Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf: Urban Transformation in the Middle East

by Florian Wiedmann, Ashraf M. Salama

Overview

Human history has seen many settlements transformed or built entirely by expatriate work forces and foreigners arriving from various places. Recent migration patterns in the Gulf have led to emerging 'airport societies' on unprecedented scales. Most guest workers, both labourers and mid to high-income groups, perceive their stay as a temporary opportunity to earn suitable income or gain experience. This timely book analyses the essential characteristics of this unique urban phenomenon substantiated by concrete examples and empirical research. Both authors have lived and worked in the Gulf including Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates during various periods between 2006 and 2014. They explore Gulf cities from macro and interconnected perspectives rather than focusing solely on singular aspects within the built environment. As academic architects specialised in urbanism and the complex dynamics between people and places the authors build new bridges for understanding demographic and social changes impacting urban transformations in the Gulf.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788316262
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/25/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Florian Wiedmann is Assistant Professor of Urban Design at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham, UK. His involvement in interdisciplinary projects and courses in five different countries made it possible for him to gain in-depth experience in various areas of urban development, from urban governance to urban economics and the spatial impact of migration. After his PhD at the University of Stuttgart, he joined Albert Speer + Partner to consult major projects in the Middle East. After this position, he coordinated an international research collaboration between TU Munich and Qatar University between 2011 and 2014. After returning to Frankfurt am Main, he became an external lecturer at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. In addition to teaching, he has worked as a sub-consultant for Makower Architects on plans for an urban regeneration project in the city centre of Doha. After successfully acquiring a new research project from the Qatar National Research Fund, he joined the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in 2015, where he has been studying the effects of rapid migration processes on housing and urbanism in the Global South. He has authored and co-authored two books including Demystifying Doha: On Architecture and Urbanism in an Emerging City and over 26 articles and book chapters.

Ashraf M. Salama is Professor of Architecture and Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, UK. He was the Founding Head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at Qatar University (2009-2014) and has held permanent, tenured, and visiting positions in Egypt, Italy, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom (Queen's University Belfast). He is the Chief Editor of ArchNet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research and collaborating editor of Open House International. He is the recipient of the 2017 UIA Jean Tschumi Prize for Excellence in the Architectural Education and Criticism. He chaired and led three schools of architecture over the past 20 years in Egypt, Qatar, and the United Kingdom. He is a licensed architect in Egypt since 1987 and has practiced in Egypt (1987-92) and was the Director of Research and Consulting at Adams Group Architects, Charlotte, North Carolina (2001-04). He has published 9 books and over 170 articles and book chapters. His research interests and experience cross the boundaries of disciplines and involve theories and methodologies of typological transformations in traditional urban spaces and assessing designed environments from socio-cultural and users' perspectives.
Florian Wiedmann is Assistant Professor of Urban Design at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Ashraf M. Salama is Professor of Architecture and Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, UK.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations vii

Acknowledgements x

Preface xi

1 Introduction: Migration and urban transformation 1

Migration and housing 4

Migration as historic heritage in the Gulf 7

Welfare states, migration and urban transformation 11

The structure of the book 18

2 Visions of migration-based urbanism 25

The social and economic realities along the Gulf coast 28

Key characteristics of recent development visions 34

Conclusion 47

3 Enabling housing supply through new forms of governance 53

Historic governance and housing supply in the Gulf 55

Urban entrepreneurialism as a new form of governance 60

New restructuring tendencies within governance 69

Conclusion 74

4 Mega projects: A catalyst for migrant urbanism 81

Dubai as pioneer of event urbanism 83

The case of New Dubai 85

Liberalized real estate markets in Bahrain 93

A comparative discourse on two pioneers 99

Conclusion 102

5 New housing typologies and urban consolidation 109

Manama's three urban expansions 111

The spatial transformation of Manama 120

New development dynamics in Doha 125

The resulting urban fragmentation in Doha 129

Conclusion 131

6 Lifestyle trends and multicultural perceptions 137

Lifestyle trends in Gulf cities 138

Lifestyle groups and their neighbourhoods 145

Multiculturalism in the Gulf 152

Multicultural perceptions in Qatar 153

Conclusion 161

7 The everyday urban environment of migrant communities 167

Traditional migrant neighbourhoods 171

Contemporary everyday urbanism 180

Mega projects and future everyday urbanism 188

Conclusion 192

8 Building sustainable migrant cities 199

A discourse on space production theories 202

The role of housing in producing urban qualities 209

Towards sustainable urbanism in the Gulf 216

Conclusion 221

Bibliography 227

Index 243