DohaLand aims to bring Qataris back to the heart of their capital

By Naser Al-Ghanem from Doha
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-01-21

[FILE] An artists' rendition of the DohaLand Musheireb development.

Ahmed Ben Naser moved to Azizeya in the western part of Doha nearly 20 years ago, waving goodbye to his home in the heart of Doha where he was born and raised.

Nowadays, Ahmed dreams of returning home after learning about the biggest real estate project in Qatar, one that planners hope will restore the heart of the capital.

DohaLand's Musheireb was inaugurated by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, last week with a view to reviving the old commercial centre by utilizing a new architectural template across a massive area of 35 hectares.

When finished, the project will stand as an iconic landmark, offering comfortable residential and efficient business facilities. Costing 20 billion Qatari Riyals ($6 billion), the project consists of five phases, the first of which is due by 2012. The entire project is scheduled to be complete by 2016.

Working to that end, the project sponsor DohaLand concluded a number of partnerships with experts in the field, who were selected to blend traditions of the past with state-of-the-art environment-friendly techniques into an architectural language that showcases Qatar's true identity.

"I used to live in the Musheireb area where my parents' house was," Naser, 65, told Al-Shorfa. "However, I had to leave the area after it was swamped by foreign workers. And buildings were in poor shape and badly needed restoration. The construction surge that overtook Qatar over the past decade was targeting other new areas."

Sheikha Ben Ahmed Al-Ali, 43, believes the new project will lure Doha's original residents "back to their hometown which they were forced out of".

"The majority of the Qatari families that left the centre of Doha are nostalgic about their hometown that became the capital's filthiest area," he said. "We really hope that such a vital spot in the capital would receive proper attention because the heart of any capital in the world cannot exist without its original residents."

Sheikha further noted that the present heart of Doha "mirrors the urbanization trend currently sweeping across most of the country".

Engineer Issa Ben Mohamad Al-Mohannadi, CEO of DohaLand, noted that Musheireb is a project that will reshape the architectural face of the city.

"It will also inspire all those who set foot on our land to discover our time-revered roots and distinctive character," he said. "Gated residential communities and skyscrapers are totally divorced from our values and traditions and are not how we want Doha to look. Thus, we decided to draw upon the wisdom of our ancestors and the inspiration from our heritage."

"We are going to rebuild our societies that we seem to have lost in our present-day globalized world," he said. "The way to bring that about is to lay down a new architectural concept that leans on the spirit of the past while deploying environment-friendly, future-oriented and sustainable techniques."

Bookmarking

Please comment on this article so that we can improve the experience of viewing this website.