Metro Doha

by Agatino Rizzo

Doha, capital city of the Arab emirate of Qatar, has grown from a small, port city to a bustling capital region with global ambitions. Today almost 85% of Qatar’s total population (1.4 out of 1.7 million inhabitants) live in metropolitan Doha, while before 1971 (pre-independence) its total population was 30 times less. Blessed with generous oil and particularly gas reserves, since the 1970s the country has undertaken urban mega-projects and expensive land reclamations which have increased the built up area in the capital region by 60 times. In this article we review Doha’s past and current urban development, highlighting Qatar’s different urban phases. Also, by comparing Doha to Dubai, we investigate the impacts of Qatar’s “mega-projects agenda” on two important government-led developments: Education City and Mshereib Redevelopment.

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Conceiving transit space in Singapore/Johor

by Agatino Rizzo and John Glasson

Between Singapore and Johor Bahru (JB) about 30,000–50,000 people cross the Johor Strait during weekdays to enjoy better wages in Singapore; vice versa during the weekends Singaporeans enjoy the high purchasing value of the Singaporean dollar over Malaysian goods and entertainment. These cross-border dynamics affect many strata of the local social geography and, therefore, the economic dynamics of this region. Johor–Singapore is indeed a rapidly emerging transnational urban region in Southeast Asia. Recent plans are being implemented in Johor to move up the value chain from the industrial to the knowledge sector.Iskandar Malaysia is a vision which aims to reinvent JB as a centre for leisure, high-tech production and the knowledge industry. But to what extent can urban planning contribute to achieving at least part of such targets is the focus of this article, set in the frame of a wider transnational urban region? With the intensification of planned gated communities, extensive land privatization and increasing infrastructure investment to support a car-based urban development, the risk for JB is to move away from its original, noble purposes. To unfold the transnational urban issues of this region, we propose investigating its transit space. In a comparative manner, in this article we show how problems such as perceived lack of safety, ineffective public transport, splintered urban developments, scarce environmental sustainability and extreme privatization of land and services are all aspects which can be better managed by planning a good transit space. Last but not the least, improving Malaysian transit space will facilitate intercultural dialogue among the different, Malaysian ethnic groups in the spirit of the recent government's motto of ‘1Malaysia’.

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Iskandar Malaysia

Since 2006, the Federal Malaysian government has developed the South-Johor Economic Region as a major corridor for economic development. A vision, known as Iskandar Malaysia, has been facilitated through a Comprehensive Development Plan underpinning strategies to boost the physical and economic development of the Johor Bahru metropolitan area. The latter borders Singapore; the two cities, separated by a one km. sea channel, are linked by two bridges. Thousands of people cross the Johor Straits to enjoy better wages (in Singapore) and cheap goods (in Malaysia). The paper provides an analysis of the Iskandar Malaysia Vision. A key message is the need for future plans to consider both cities, Johor Bahru and Singapore, as part of an emerging transnational urban region
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