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Housing in Sharjah underwent significant transformations over the past century as a result, first, of early migration and exchange that influenced the traditional dwelling typologies over centuries, and later, of rapid urbanisation and population influx following the discovery of oil and the formation of the United Arab Emirates, at an accelerated pace of merely a few decades. Currently, housing exists across residential, commercial, and industrial zones and to a vast degree segregates segments of the population, particularly in the residential and industrial zones. These two zones are also where we observe the emergence of urban peripheries with characteristics of dormitory towns or homogeneous suburbs.

Housing within the residential zones largely consists of freestanding villas owned and/or occupied by Emiratis – there are various housing programs geared towards allocating residences or plots to house citizens in residential zones. Residential zones have developed further inland over time, now reaching the boundaries of the emirate. Commercial zones in Sharjah are close to the shoreline in proximity to the harbour and are largely mixed-use high-rise towers and low-rise buildings with retail space on the ground floor, and offices and residential units on the upper floors. Properties in the commercial zones are owned by Emiratis and mostly cater to expatriate residents and businesses. Accommodation for low-income migrant workers is chiefly located within the industrial zones and consists of encampments often adjoining factories, workshops and yards and are referred to as labour camps. These industrial areas, now embedded in the city are undergoing redevelopment. Its functions are consequently being relocated to new industrial zones on the outskirts of the emirate.

Early accounts of Sharjah describe an organic, animate development that transitioned from the temporal form of shifting tent settlements into a permanent port town by the 20th century. Settled strategically along significant trade routes, its inhabitants were chiefly those whose livelihoods were reliant on the waters of the Gulf, most notably pearl divers and merchants. Migration and exchange of knowledge between coastal cities across the Gulf and the Indian Ocean influenced architectural and spatial characteristics that were climate responsive. Passive cooling strategies that were prevalent in the region included the introduction of second-storey summer rooms, shaded exterior spaces, perforated screens, and wind catchers. Climatic conditions also induced the inhabitants to engage in seasonal movement. Subsistence on local resources and climate-responsive principles shaped the early urban form and people's relationship to the environment. Up until the 1950s, the majority of Sharjah’s inhabitants lived in houses built from date-palm products, which were known as arish and barasti. Arish dwellings consisted of two to six rooms built around a central yard. The walls of the dwelling were constructed from date palm branches tied together. The roofs were lined with woven branch mats. While this materiality was determined by the availability of low-cost, local resources, the porosity of the arish was also favourable for cross-ventilation and filtered light while providing shade and shelter. Arish houses were also used as temporary homes in the summers for the mercantile class, however, the more solid built form of coral stone or limestone and gypsum houses provided the main residential base for migrant merchants. These stone houses ranged from single-story, small and austere to palatial and ornate residences that were double-storey. Members of the ruling families and merchants could afford to build their houses with coral stone, mud bricks and imported mangrove wood. The timber for joists and other wood used for doors and windows was imported from Iran, South-East Africa and India. Load-bearing walls were the most common construction technique for these houses. The general layout of both of these vernacular typologies followed that of a typical courtyard house found in cities across West and South Asia and North Africa. Adjoining or independent ghorfas (rooms) were arrayed around a central outdoor space while the exterior boundary walls often agglutinated neighbouring plots. Houses were separated by alleyways forming narrow, shaded arterial links across the settlement to the port, public commons and markets. The fundamental organizational principle of all tribes living in the Peninsula is of patrilineal descent and postnuptial residence forms influenced the structure of living quarters. Houses would often begin as single-cell units and gradually adapt to the needs of growing families into multi-cell houses. This also meant that houses occupied a restrained footprint that was dictated by the need to allow for expansion on the same plot to accommodate an extended family structure in its future.

While the Al Mahatta Airport built in 1930 was the first British establishment and arguably the first modern building, it wasn’t until the late 1960s that Modernism was prevalent and even pervasive in the urban realm. Following a period of prolonged and abject poverty during the early 20th century, after the decline of pearling, the discovery of oil in the 1950s and the prospects and investment it brought, resulted in a precipitate and zealous embrace of modernity as a reflex. This was exemplified by the aspirations of the Halcrow Master Plan and the development of Burj Avenue (also known as Bank Street). Despite the initial dismissal of traditional houses, there is evidence that the early adoption of Modern buildings attempted to retain and adopt some characteristics of traditional typologies. The population was estimated to be 30,000 by the year 1970 and most developments were geared towards providing sufficient housing for both the local population and the new influx of migrant workers primarily working in the oil industry. Following the formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1972, Arouba Road, a major artery linking Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, and Al Wahda Street, a major link between Sharjah and Dubai, were largely developed in the late 1970s. This intensified urban growth and expanded the urban footprint beyond the historic town. One major obstacle to the urban expansion outlined in the Halcrow Master Plan was the complicated land-holding structure of the town. The government of Sharjah owned roughly one-third of the land within the urban area, while the rest was owned by wealthy families in a fragmentary, nonconforming pattern. Plot sizes varied in dimensions greatly and it was difficult to develop areas of land of sufficient size to make large-scale building projects viable.

Sharjah’s population grew to 200,000 by 1990, more than sextuple the 1970 estimate – a testament to the unprecedented urban development during this era. Residential neighbourhoods expanded further inland and away from the origin of the settlements along the coast. With the gains of the petrodollar, housing shifted from low-cost and low-rise to standardized large villas, sprawling suburbs and high-rise towers. An increase in the planned plot sizes and the built-up footprint is evident during the 1990s along with a shift in both the spatial organisation and the architectural expression of housing typologies. In parallel, a socio-cultural trend away from the extended family toward a nuclear family structure was on the rise. Larger plots for smaller families further lowered the density of the newer residential zone developments. Conversely, with the increasing demands of a foreign labour force in a fast-growing economy, the relatively contained commercial zones grew in density with the population influx. The rapid development of the city spiked the demand for labour in the construction industry in particular. The industrial zones sprawled inland as the density and number of labour camps increased. Encampments were emerging as a mainstay housing type aimed at providing low-cost housing solutions for transient workers in proximity to factories and workshops, but isolated from urban amenities and work sites. Low-income expatriates also relied heavily on sub-leasing or renting shared accommodation in the increasingly cosmopolitan residential neighbourhoods in the urban core. Houses previously occupied by Emiratis, who were either offered houses or plots in the emerging suburbs, were commonly put on rent by the original occupants, owners or the recipients of houses provided through government housing programs. While this practice lacked a legal framework, it created housing in central areas of the city for low-income expatriates. However, the lack of a legal framework also raised issues around maintenance requirements and tenancy rights.

By the year 2000, residential neighbourhoods had expanded as far as 10 km inland from the original coastal settlements and at present, planned neighbourhoods extend as far as 20km inland reaching the boundaries of the Emirate of Sharjah. The first public comprehensive building codes and requirements were published in 2002, highlighting specific codes for housing in the residential areas. The Department of Housing in Sharjah was established in 2010 in order to address the needs of Sharjah’s Emirati residents, independent of the federal housing programme, which was formalized in 2001. Building regulations also limited the location of high-rise towers to Buheirah Corniche, Al Khan, and Al Mamzar Lagoon. These areas, all closer to the harbour and the city’s core were developed to invigorate commercial activity and tourism and increasingly aimed to cater to the housing needs of higher-income expatriate workers. Legislation enacted in 2014 allowed Arab residents to own freehold properties and all other expatriates to own leasehold properties creating a new economy of real estate. For non-GCC expatriates, options for buying property are limited to newer developments in commercial areas such as Al Nahda and Al Khan. There was a noticeable shift in various government housing programs. While housing programs up until the 1990s were mostly low-cost with a conservative built-up area and fewer bedrooms, the emergence of a culture and lifestyle of surplus only fully materialized in the 2000s. In 2009, Sharjah Municipality launched a campaign aimed to deter and evict bachelors from living in apartment buildings in commercial areas and in older residential neighbourhoods and to relocate them to accommodation in camps in the industrial areas. The government assured Emiratis, who had been renting their property to low-income workers, that they would be compensated for the losses that they may incur as a result of the campaign. Concurrently, a new industrial zone emerged on the eastern side of Sharjah City in Al Saja’a, much further into the outskirts of the city. In 2014 a plan to move parts of the industrial zone away from what was now within the perimeter of the urban fabric went into effect.

Relative to its neighbouring countries, the introduction of modern education was late in the UAE. This was primarily due to the British occupation and the restrictive policies it had on the Trucial States in terms of trade, health, and education. The Emirates did not receive substantial economic gains from the discovery of oil until the 1960s, which impeded its development in the global economy and in turn education in the past when compared to Kuwait for example. During the 1950s, the development of the educational system in the UAE began with the evolution of political liberation and material affluence of neighbouring Arab countries. Egypt and Kuwait initiated educational missions that helped establish schools and curriculums within the UAE.

The UAE now has one of the largest private education sectors in the Gulf. Private education in the UAE is a market in which schools are segregated by socioeconomic status and geography, in which the socioeconomic status of expatriates impacts their access to private education. Despite there being a large number of private schools in the UAE, these schools remain exclusive to higher-income groups. Regulations for sponsoring family members have also been designed to limit the number of expatriate children residing in the country.

There are presently an estimated 116 public schools across Sharjah, which is almost half the total number of all schools in Sharjah. However, public school students account for less than a quarter of the total students enrolled in schools in Sharjah City. This discrepancy between the number of schools and students can be attributed to the difference in the density of classrooms as well as the ratio of outdoor and indoor spaces between public school and private school typologies. It can also be attributed to Emiratis increasingly enrolling their children in private schools, even though they are entitled to free education. Furthermore, earlier public school typologies in the city are slowly being abandoned over recent decades due to a shift in building codes and the development of newer school models.

Prior to the establishment of formal education, there were other documented forms of education that were intrinsic to society and woven into the residential base of the settlement. From 1903 to 1953 teaching mainly focused on Quranic recitation, basic Arabic writing and mathematics. The Mutawa who was also the imam of the mosque often took on the role of a teacher. This was common across the Trucial States. Classes were co-ed and took place in the teacher’s (Mutawa’s) residence, typically made out of arish during summer and in tents during winter or in the mosque before or after regular prayer timings. During summer, sessions sometimes took place in the shade of trees or the courtyard of the house. Communities also organized Katateeb, which were designated buildings where teachings would take place regularly. This semi-formal education also consisted of non-religious subjects such as mathematics, science, social studies and Arabic literature. Early forms of education were organized as a result of close relations in the community and buildings were usually donated by wealthier residents. Specialists, scientists, and those with knowledge in grammar, religious education, and history were usually invited from the neighbouring countries, to transmit their knowledge to adults in educational circles in mosques or a patron or scholar’s house. One of the earliest and most important schools in Sharjah, Al-Taimiah Al-Mahmoudiah, was established in 1905. It was located in the Al Arsah area in one of the owner’s residences opposite the Naboodah House in Al Mureijah. It was the first school in the United Arab Emirates to offer semi-formal education. This was a free school that offered the students food, clothes, stationery and books. There were an estimated 200 students from Sharjah and 120 from the neighbouring states of Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, and Um Al Quwain. In 1953, Al Qasimiyah Reformation School was established to adopt the Kuwaiti curriculum and was the first school to open a section for female students in 1955 to be a pioneering school in this sense. It also attracted students from the other emirates in particular Dubai and Ajman. The British government built the first school offering a comprehensive foreign curriculum in Sharjah in 1953. Staffed by teachers from other Arab countries, the school had 450 boys between the ages of 6-17 years old during its first year. The British government also built schools in Abu Dhabi, Ras al Khaimah, and Khor Fakkan. It established an agricultural school in Ras al Khaimah in 1955 and a technical school in Sharjah in 1958. In 1958 Kuwait started to build schools in the emirates, including facilities in Ajman and Umm al Qaywayn. Kuwait also provided teacher-training programs in the UAE and funded teacher trainees from the emirates to go abroad for training. Until the emirates could afford to pay teachers, Bahrain, Qatar, and Egypt paid teachers to work in the emirates.

The 1970s marked a transitional phase in the history of the UAE as within this decade the country shifted its economic criterion from fishing, pearl diving and agriculture to industry and commerce as the country started drilling for oil and exporting crude oil worldwide. These economic gains also led to the rapid implementation of education infrastructure. In 1972, the newly established ministry of education took over 47 schools that were previously run under the Kuwaiti government. Some of these public school buildings were modelled after a school prototype gifted by the Kuwaiti government in 1963. This prototype was called the Kuwait Model, the courtyard prototype consisted of a single-storey modular structure that extended over time to cater to population growth. Throughout the 1970s, the Ministry of Education commissioned the design of various kindergarten and school prototypes to be repeated across all Emirates. Nationals and expatriates residing in the UAE were provided free public education and education was mandatory for all the citizens up to grade 9. The first foreign private schools in the UAE were opened in the 1960s, among those schools were the Iranian schools established in Dubai by the Shah of Iran to provide education for a large number of children of Iranian merchants. Some of the early private schools were funded by Indian merchants, with teachers from Bombay to cater to the demands of a large Indian population. There were a total of 9 schools between 1972 and1973 and the total number of enrolled students was 1215, about 2% of the population. However, from 1975 to 1978 the country witnessed a drastic increase in the people’s interest in education in all parts of the country; a factor that led to an increase in the number of students to 52,321 in 1975 and 86,048 in 1978. The following years also witnessed a drastic growth in the educational system in terms of the emergence of private schools so the number of students in both public and private schools increased.

Up until 1989, non-nationals were able to enrol their children in public schools. However, with the influx of expatriates during this era, Ministerial Resolution No. 480/2 restricted public schools to nationals, creating a lack of public options for non-nationals and increasing the demand for building private schools. These schools had to cater to the growing population of multiple demographics, but mostly from South Asia, the Philippines, Europe and neighbouring Arab countries. Public schools continued to be developed further inland in the sprawling residential zones in order to ensure all Emirati neighbourhoods had access. Each public school encourages admission of students from a limited number of neighbourhoods, prioritising transportation to and from areas within a limited distance, however, admission remains open to all Emirati children, even those residing in neighbouring emirates such as Dubai.

During the past two decades, the expansion of residential zones and public schools away from the city’s core has occurred in parallel with the continued clustering of private schools within specific areas. In addition to the growing trend of Emirati preference to enrol their children in private schools, private schools are also open to residents of other emirates and depending on the community and curriculum may attract substantial enrolment of students from neighbouring emirates. This brings the issues around travel distance, well-being and increased dependency on cars and transport networks to the forefront. Some families living in older neighbourhoods in Sharjah choose to move to newer suburbs in order to have access to newer schools. Meanwhile, Emiratis who wish to remain closer to the centre of the city, or those that cannot afford a choice have to provide their own transportation to newer schools or remain content with sending their children to older schools, many of which are quickly closing down and being abandoned. An important factor in these decisions is the pressures around perceived societal prestige and the value assigned to newer institutions, architectural styles, and Western curriculums. These social and collective attitudes are also integral to understanding how architectural typologies are rapidly replaced with acontextual imported models. They go hand in hand with the contemporary conditions and policies in post-colonial, post-capitalist cities where social, collective attitudes and desires are shaped by increasingly globalized forces. School buildings constructed after the turn of the century, are drastically larger in terms of footprint and no longer retain any characteristics of local precedents, particularly those pertaining to social organization, conviviality and environmental considerations.

The green spaces of courtyard houses in Sharjah were produced by inhabitants with shared and inherited knowledge. There was careful attention to the climatic requirements. For households it was afforded to, there would be at least one tree, predominantly the Date palm, Almond and Sidr in the courtyard to mitigate the summer air temperature and provide shade during the day. Some houses had a mix of two or more date palms or a mix of tree species to form clusters. As water resources were scarce, trees were irrigated by performing personal and household activities involving cleansing and washing under the tree. Date palms were an indicator of wealth and food-secure households since a considerable portion of the population could not afford a tree or did not have the means of establishing a permanent home. The Rolla tree was planted sometime between 1803-1820 in the Al Gharb neighbourhood of Sharjah. The name that was given to the tree after its arrival here, is translated from local vernacular as the singing garden or the group of convergent trees that form consistent shade. The tree-covered 30 meters in diameter and up to 500 people with its canopy. Its two-metre thick trunk stood more than 15 metres high. Its distinguishable height and colour stood between the single-storey white dwellings that surrounded it made it a landmark for the town. It became the centre of gatherings from across the city where special festivals such as Eid Celebrations were held and was used as a resting place for transient settlers. The tree was 150 years old when it was accidentally bulldozed in 1978 during construction activity for an adjacent road, Al Arouba Street. Its removal was met with discontent and outrage by the residents of Sharjah. Efforts to appease the anger led to a commemoration of the tree as a monument as the centrepiece of an eponymous public plaza, which underwent multiple iterations as a park.

The stark disparity of wealth and socio-economic class reinforced the critical role of communal space for a vast segment of the population that could not afford a domestic courtyard or a tree. This emphasizes the significance of the Rolla tree, which was planted in the meydan to produce a communal space for all residents of the settlement. Rolla and Musalla, in addition to being a vernacular precedent of urban parks, also functioned as a social infrastructure. Throughout the last fifty years of Sharjah’s urban transformation, the two sites in relation to the original Rolla tree were activated as squares, meydans, and public parks. By 1968, the urban area of the town had increased considerably. Streets and concrete structures erupted around the banyan tree.

Bulletin

18.02.2023

Living Continuity Sessions 5 + 6

Panel 1 (Living Continuity Session V): The Urgency of People-Centered Planning and Praxis-based Alternatives

For this session, we look critically inwards and explore work that challenges the current frontiers of architecture and urbanism. How can praxis enable critical engagement, and what does it reveal around current issues of access, exclusion, precarity and participation in neighborhood planning?

Panelists: Arshiya Syed, Jason Carlow, Najia Fatima, Paulina Yeal Cho

Convener: Sharmeen Inayat

Discussant: Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun

Panel 2 (Living Continuity Session VI): Participatory Research and Lessons in Community Interdependence

In this session, we will explore the importance of amplifying and enabling community voices. What are the challenges, incremental and transformative actions necessary to challenge current systems that exclude and marginalize the global majority? How can modes of research support modes of resistance?

Panelists: Maitha Alhammadi, Marcos Parga, Ailo Ribas

Convener: Sharmeen Inayat

Discussant: Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun

We are committed to fostering community building through ongoing collaborative engagement and critical discourse. Registration for individuals who are interested to attend and participate is open. View programme details here.

02.02.2023

Spring 2023 Programme Announcement

Living Continuity is a collective inquiry into the challenges and potential of working towards spatially just neighborhoods. In current urban policy debates, the neighborhood has emerged as an important scalar construct to understand the systems and processes that shape communities and ecosystems. This calls for re-examining the denotations and connotative dimensions of the terms ‘neighborhood’, and ‘community’ beyond the romanticized and the normative. In the global context of pervasive neoliberal urbanism, cities that are planned and grow on principles of zoning warrant accelerated segregation, expulsion and homogenization. Urban expansion and renewal thus yields disproportionate access to and distribution of environmental wellness, urban commons, social health and mobility. The tension between renewal vs expansion which occurs at this scalar level also raises questions on how to secure lived continuity, intersectional diversity, and social cohesion. How can interlocutors, respondents and residents facilitate and advocate for inclusive, decolonial and sensitized discourses around urban policy and education given socio-political limitations and challenges?

This line of inquiry will continue to be explored through a research exhibition featuring roundtables, knowledge exchange and supplementary tools from February 18th - April 30th 2023 at the Al Jubail Vegetable Market in Sharjah and online on the SAT Research Initiative webpage. We will reflect on how to broaden our understanding of praxis-based alternatives as well as how to amplify people-centered approaches through insights on interdependence, plurality and spatial practice. Stay posted for announcements and details on how you can participate.

Living Continuity is the inaugural discursive series organized by the SAT Research Initiative, one of the core programmes of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. The project is curated by Sharmeen Inayat, Research Curator of SAT Research Initiative and features contributions from Ailo Ribas, Alfonse Chiu, Arshiya Syed, Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun, Bhoomika Ghaghada, Haitham Issam, Jason Carlow, Khaled Al Awadi, Khaled Galal Ahmed, Maitha Al Jassim, Marcos Parga, Mona El Mousfy, Najia Fatima, Paulina Yeal Cho, Yasser Elsheshtawy, Tariq Miah, Martin Abbott + Jennifer Minner, Frederik Weissenborn + Aude Azzi, Juan Roldan, Bhakti More, George Katodrytis, Muhammad Aziz, Abu Dhabi Public Spaces Project, Jumanah Abbas, Leon Duval, and Ashraf Salama + Florian Weidman.

12.08.2022
Register to attend Living Continuity Seminar Session IV (Online) to be held on August 24th, 2022

Test SAT Research seminars resume with Session IV which will convene online on August 24th, 2022. Living Continuity is a collective inquiry on the challenges and opportunities of working towards spatially just neighbourhoods. Session IV aims to explore the temporal dimension of housing through indicators of social cohesion and socio-spatial attributes that resist transience. Dr Yasser Elsheshtawy expands on a case study analysis of folk houses in the UAE, how they became a testament of inhabitants asserting their presence and rootedness in the midst of a constantly changing cityscape and the lessons they provide. Dr Bhakti More shares her study comparing four residential neighbourhoods in Dubai to understand the concept of residential stability, social cohesiveness and the influence of shared spaces amongst expatriate residents in neighbourhoods in Dubai.

Committed to fostering community building through ongoing collaborative engagement and critical discourse, registration for individuals who are interested in attending and participating in the discussion with the invited speakers is open. To RSVP, please send expressions of interest to info@sharjaharchitecture.org. The session will be held online on August 24 at 6:00 PM GST. Confirmations of your registration along with the webinar link will be sent by email on August 21.

View full programme.

02.06.2022

Call for Proposals (Essay Abstracts)

This call for proposals invites contributions to the first instalment of SAT Research. Authors of accepted essays will be commissioned to develop their work for publication. The publication will feature the work of invited contributors as well as authors selected through this open call process. Select commissions may be invited to present their work at a symposium to take place in December 2022 in Sharjah.

While the emergence of local and regional urban centres evolved from an economy of constraints and subsistence, the pervasiveness of contemporary practices of excess that have largely evolved in the global north has gradually resulted in the rupture of the socio-urban fabric and a disconnect with local conditions. There is an urgent need for a radical shift toward urbanism that is responsive to social needs and ecological limits as a matter of survival.

Living Continuity is an invitation to begin a collective inquiry on the challenges and potentialities of working towards a socially and ecologically just urban future beginning at the scale of the neighbourhood. Subject matter that will be explored includes but is not limited to:

1. Social and ecological issues as a result of the development of homogenised neighbourhoods and accelerated land use.
2. Proximity and access to neighbourhood amenities and green spaces.
3. Spatial practices that shaped traditional neighbourhoods. In port cities such as Sharjah, this included responsive and adaptive typologies, urban diversity and compactness.
4. The impact of neoliberal and colonial forces on local conditions through shifting value systems and expeditious expansion.
5. Social rituals reimagined as alternatives to current dominant models.
6. Readings across time, sectors and communities to better understand the issues around and solutions to spatial distribution and access.
7. Social conduits and urban voids as tools of collective efficacy and interdependency.

Format and Focus

Proposals must include a 250-300 words abstract and author biography.

Proposals for the following essay formats are invited to submit:
1. Expository Essay of 2500 to 5000 words. Expository essays are reserved for research-based work focused on Sharjah and the United Arab Emirates or work that draws strong comparisons and parallels to local conditions.
2. Argumentative or Position Essay of 1500 to 3000 words. Position essays are not limited to geographic scope and are open to writing across research, practice and education that provokes new perspectives and offer a critical lens for the subject matter.
3. Visual Essay or Data Story of 5 to 20 visuals: Visual essays are not limited to geographic scope and are welcome to illuminate knowledge and findings that support key ideas in an artistic capacity or through data journalism.

Key Dates [UPDATED]

July 15, 2022: Deadline to submit abstracts and proposals
August 09, 2022: Notifications sent to authors of selected proposals
November 05, 2022: Deadline to submit the full-length drafts
November 30, 2022: Editorial review sent to authors
December 21, 2022: Deadline to submit final essays

Submission

Authors will be asked to grant copyright for publication, symposium proceedings, exhibition purposes, and online and print dissemination. The Sharjah Architectural Triennial is a not-for-profit organisation.

Authors must be able to furnish requested permissions for any third-party materials included in their paper.

This is a multi-disciplinary initiative that strives to be inclusive. Contributions from fields beyond the realm of architecture and urbanism including the social sciences and the arts are strongly encouraged. New perspectives on methodologies, marginalised voices outside the realm of academic research and local knowledges from the Global South are also strongly encouraged.

All submission documents must be sent as a Microsoft Word file via email to the editor at sharmeen@sharjaharchitecture.org.

12.03.2022 Register to attend SAT Research Launch – Living Continuity, Seminar Sessions I,II,III

SAT Research's first seminar will be held on March 19th, 2022. Titled, Living Continuity: a collective inquiry, This installment focuses on local challenges to preserving robust, sustainable and inclusive neighbourhoods. Questions we will be asking include: How can we reimagine rapidly eroding regional sensitivities and knowledge systems? How can architecture and urbanism practitioners, educators and stakeholders begin to tackle precipitous global urbanization while operating in a vast field of economic, political and social demands? Committed to growing a repository of local knowledge production and fostering community-building through ongoing collaborative engagement, we invite individuals who are interested in participating to join our invited speakers and discussants for the full-day event. Please send expressions of interest by March 15. Seats are limited and confirmations of your registration will be sent by email on March 17.

Session I, alternatives to urban expansion, will open the discussion with Mona El-Mousfy’s insights stemming from her research-based practice and the application of adaptive reuse methods in Sharjah City, and Khaled Galal Ahmed, who offers alternative solutions to social housing in the UAE to challenge the prevalence of Western housing models. Session II, urban networks as critical space, features Khaled Alawadi’s morphological mappings of alleyways in Abu Dhabi and Dubai revealing the potential impact of these micro-networks and Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun’s framework for design for social interdependence. Session III, forms of community expulsion and exclusion, will conclude the day’s sessions with Bhoomika Ghaghada’s analysis of the cultural expulsion in the Karama neighbourhood of Dubai that questions what is lost when something is redeveloped and Juan-Roldan Martin’s observations of urban appropriation and rituals established by inhabitants that defy constructs of imported Western park models in the UAE.

The event will take place at the disused Al Jubail Vegetable Market in Sharjah in a segment of the semi-open, naturally ventilated building. The site, previously slated for demolition after the market was relocated, is currently being programmed by the Sharjah Architecture Triennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation for temporary events and exhibitions. It is planned to be the future home of SAT Research among other institutional activities and public programmes.

View full programme.

Repository

The Sha’abi House Revisited: Resisting Transience in the UAE

Dr Yasser Elsheshtawy – Session IV

Webinar

Urban Planning, Neighbourhoods & Social Cohesiveness

Dr Bhakti More – Session IV

Webinar

Adaptive Re-use Potentialities in Sharjah

Mona El-Mousfy, Living Continuity – Session I

Seminar

Fareej in the Sky: Vertical Social Housing in the UAE

Dr Khaled Galal Ahmed – Living Continuity Session I

Seminar

Alleyways: Mapping a Forgotten Urban Form Element

Dr Khaled Al Awadi – Living Continuity Session II

Seminar

Practice-place and space: narrations of urban memories

Dr Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun – Living Continuity Session II

Seminar

Karama: An Immigrant Neighbourhood Transformed

Bhoomika Ghaghada – Living Continuity Session III

Seminar

Outdoor Rooms: domesticated landscapes

Juan Roldan Martin – Living Continuity Session III

Seminar

Introduction to SAT Research Initiative and Living Continuity

Sharmeen Azam Inayat

Discussion

The Sha’abi House Revisited: Resisting Transience in the UAE

Dr Yasser Elsheshtawy – Session IV

Living Continuity is a collective inquiry on the challenges and opportunities of working towards spatially just neighborhoods. Session IV aims to explore the temporal dimension of housing through indicators of social cohesion and spatial qualities that resist transience. Dr. Yasser Elsheshtawy expands on a case study analysis of folk houses in the UAE, how they became a testament to inhabitants asserting their presence and rootedness in the midst of a constantly changing cityscape, and the lessons they provide. Dr. Bhakti More shares her study comparing four residential neighborhoods in Dubai to understand the concept of residential stability, social cohesiveness, and the influence of shared spaces amongst expatriate residents in neighborhoods in Dubai.

Yasser Elsheshtawy is an independent scholar, an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, GSAPP, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, DC. He was a Professor of Architecture at United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, where in addition to teaching he also ran the Urban Research Lab. He was appointed as the curator for the UAE Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016. Considered an authority on urbanism in the region, his scholarship focuses on urbanization in developing societies, informal urbanism, urban history, and environment-behavior studies, with a particular focus on Middle Eastern cities. He authored a series of books and publications including “Dubai: Behind an urban spectacle” (ranked no. 1 on Amazon under the 'United Arab Emirates History' category in September 17). His blog dubaization has been hailed by The Guardian as one of the notable city blogs in the world. Elsheshtawy is currently working on a book about the Arab Gulf City titled: “Temporary Cities.” He has been appointed as a Visiting Professor at Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (Fall 2017). He was a Visiting Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, DC to pursue his research on urbanization in the Gulf and work on his book during Spring 2018.

Urban Planning, Neighbourhoods & Social Cohesiveness

Dr Bhakti More – Session IV

Living Continuity is a collective inquiry on the challenges and opportunities of working towards spatially just neighborhoods. Session IV aims to explore the temporal dimension of housing through indicators of social cohesion and spatial qualities that resist transience. Dr. Yasser Elsheshtawy expands on a case study analysis of folk houses in the UAE, how they became a testament to inhabitants asserting their presence and rootedness in the midst of a constantly changing cityscape, and the lessons they provide. Dr. Bhakti More shares her study comparing four residential neighborhoods in Dubai to understand the concept of residential stability, social cohesiveness, and the influence of shared spaces amongst expatriate residents in neighborhoods in Dubai.

Dr. Bhakti More is a Chairperson, School of Design & Architecture, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) Dubai Campus. She has pursued her doctoral studies at the School of Built Environment, University of Salford, Manchester, UK, and her area of research is 'Urban planning, neighborhoods and social cohesiveness: A socio-cultural study of expatriate residents in Dubai. She received CIOB Best Research Paper Award for the most innovative research for her paper titled "Expatriate Housing and the Social Fabric in Dubai" during the 12th International Post Graduate Research Conference, University of Salford Manchester UK in 2015. Dr. Bhakti has presented papers at International Conferences in Portland, USA, Fukuoka, Japan, and Dubai. She is a coordinator for Manipal Environment and Conservation Students Club received consecutive awards for Best Sustainable Green Campus Audit and Best Sustainability Action Project from Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and has led research and innovation project for MAHE Dubai team "Tawazun" for building net zero home for Solar Decathlon ME 2021 and is part of the core team for preparing Climate Action Plan for MAHE Dubai. Dr. Bhakti is an ambassador for 'Woman in Construction' for the Big 5, Dubai, and is President of Manipal Employee Resource Group, Diversity & Inclusion. She is a mentor for the E7 Daughter of Emirates Program and Link Mentorship Program in the UAE.

Adaptive Re-use Potentialities in Sharjah

Mona El-Mousfy, Living Continuity – Session I

Living Continuity, the first instalment of SAT Research’s Seminar Series, is an invitation to begin a collective, multiscalar and contextualized inquiry on the challenges and potentialities of working towards a socially and ecologically just urban future. Beginning at the scale of the neighbourhood, the first seminar focuses on local challenges to preserving robust, sustainable and inclusive neighbourhoods.

Session I on alternatives to urban expansion features Mona El-Mousfy’s insights into her research-based practice and the application of adaptive reuse in Sharjah City, and Khaled Galal Ahmed, who offers alternative solutions to social housing in the UAE to challenge the prevalence of Western housing models.

Mona El-Mousfy is an architect and the founder of SpaceContinuum, a research-based architecture practice that explores the relation between space, shared social practices and socio-cultural conditions. El-Mousfy is the Advisor to the Sharjah Architecture Triennial and played a key role in founding the initiative in 2017. She is also the Architecture Consultant for the Sharjah Art Foundation where she has worked on several projects including the successive editions of the Sharjah Biennial since 2005.

El-Mousfy is currently engaged in various adaptive reuse projects leading a team of architects at the Sharjah Art Foundation and the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Among other projects, she designed the SAF Art Spaces Al Mureijah, 2013, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Agha Khan award for Architecture. Her most recent adaptive reuse project is the Flying Saucer, 2020, where she has restored the original mid-70s character of the building while introducing a new outdoor public space and a lower-level community space around a sunken courtyard.

El-Mousfy has previously taught at the College of Architecture Art and Design, American University of Sharjah, where she had a full-time position from 2002 to 2014.

Fareej in the Sky: Vertical Social Housing in the UAE

Dr Khaled Galal Ahmed – Living Continuity Session I

Dr Khaled Galal Ahmed is Associate Professor and the Coordinator of the Architectural Engineering Master and PhD Programs at UAEU. Dr Khaled got his PhD from the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK. He worked as an architect and urban designer and his research interest is related to sustainable architecture, urbanism and housing especially in Socio-Cultural Impact, Urban Modeling Simulation, Walkability, Urban Morphology and Energy Efficiency, Community Participation, and Urban Resilience. He published his research work in various international journals, conferences proceedings and book chapters. Dr Khaled teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to architectural, urban and housing design. He has supervised several Master theses and PhD Dissertations at Mansoura University, Egypt and the UAE University. Dr Khaled has several articles in local and regional newspapers and magazines including National Geographic Arabia and has been honoured for his various contributions from the Minister of Happiness and Wellbeing, Abu Dhabi Municipality, Sheikh Zayed Housing Program, Al Ain Municipality, Fujairah Municipality, and Directorate of Planning and Survey, Sharjah. Recently Dr Khaled won the UAEU Chancellor’s Innovation Award in Education- 6th Cycle 20-21. He also won the College of Engineering Award in University and Community Services, Academic Year 2020-2021.

Alleyways: Mapping a Forgotten Urban Form Element

Dr Khaled Al Awadi – Living Continuity Session II

Living Continuity, the first instalment of SAT Research, is an invitation to begin a collective, multiscalar and contextualized inquiry on the challenges and potentialities of working towards socially and ecologically just neighbourhoods. It is motivated by observations on two key emerging issues: homogenized urban zones and dormitory towns that are expanding the city's footprint at an exponential rate and the erosion of social cohesion, inclusion and lived continuity.

Session II explored urban networks as critical space in neighbourhoods, the potential impact of micro-networks and the possibilities of designing for collective efficacy and interdependence.

In this seminar, Dr Khaled Al Awadi expands on a study that identifies alleys as a critical space, especially at the neighbourhood scale. Alleys have been neglected in the definition of urban form even though they have existed since antiquity and have served a variety of vital purposes for the community.

Khaled Alawadi is the first UAE national scholar to specialize in the design of sustainable cities, Dr. Alawadi is Assistant Professor of Sustainable Urbanism at Khalifa University, Masdar Campus, where he founded the MSc. in Sustainable Critical Infrastructure program. He is a trained architect, planner and urban designer whose research is devoted to urban design, housing and urbanism, especially the relationships between the built environment and sustainable development.

Dr Alawadi recently served as Visiting Assistant Professor at MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism, and previously worked as an architect for Dubai Municipality and as an Assistant Professor at UAE University. He holds a PhD in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin. And he has curated the National Pavilion UAE which presented Lifescapes Beyond Bigness, an exhibition exploring human-scale architectural landscapes, at the 2018 La Biennale di Venezia, or Venice Biennale.

Practice-place and space: narrations of urban memories

Dr Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun – Living Continuity Session II

Session II explored urban networks as critical space in neighbourhoods, the potential impact of micro-networks and the possibilities of designing for collective efficacy and interdependence.

Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun shares her research focused on how design intersects with other disciplines to reveal, examine, and transform values, practices, processes, systems, or narratives. Her work reveals how people use social spaces to create community, a sense of identity and belonging. This fact supports the need to shift the current approach to empower those that inhabit a space to participate and contribute directly to its design.

Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun is an assistant professor of design and innovation at the Pamplin School of Business at the University of Portland. Previously, she was an assistant professor in design management in the College of Architecture, Art and Design at the American University of Sharjah. She obtained her PhD at Staffordshire University, UK, in design and innovation. She was awarded a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Centre of Applied Business Research to study design in the decision-making process of entrepreneurs of technology-based enterprises. Her educational content addresses diversity, inclusion, equity and global citizenship in the business context. She has over 15 years of experience consulting in the creative, manufacturing, and new technology industries worldwide. She also participates in projects with non-governmental organizations and governmental institutions addressing social inequalities.

Karama: An Immigrant Neighbourhood Transformed

Bhoomika Ghaghada – Living Continuity Session III

Seminar Session III focused on how macro-forces and neoliberal urbanism have increased the risk of community expulsion and resulted in varying forms of community exclusion.

During her MA in Media Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, in 2019, Bhoomika Ghaghada developed her thesis, exploring how the landscape, demographic composition, and cultural identity of the downtown Dubai neighbourhood of Karama have been transformed through redevelopment since 2015 and has led to cultural expulsion. Her work centres the embedded South Asian community of this neighbourhood as it undergoes erasure.

Bhoomika Ghaghada is a writer and independent researcher, born and raised in the UAE. She writes about gender, urban spaces, and media, focusing on structural inequalities and their everyday manifestations. Her writing has appeared in Jadaliyya, Postscript Magazine, and Unootha Mag. She is the Co-Founder of Gulf Creative Collective, a non-profit initiative helping Creatives in the UAE re-evaluate notions of value, advocate for themselves in the workplace, and find refuge, care and community.

Outdoor Rooms: domesticated landscapes

Juan Roldan Martin – Living Continuity Session III

Seminar Session III focused on how macro-forces and neoliberal urbanism have increased the risk of community expulsion and resulted in varying forms of community exclusion.

Juan Roldan's research agenda on Urban Interiors offers a commentary on re-appropriating city spaces. Roldan seeks to understand how cities are used and appropriated by unsolicited designers and unexpected residents, analyzing the codes, protocols, and liturgies that create a citizen's inalienable sense of belonging on inhabited land. His work highlights the current challenges around access to amenities and an increasingly regulated landscape where possibilities of social infrastructure that ought to be facilitated and provided for are increasingly under threat.

Juan Roldan is a Spanish architect and educator. With architecture studies in Madrid (ETSAM M.Arch 2004) and London (Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, London 1999). Roldan is an Associate Professor of Interior Design at the American University of Sharjah. Roldan was appointed curator of the first edition of the d3 Architectural Festival 2020 (d3 in partnership with RIBA Gulf). In 2019, he was awarded the International Charles Correa Chair by the Charles Correa Foundation at Goa College of Architecture (India). His latest written research, "Outdoor Rooms and Domesticated Landscapes in the UAE," was published in Interior Provocations (Routledge, 2020).

Introduction to SAT Research Initiative and Living Continuity

Sharmeen Azam Inayat

Sharmeen Azam Inayat is a cultural worker. She is currently working with the Sharjah Architecture Triennial on charting and establishing the SAT Research initiative as Research Curator.

Sharmeen was raised in Dubai, San Francisco, Karachi and Nairobi and variably claims origin in each. Her independent research work is invested in marginalized narratives that resist and rework conformed relations of migrant precarity and environmental rights. Sharmeen has previously worked with non-profit organizations and cultural institutions as a researcher, editor, design consultant and art director. She has worked with the Sharjah Art Foundation, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Visualizing Palestine and Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Sharmeen was an Architect on the team for the Mureijah Art Spaces, shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2019. She was a Production Architect for Sharjah Biennials 10 and 11 where she worked on the research and implementation of urban interventions. Sharmeen is the Commissioning Editor of Uncommon Dubai+, an anthology of essays and artistic reflections exploring the capacity of the urban narrative and belonging. Her independent research work has been exhibited on platforms including Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Gulf Research Centre, Art Dubai, Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Asia Europe Foundation, Villa Vassilieff, Betonsalon, Mithila Bhavan Akhara, Ayodhya and the Independent Museum of Contemporary Art in Limassol.

Acknowledgments

Contributors
Dr Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun
Dr Bhakti More
Bhoomika Ghaghada
Juan Roldan Martin
Dr Khaled Al Awadi
Dr Khaled Galal Ahmed
Mona El-Mousfy
Dr Yasser Elsheshtawy

SAT Research Initiative Curator
Sharmeen Inayat

Programme and Production Coordinator
Abanob Ataia

Digital Programming and Design
Michal Jurgielewicz

Graphic Design
Layan Attari
Maha Basaddiq
Moylin Yuan

Research Photography
Danko Stjepanovic

Community Outreach
Anam Aziz
Ahmed Aziz
Misbah Tanveer
Nayaf Ali
Nandhana Mukundan

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