS FROM Kheir Al-Kodmany and Mir M. Ali M. Mir and Al-Kodmany Kheir a i l : [email protected] Deconstruction, Housing Co-operatives, Conversions,Sustainable Urbanism. Mashary A. Al Naim Al A. Mashary Yasser Elsheshtawy Florian Wiedmann Florian Ashraf M. Salama M. Ashraf riy Nrh yrs DPU Cyprus. Northersity, llege of Engineering, Qatar YasserMahgoub EDITORIAL: o ptive Behaviours,ptive l . 3 People- nalisonline 8 c Database ITY n o 101 90 80 70 58 47 37 27 16 list- 6 5 . 4 1

open house international Vol.38 No.4, December 2013. Unveiling Contemporary Urban Transformations in the Arabian Peninsula...... Editorial Evolving Urbanism of Cities on the cities on the Arabian Peninsula, emphasis is placed A rabi an P eni nsula on key transformational aspects relevant to five important cities that include Doha, Abu-Dhabi, Covering about three million square kilometres, the Riyadh, Kuwait, and Manama. Arabian Peninsula is mainly a diverse landscape of Building on the efforts currently undertaken hot humid sandy coasts, arid desert, sparse scrub- by the guest editors of this issue as part of a land, stone-strewn plains, and lush oases, as well research project funded by Qatar National as rocky and sometimes fertile mountain highlands Research Fund (QNRF) under the National Priorities and valleys. In addition to the indigenous local Research Program (NPRP), five papers focus on the populace, the population is composed of large city of Doha as one of the important rapidly grow- groups of expatriate Arabs and Asians, in addition ing cities on the Peninsula (Wiedmann, Salama, to smaller groups of Europeans and North Thierstein, 2012). Each of the five papers discusses

Ashraf M. Salama and Florian Wiedmann Florian and Salama M. Ashraf Americans; these expatriate groups represent a specific issues related to architecture and urbanism major workforce community of skilled professionals of the city. In the first paper, Salama explores and semi-skilled or unskilled labourers from over image-making efforts in the city and introduces a sixty countries. The region’s contemporary econo- multi-layered critical discussion based on analyses my, dominated by the production of oil and natur- of the visual attributes of architecture and the way al gas has created unprecedented wealth, which in in which the city is portrayed in the printed media to turn has led to a momentous surge in intensive materialize a hub vision. Mirincheva, Wiedmann, infrastructural development and the construction of and Salama explore, in the second paper, the spa- new environments (Wiedmann, 2012). The ensuing tial development potentials of the West Bay as a impact of this fast track development on the built vital rising business in the city of Doha. In the environment, in conjunction with the continuous third paper, Wiedmann, Mirincheva, and Salama and seemingly frantic quest for establishing unique elaborate on how public initiatives are altering urban identities (Salama, 2012), is seen as a trig- existing urban structures and examine the extent to ger for introducing this special edition of Open which the spatial reconfiguration of the historic core rabian Peninsula. rabian House International. of the city contributes to major revitalisation objec- At the dawn of the new millennium, rulers, tives. In papers four and five, Salama, Khalfani, decision-makers, and top government officials and Al Maimani investigate key dynamics of the started to demonstrate a stronger and more atten- inhabitants in relation to the physical environment tive interest in architecture, urban development pro- of the city. Utilizing social research tech- jects and real estate investment; this concerted niques including cognitive and behavioural map- interest and attention have resulted in a new influ- ping, they offer an assessment of key urban nodes ential phase impacting on the development of relevant to the way in which inhabitants experience architecture and urbanism in the Arabian Peninsula the city and its urban spaces. (Salama and Wiedmann, 2013). Cities on the In paper six, Elsheshtawy presents a con- Arabian Peninsula are continuously witnessing dra- textualization of Abu Dhabi’s urban development matic twists and turns that represent a diverse array while identifying and examining the factors that of intents and attitudes (Salama, 2011). This can be influenced its urban growth. He offers a case study explained by a series of vibrant discussions, char- of the Central Market— also known as Abu acterised by a new unbiased openness, of the con- Dhabi’s World Trade Center, as an important urban 13. Editorial: Evolving Urbanism of Cities on the A the on Cities of Urbanism Evolving Editorial: 13. temporary condition of architecture and urbanism intervention project. Al Naim, in paper seven, offers in the Gulf region with its variety and plurality of a brief investigation of urban transformation of perspectives and interests. Riyadh from the beginning of the twentieth century “With their varied socio-physical, socio- until the present day with the aim of capturing the economic, socio-cultural, and socio-political pres- way in which inhabitants have perceived surround- ence, cities are always been highly differentiated ing urban environments and, in turn, the resulting spaces expressive of heterogeneity, diversity of impact on activities. In paper eight, activities, entertainment, excitement, and pleasure. Mahgoub traces the evolution of urbanism in the They have been (and still are) melting pots for the city of Kuwait and the associated forces that insti- formulation of and experimentation with new gated various urban shifts. Wiedmann, in paper philosophies and religious and social practices. nine, explores the city of Manama and how its Cities produce, reproduce, represent, and convey urban periphery has witnessed dramatic transfor- much of what counts today as culture, knowledge, mation, namely verticalization. In essence, he and ” (Salama and Wiedmann, 2013). examines the evolution of urban planning that Evidently this statement manifests the significance of resulted in the construction of high-rise buildings on studying cities. While this edition addresses several the city’s urban periphery by analysing urban devel- open house international Vol.38 No.4, December 20 December No.4, Vol.38 international house open 4 opment processes of key districts. The ending paper R EF ERENCES of this edition is introduced by Al Kodmany and Ali on how contemporary cities on the peninsula are SALAMA, A. M. 2011. Identity Flows: The Arabian Peninsula, being transformed by examining the role of sky- Emerging . In Luis Fernández-Galiano (ed.), Atlas scrapers in supporting place identity and how cities of the 21st Century - Africa and Middle East, on the peninsula keep importing urban giants and Fundación BBVA, Madrid, 175-221, exceptional buildings. The ten papers presented in this special SALAMA, A. M. 2012. Architectural Identity Demystified: Visual edition address critical issues and the challenges Voices from the Arab World, in P. Emmons, J. Lomholt, and J. cities on the Arabian Peninsula are facing to shape S. Hendrix (eds.), The Cultural Role of Architecture: a better urban future. These include the impact and Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, 175-195, characteristics of the contemporary global condi- Routledge, London.

tion and how it is currently shaping the urban envi- Wiedmann Florian and Salama M. Ashraf ronment of those cities, how architectural and SALAMA, A. M. and WIEDMANN, F. 2013. Demystifying urban identities are constructed through allegorical Doha: On Architecture and Urbanism in an Emerging City. representations that speak to the past and aspire to Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Surrey. the future by either rooting interventions into the real or the imagined past or by yielding to the tidal WIEDMANN, F. 2012. Post-oil Urbanism in the Gulf: New wave of globalization, and how such a condition is Evolutions in Governance and the Impact on Urban influencing the perception and experience of the Morphologies. SVH Verlag, Stuttgart. average citizen. While the discussions raised in this edition WIEDMANN, F., SALAMA, A. M. and THIERSTEIN, A. 2012. are important and inter-disciplinary in nature, they Urban Evolution Of The City Of Doha: An Investigation Into the do not offer blue prints or concrete panacea to cur- Impact of Economic Transformations on Urban Structures, in rent concerns or potential urban problems, as this JFA/METU: Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, 29(2),

is not the intent. The impetus here is to contribute to 35–61. Peninsula. rabian the advancement of knowledge in architecture and urbanism in a region that enjoys unique richness in its culture, economy, and geopolitical position while facing serious challenges due to its rapid urban growth. Indeed, the value of the papers presented in this volume lies in establishing a critical architec- tural and urban discourse that contributes to inter- national discussions while unveils urban transfor- mations of cities on the Arabian Peninsula at the first decade of the 21st century.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Partial support of this special issue is made through funds from the research project of the National A the on Cities of Urbanism Evolving Editorial: 13. Priorities Research Program, QNRF-Qatar National Research Fund (Project # NPRP 09 - 1083 - 6 – 023). The guest editors would like to thank our peer Author(s): reviewers of the papers included in this issue for their remarks and suggestions. Prof. Ashraf M. Salama Professor of Architecture and Urbanism Head, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning Qatar University Email: [email protected]

Dr. Florian Wiedmann Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Department of Architecture and Urban Planning Qatar University Email: [email protected] open house international Vol.38 No.4, December 20 December No.4, Vol.38 international house open 5