The Urban Imaginary in Doha, Qatar

Authors

  • Peter Chomowicz Brown University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3899-8369

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0075/11910

Keywords:

Architecture, urbanism, middle east, Qatar, hermeneutics, philosophy, modernity, phenomenology, ontology

Abstract

This article examines the urban and architectural development of Doha, Qatar since 1950 with a focus on the last few decades and the construction of a modernist skyscraper skyline. It views the city stereoscopically, as both fact and symbol. From one perspective the city is a basic architectonic and morphologic fact; from another view it is a powerful ontological and epistemological symbol. My main contention is that both aspects are needed to understand how the rapid urbanization of the Arabian Gulf city uses the built environment to find an orientation in history, particularly when ‘history’ in this context seems in its own right a tool fraught with contradictions.

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Published

2022-03-21 — Updated on 2022-07-06

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How to Cite

Chomowicz, P. (2021). The Urban Imaginary in Doha, Qatar. Histories of Postwar Architecture, 5(8), 120–146. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0075/11910