Project
Doha has grown as a conventional city of gridded streets, independent development parcels, segregated land uses, and introspective stand-alone look-at-me buildings. This form of sprawl is inconsistent with the cultural history and microclimatic reality that characterize Doha and other coastal cities of the Gulf. Creating Sustainable Urbanism calls for the application of a holistic organizing concept such as “EcoDistricts” to inform and direct growth that optimizes synergies in forming neighborhoods as living communities with an environmentally sustainable urban agenda. An EcoDistrict is a geographically defined area such as a remote village, urban neighborhood, institutional campus, employment district, city, or sub-region within which system flows of energy, nutrients, resources, information, financial capital, and cultural resources are focused locally, energized by their coordinated integration, and responsive to microclimatic conditions. EcoDistricts are a planning approach that calls for a more environmentally sustainable, low carbon city with next-generation infrastructure, culture and climate-sensitive public space, and high-performance buildings. The proposal will activate a research partnership between Qatar University, Portland State University, and Portland Oregon-based Consultants to investigate, define, and illustrate an EcoDistrict urban strategy for existing and future Gulf cities using Doha, and its metropolitan area, as a case study.
Project: NPRP 5 - 074 - 5 - 015 (Award Active )
Title: Towards an Eco-Districts Strategy for Sustainable Urbanism in the Gulf Region. Greater Doha as case study
Duration: 3 Year(s)
Start Date: 11/15/201
Submitting Institution: Qatar University
Research Area: 5. Social Sciences
Speciality: 5.7 Social and Economic Geography
Sub Speciality: Urban Studies (Planning and Development)
Research Team:
Dr. Agatino Rizzo, Qatar University, Lead PI
Dr. Vivek Shandas, Portland State University, Co-PI
Prof. David Sailor, Portland State University, Co-PI
Delirious Doha—
A survey of recent projects in Qatar reveals a particular brand of "instant urbanism": while by 2022 more luxury hotels will be opened to cater for Westerns and westernised Arabs who can afford to enjoy exclusive services, issues such as spatial segregation, sustainable urban development, and affordable housing remain unsolved. An op-ed from Doha by Agatino Rizzo.
SWOT and Scenario Planning of Doha, Qatar Downtown Area
Introduction by Agatino Rizzo
Al Asmakh – Al Najada area is the original city heart of Doha. In the last 50 years it has been affected by dramatic urban transformations as result of Qatar rapid, oil-based economic growth.
Starting from the 1960s and during the next three decades increasing oil exploitation revenues enabled the country to embark in a rapid economic and social development program resulting in a dramatic urban expansion of Doha and its surrounding town*. The 1960s public housing policy, the introduction of new building materials enabling modern and denser urban blocks, and the need for public land to locate government functions can be considered among the main drivers for urban changes in Doha.
In 1972 a consortium of British planning firms was hired by Qatar’s government to prepare master plans for the city of Doha and to advise the newly established Ministry of Municipal Affairs. The consultants suggested a dual strategy of de-concentration of population from today’s A ring area - to make space for traffic infrastructures - and reclamation of shallow waters to the North of Doha to provide an exclusive location to government ministries.
Al Asmakh – Al Najada area is the original city heart of Doha. In the last 50 years it has been affected by dramatic urban transformations as result of Qatar rapid, oil-based economic growth.
Starting from the 1960s and during the next three decades increasing oil exploitation revenues enabled the country to embark in a rapid economic and social development program resulting in a dramatic urban expansion of Doha and its surrounding town*. The 1960s public housing policy, the introduction of new building materials enabling modern and denser urban blocks, and the need for public land to locate government functions can be considered among the main drivers for urban changes in Doha.
In 1972 a consortium of British planning firms was hired by Qatar’s government to prepare master plans for the city of Doha and to advise the newly established Ministry of Municipal Affairs. The consultants suggested a dual strategy of de-concentration of population from today’s A ring area - to make space for traffic infrastructures - and reclamation of shallow waters to the North of Doha to provide an exclusive location to government ministries.
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