Migrant Cities

Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf:

Urban Transformations in the Middle East

Florian Wiedmann and Ashraf M. Salama

Hardcover: 304 pages 

Publisher: I.B.Tauris (30 Mar. 2019) 

Language: English 

ISBN-10: 1788310683 

ISBN-13: 978-1788310680

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Migrant-Cities-Gulf-Transformation/dp/1788310683

https://ashrafsalama.blogspot.com/2018/10/forthcoming-2019-building-migrant.html

Unveiling the multiplicity of factors producing urbanism in the fast growing region of the Gulf, this book provides an in-depth overview of housing and migration dynamics in major Gulf cities. It explores the lessons learned from one of the prevalent urban experiments in human history where the scale and diversity of both skilled and labor migrants has never been witnessed in the context of engineered hub cities. The top-down approach devised to control urban development patterns is a crucial element in understanding both migration and housing dynamics in Gulf States.

“Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf: Urban Transformation in the Middle East” is a conscious endeavor towards understanding the role of governance from initiating a development vision, to reorganizing decision-making frameworks, and to implementing distinctive strategies. It embraces a considered approach to and an objective examination of how investor-driven patterns, emerging new economic sectors, and demographic transformations have impacted the demand and supply as well as the specific characteristics of the built environment. Conclusively, the direct interactions between inhabitants and their home environments is explored by demonstrating the divergent living standards, spatial practices, the new lifestyle tendencies, and their manifestations in the overall urban environment of these migrant cities.

The book is a timely effort that abstracts the essential characteristics of this unique urban phenomenon substantiated by concrete examples and empirical research. Both authors lived and worked in the Gulf including Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates during various periods between 2006 and 2014. Being able to witness the boom before and the downturn after the international financial crisis and being migrant expatriates instigated impulses to explore Gulf cities from macro and interconnected perspectives rather than to focus 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.