Selected Modern Public Culture and Educational Buildings in Countries of the Persian Gulf

Abstract

Over the past few decades Persian Gulf countries have been strategically working towards diversification of their economies by transforming their natural resources exploitation incomes into other areas of investment and infrastructure. Economic transformation have always affected on urban development. New urban identity of the leading countries of the Persian Gulf creates a new paradigm by constructing a new tradition as alternative contemporary heritage. Analyzing the development strategy of the Gulf cities, which main goal was to achieve the global city statute, three directions of this transformation can be distinguished. The first one is to transform the city into a replica of global metropolises such as New York, Chicago or Hong Kong. The second is the implementation of international projects related to the construction of cultural and educational buildings of global importance. The third direction is related to the concept of organizing global events. In this paper, the authors focused on the architectural and structural analysis of selected public culture and educational buildings in Doha (Qatar) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates). These countries have developed their vision for the future by giving unprecedented importance to the cultural and educational sector and have invested in economically powerful and rapidly growing regional cultural and educational hubs, what has provided domestic and international benefits of both the financial and reputational nature. At the beginning of the XXI century, Dubai and Doha introduced a new model of urbanism. As a result, Doha was designated as the “Arab Capital of Culture” by UNESCO in 2010. Doha’s and Dubai’s plan for world class of cultural and educational buildings include, among others, buildings such as the National Museum of Qatar, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Qatar National Congress Center, the Dubai Opera House and the Dubai Future Museum.