Learning from Gulf Cities

Architects for Peace Editorials, 2016

Salama, A. M. (2016). Urbanity on the Arabian Peninsula: From the Tradition of the Ordinary to the Tradition of the Elite. Architects for Peace, April, Melbourne, Australia. 20 April 2016 ______________________________________ What is now the rapidly emerging global region was a series of oases settlements or fishing hamlets and later small port settlements just a few decades ago. The relationship between the ruler and ruled have changed to asymmetric power affiliation. From a tribal tradition of people making their decisions about their own environment under a tribal leadership, the ‘Modern State’ became an organizing body and a legal authority that represents the will of its people. It gave itself the right to intervene and make decisions about people’s most aspects of life (1). Guided by the principles of the ‘Modern State,’ the region is in a continuous process of repositioning itself on the map of international architecture and urbanism with different types of expression of its qualities in terms of economy, environment, culture, and global outlook. Based on my recent work on Urban Traditions, which is published in TDSR (2), in this article, I reflect on urbanity on the Arabian Peninsula and on some of these aspects with reference to classical and recent discussions on the notion of tradition. The concerned and concerted reactions to the global condition in the form of economic diversification have become an integral component of most national development strategies and consequently led to reshaping the notion of tradition in such a rapidly growing context. _________________________________________________ More can be found here or download the complete article from academia or here http://archpeace2.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/urbanity-on-arabian-peninsula-from.html

Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 27(1), 21-39, 2015

Salama, A. M. (2015). Urban traditions in the contemporary lived space of cities on the Arabian Peninsula. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 27(1), 21-39. ________________________________ ISSN 1050-2092 ---------------------------------------------------- This article aims to answer the question “Whose tradition?” in relation to the contemporary architecture and urbanism of the Arabian Peninsula. It first contextualizes tradition in the region within the geocultural politics of the Arab World and identifies key factors that shaped its traditional settlements, including tribal governance, social systems, building materials, and construction techniques. The article then contends that the region’s urban traditions have been transformed from ones shaped by common people to ones shaped by the elite, in which the role of rulers is heavily emphasized. To explore this view, it analyzes two representative scenes in the contemporary urban lived space of the region, using examples from Dubai and Doha. These are articulated in terms of the emergence of elite enterprises, persistent patterns of social and ethnic segregation, and a continuing struggle to construct identity. Conclusions drawn from the discussion delineate key answers to the question “Whose tradition?” But a framework of examination is also introduced that emphasizes that lived space and the traditions that ensue from it cannot be seen in isolation from other types of space — such as conceived and perceived space. There needs to be a new cycle of knowledge production about cities in the region that integrates concern for all three (lived, conceived and perceived space) to better understand its traditions."

2019

Gateways to the World: Port Cities in the Persian Gulf

Salama, A. M. (2016). The Emerging Urban Landscape in the Southern Persian Gulf. In M. Kamrava (ed.), Gateways to the World: Port Cities in the Persian Gulf. Hurst Publishers: London. ISBN # 9781849045636. ________________________ This chapter examines the state of contemporary urban environments in the Gulf, and aims to explore the phenomenon of global flows and their impact on regional urbanism and architecture. The key characteristics of contemporary urbanism are identified through a critical analysis of three main aspects. These include the development of “bespoke” infrastructure to accommodate “global flows;” the decentralizing of urban governance and decision-making to entice investment in the urban environment; and the resulting chaotic but emotionally detached urban scene characterized by exclusive development projects, high-rise agglomerations, and social segregation. As architectural innovation is an integral component of the urban landscape of emerging cities in the Gulf, I classify contemporary endeavors into two categories: the overt and subliminal agenda to construct an iconic and cultural architectural identity coupled with the resultant evolution of “multiple modernities” as reflected in a strikingly vibrant plurality of trends. Case examples demonstrate the rush to brand art and culture into a comprehensive and admired identity supported by a rigid agenda to encourage and sustain educational and environmental awareness. Based on the results of in-depth discussion and analysis of these issues the chapter concludes with key challenges relevant to the competitive nature of various emerging cities in the Persian Gulf.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2018

In recent years, Persian Gulf cities have become symbols of the most spectacular forms of the ‘globalization of urbanization’. Current scholarship has sought to situate these cities in transnational processes and linkages with conceptualizations of ‘the global city’ and the mechanisms of ‘worlding’. This article builds on but moves beyond this line of analysis by turning to the histories of this region and its built environment to explore the longue‐durée influence of capital and empire operating across multiple scales. From this perspective, the glittering high‐rises and manmade islands are contemporary manifestations of a century of urban forms and logics of social control emanating from company towns, the struggles of state building, and the circulation and fixing of capital. To grasp how the Persian Gulf region has been remade as a frontier for accumulation, the analysis in this article blurs the boundaries between metropole and periphery, reconceptualizing the region not as an eclectic sideshow, but as a central site for global shifts in urbanism, capitalism and architecture in the twentieth century. See early view of essay at: http://www.ijurr.org/article/the-forever-frontier-of-urbanism-historicizing-persian-gulf-cities/

Planning Theory, 2019

The New Arab Urban is the latest effort to shed light on urbanization and urbanism in the Arab capitals of the Persian Gulf. This edited book primarily focuses on Dubai and Abu Dhabi, though also includes many incursions into neighboring Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, and a brief discussion of Beirut, Lebanon. Molotch and Ponzini, the book’s editors, have pulled together 12 essays (plus co-authored introduction and con- clusion chapters), written by a number of researchers studying Gulf urbanism from a variety of perspectives: from architecture and photography to history, planning, geogra- phy, sociology, political science, and Middle Eastern studies. It is not easy to edit a vol- ume that represents such a large spread of interests and disciplinary schools, and it shows in this book.

2020

This exhibit is an accumulation of images that collectively seek to provide viewers with a window into Doha, Qatar and the urban heart of the modern Middle East. In tandem with a changing set of images (arranged in the sequential acts, briefly described below), the exhibit includes a pastiche of text to guide the viewer’s experience. In the final accounting, the collection is intended as an ode to the city itself, an objective conveyed primarily through images and a smattering of orienting text.

Histories of Post-war Architecture , 2021

Today’s general perception of Gulf cities is based on the assumption of a fu- turistic vision, a visionary development and a cluster of hi-tech constructions of steel and glass reaching towards the sky. Since oil was struck, this ‘brave new world’ has been a testing ground for experimental, risk-imbued architecture and real estate. The sudden affluence and ambition of the rulers to demonstrate progress and social advancement (sometimes expressed through outlandish ‘iconic’ designs) has certainly fired this drive. The building of cities seemed an appropriate culvert for the vast funds generated, turning what was once barren into a fertile land for real estate, as well as prioritising education, health and basic services such as water and electricity. Furthermore, there is an ever-present sense of the ‘tabula-rasa approach’ that forced (or perhaps tempted) architects to pursue different and alternative design processes. Gulf cities seem to encourage the idea, if not always the reality, of be- ing able to ‘start again’, to be re-made, re-imagined and re-modernised. There is a sense of being in an ever-present ‘now’, with ‘historical’ projects stretching back....

Urbanisation is an economic, political, and socio-cultural complexity, and so is its interaction with cityscapes. However, this truism rarely finds an expression in academic research. It is obvious that economic transitions would determine the quality and volume of the built environment. Municipal and state decision making further shape the nature of urban spaces, and socio-cultural transformations influence perceived notions of the lived space and, in turn, reshape the physical landscape itself. Nevertheless, research on cities in the Middle East and elsewhere remains fairly limited in scope, with little cross-discipline 'conversation' among scholars in different fields which attempts to account for such complexity. This is all the more surprising as life in cities has become, over the past half century or so, the most significant form of human collective dwelling; in the Middle East over half the population currently lives in urban settings and the numbers are forecast to grow in the future. 1 This review article is the result of a dialogue between an architect and an economic historian in response to the foregoing. We have united in an attempt to offer a more integrative approach to Middle East urbanism, accounting for the interactions of the political economy of this region, planning, and the lived space. The key questions on which we focus are why and how do state transformation and economic structural change impact upon urban space. In seeking the answers we examine the long-term trajectory of cities as they went through the first period of globalisation under imperial intervention and/or direct colonial rule; gradually came under independent, inward-looking, national regimes; and presently experience the second wave of globalisation and the opening of local economies to international markets. Such a narrative explores common themes in the historical trajectories of cities' lives.

Architectural Design, 2015

Histories of Postwar Architecture, 2021

https://hpa.unibo.it/announcement/view/407 CfP: Today’s general perception of Gulf cities is based on the assumption of a futuristic vision; a visionary development and a cluster of hi-tech constructions. Since the striking of oil, this ‘brave new world’ has been a testing ground for experimental, risk imbued architecture and real estate. The sudden affluence and ambition of the rulers to demonstrate progress and social advancements (sometimes expressed through outlandish ‘iconic’ designs) has certainly fired this drive. The building of cities seemed an appropriate culvert for the vast funds generated, turning what was once barren into a fertile land. Furthermore, there is an ever-present sense of the ‘tabula-rasa approach’ that forced (or perhaps tempted) architects to pursue different and alternative design processes. Gulf cities seem to permit the idea, if not always the reality, of being able to ‘start again’, to be re-made, re-imagined and re-Modernised. There is a sense of being forever in the ‘now’, with ‘historical’ projects stretching back mere decades. Perhaps this desire to continually reinvent brought about shortcomings in early Modernist paradigms, and the rapid rise of new social/cultural/artistic concepts (such as pop art/metabolism/structuralism/post-modernism/idiosyncratic and so on). These preliminary reflections offer an image of the Gulf as a fluid ambit that challenged designers for several decades in the light of a central question: how do architects build in a place with a constantly changing context? How are ideas of history, tradition, memory, and heritage constructed in this flux? In the second half of the 20th century, (...)

2008

Today cities of the Arab world are subject to many of the same problems as other world cities, yet too often they are ignored in studies of urbanisation. This collection reveals the contrasts and similarities between older, traditional Arab cities and the newer oil-stimulated cities of the Gulf in their search for development and a place in the world order. The eight cities which form the core of the book–Rabat, Amman, Beirut, Kuwait, Manama, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh–provide a unique insight into today's Middle Eastern city.

gakkai-web.net

Time is always a deep dimensional projection of human beliefs. At best it can provide an echo of a spiritual universe which integrates man in a meaningful order and provides him with essential inner fulfilment, by the very fact that his small personal world is in harmony with a much larger reality. The conflict between the traditional culture in the Gulf cities and modern systems of thought has to be seen in this wider philosophical context, for the controversial issue is the interpretation of "development" and what it should entail: should development enable the balanced realization of the totality of human faculties and capabilities, or should it reduce reality to limited aspects of material life at the expense of other qualities? Should it promote an increase in quantifiable production only, or should it support a different type of creativity, which includes more fundamental forces and experiences? As far-fetched as these questions may seem, they determine the cultural responses which eventually generate the built environment and its physical expressions. This paper is an attempt to answer the following questions: What are the contributions in the newly developed Gulf cities to discover the potential of continuity between Past, Present and Future? And what are the new alternative approaches which could reconcile traditional principles, contemporary needs and the living future?

We live in physical places. Unless there are particular meanings embodied in these places, we cannot feel that we belong to them. The meanings we give to the physical forms do not exist, in reality, in the forms themselves. But they exist in our minds and are generated from our past experience and significant events related to these forms. In this sense, culture, history and architecture are interrelated concepts and we cannot understand any one of them in isolation from the other. This paper is concerned with all these concepts. However, we need to discuss some of them in a preliminary way here so as to introduce the issue of identity in the Arab cities, its roots and its consequences. It presents the issue of identity as a phenomenon associated with the drastic transformation of social and physical traditions in Arab cities. We are looking for continuity and change of political and social identity and its impact on the urban form of these cities. Concepts such as traditions, modernization, and westernization will be addressed with special consideration of their role in enhancing the search for identity in the Arab cities. Searching for social and urban identity in contemporary Arab cities can be seen from the debate that took place in the beginning of the twentieth century when Arab intellectuals questioned the local situation and tried to adopt western culture. This debate goes back to the beginning of the nineteenth century when Mohammed Ali (the governor of Egypt) took over after French withdrawal from Egypt. What we are trying to say here is that the crises of identity in the contemporary Arab cities need to be understood through the political and cultural situations that influenced the formation of modern Arab cities and architecture. In general the study addresses four paradigms that Arab urbanization has passed through. These paradigms are closely linked to the political events that took place in the region. This is because, as Stewart (2001) said: “in the Arabic-Islamic cities there is an interconnection between spiritual and political”1. In this sense, it is difficult to understand what happened in the Arab towns without understanding the connection between religion and politics. In this study a number of examples are from the Arab cities presented, but there is a special reference to Saudi urban experience, especially when we come to the modernization of the Arab town in the second half of the twentieth century.

Architecture from the Arab world (1914-2014): A Selection: Bahrain Catalogue in Biennale Venice-2014, 2014

Salama, A. M. (2014). A Century of Architecture in the Arabian Peninsula: Evolving Isms and Multiple Architectural Identities in a Growing Region. In G. George Arbid (ed.), Architecture from the Arab world (1914-2014): A Selection: Bahrain Catalogue in Biennale Venice. Bahrain Ministry of Culture, Manama, Bahrain, PP. 137-143. This discussion presents a positional interpretation and highlights the issues of identity, tradition, and modernity by critically outlining a number of voices that represent selected architectural interventions in the Arabian Peninsula. Through a reading of projects that emerged over a century from 1914 to 2014, an articulation is made to place such a reading into focus by classifying different trends under three economic eras: pre-oil, oil, and post-oil. The analysis manifests a continuous struggle to absorb modernity and construct identity and concludes with a number of questions regarding challenges facing architecture and future developments in the region.