Observations of An Urban Framework

Observations of an Urban Framework
Foreword
This book is the result of a design workshop that was held
one afternoon in Deira and Bur Dubai, the areas that border either side of the Dubai Creek. The workshop created
an impetus to gather a group of individuals to collectively document the unique urban framework of these Dubai
neighbourhoods. The purpose of this workshop was purely
academic driven by lived experiences, curiosity about preexisting alternatives and the desire to learn. We do not have
answers, only questions and ideas, which weve documented here for reference, adaptation and, most importantly, inspiration. Our hope is that this approach will broaden our
collective sources of inspiration and trigger consideration of
how alternative models of development might be included
in Dubais growth.
Cultural Engineering & B+H Architects
Publishers B+H Architects, Cultural Engineering

Editors Rashid bin Shabib, Erin Hudson, Phillip Jones & Robert Marshall
Writer Erin Hudson
Special thanks to Little Majlis, a website

that showcases local GCC designers and
merchants of artisanal products, for donating all the materials used during this
workshop.
Table of Contents

7
People
The Workshop
33
Our contributors are professionals,

academics and students from a variety
of backgrounds.
Photo: Lucio Frigo
Urban Memory 17
History 11
Photo: Dr. Rob Cooke
We recreate the guided walk and exercises this design charrette entailed
through transcripts and photos from
the field.
Commentary 71
Photo: Richa Harwani
Three individuals who grew up in

Dubai in the 1950s, 1980s and 1990s
share their childhood memories of
Khor Dubai.
Glossary 93
Photo: Sarah Nankivell
A brief look at significant moments in

the development of Khor Dubai from
the 1880s to present.
Photo: Lucio Frigo
A collection of essays discussing observations made during the charrette

ranging from lessons learned to musings about encoded graffiti.
Organizers
Robert Marshall
Director of Urban Planning, B+H Architects
Rashid bin Shabib

Urbanist, Cultural Engineering
Robert began his 30-year career in Montreal

programming festivals and cultural events in
public parks and streets. This interest led him
to study urban planning at McGill University
and go on to work as an urban designer in
Toronto, Los Angeles and London before
moving to the Middle East. One of his favorite
projects is the master plan for Umm Ramool
which redeveloped the industrial district as a
mixed-use community integrating the areas
existing industrial framework.
Rashid is an urbanist who received his training

in urban design and master planning from Oxford University and works for Cultural Engineering, a practice that designs unique public
spaces throughout Dubai and abroad. He also
edits Brownbook, a magazine produced by
Cultural Engineering which focuses on Middle
Eastern architecture, profiles and cities. He
was nominated for an Aga Khan Award for
Architecture in 2010.
Phillip Jones
Managing Director MENA, B+H Architects
Dr. Noah Raford

COO of Dubai Futures Foundation
Phil began his career in Canada before moving to the UAE in the early 1990s. He studied
architecture at the University of Toronto after an interest in building design prompted
him to explore the profession. Phil has been
a registered architect for over 30 years and
enjoys mentoring junior architects.
Noah is a futurist specializing in urban design

and is an advisor at the UAE Prime Minister's
Office. He obtained his academic training
from MIT, the Bartlett School of Architecture
and Brown University. Noah also worked with
the Prince Foundation in the United States
on an iniatiive called Design by Inquiry which
looked at incorporating the public into the design process.
Contributors
Aurelia Duplouich
Director of Master Planning, Dubai Holding
Woodman Taylor
Department Chair, American University of Dubai
Aurelia began her career at the School of Architecture

in Versailles before obtaining her masters in urban design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Her favourite project to date entailed designating Hackney Wick as a conservation area to prevent
the neighbourhood from being demolished amid construction for the London 2012 Olympics games.
Woodman studies the performative practices of visual

culture with a focus on Islamic and South Asian art. As
Chair of the Department of Visual Communication at
AUD, he oversees programs in advertising, digital media, graphic design, photography and studio art. He has
experience teaching and curating for renowned institutions such as Harvard University and the Aga Khan
Program for Islamic Architecture.
Luis Castaeda
Professor, American University of Dubai
Shailee Vipul Kothari

Student, American University of Sharjah
Luis teaches graphic design as well as acting as a design consultant for clients looking to create visual identities via logos, online and print systems and books. He
received his academic training at Parsons School of
Design in New York City and Post St. Joost Academy
AKV in the Netherlands.
Shailee is a recent architecture graduate and has completed numerous internships in Dubai. She has a special interest in designing public spaces and architecture that activates space and encourages interaction.
Shailee is a recipient of the Deans list and Chancellors list awards at AUS and she was also a finalist in
the Student photographer of the year Competition by
Photography Live and Nikon.
OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK
Taraneh Sahban
Sarah Nankivell
Student, Cambridge University
Originally from Tehran, Taraneh moved to the UAE in

2008 with a degree in English Literature from Tehran
University. Later in 2011, she began her studies at AUS
in architecture. Now in her last year, her final project
is a public courtyard concept for a design museum in
Dubai Design District. Taraneh will be pursuing a masters in Urban Design at University College London in
September 2016.
Sarah graduated from the University of Toronto before

interning in Egyptian art and digital media at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, followed by a
position coordinating the digital collection at the Aga
Khan Museum in Toronto. Sarah is currently working
on her masters at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on deliberate destruction of heritage in
the Middle East.
Sapna Govind Meghlani

Bart Leclercq
Structural Engineer, WSP
As an architecture student in her final year, Sapna has

a special interest in projects which combine architecture, art and design. She focused her studies on the impact of projects that animate small-scale public space.
Her studies focused on density of various cities urban
fabric and the restoration of public spaces.
Bart has been working as an Structural Engineer for 17

years and began his career in London. He completed
his academic training at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands and has been living in Dubai
for over 11 years.
Steve Taylor
Civil and Structural Engineer, WSP
Dr. Robert Cooke

Associate Sustainability Director, BuroHappold
Steve received his schooling and professional training

in the UK before moving to the UAE in 1991 where he
has resided ever since. Over the course of his 36 year
career, his favourite project hes worked on in Dubai is
City Tower 2 on Sheikh Zayed Road.
Rob is a doctor of engineering and chartered energy

engineer with 15 years of experience. He is a Board
Member of the Emirates Green Building Council where
he builds links with academia and promotes knowledge
sharing and industry awareness. Rob was named Engineer of the Year in 2013 at the Middle East Architect
Awards and MEP Engineer of the Year in 2012 at the
Middle East MEP Awards.
Peter Stephenson
Fire Engineer, BuroHappold
Zain Ali
Transportation Engineer/Planner, IBI Group
Peter has over 35 years of working experience in the

fire safety and fire strategy fields. He moved to Dubai
three years ago to steer all fire engineering in the
Middle East, India and Far East. His work focuses on
project-based fire strategies and fire systems analysis.
Peter is the Regional President of the Institution of Fire
Engineers in the GCC, which he played a large role in
establishing with authorities.
Zain received his academic training from Ryerson University in Toronto and has 14 years of professional experience in transportation projects in Canada and the
Middle East. He has a special interest in context-sensitive transportation designs that create active systems
throughout various cities.
Richa Harwani
Student, American University of Dubai
Richard Wagner
Founding Partner, Wanders Wagner Architects
Richa is completing her final year of studies in graphic

design. As an intern at Nestl Middle East she discovered her interest in branding and packaging design.
Her academic work has focused on creating visual
identities for neighbourhoods, cities and countries.
Richard is a senior architect who grew up in former

East Berlin. He received his academic training in architecture and environmental science from Bauhaus in
Germany, American University of Beirut, SCIArc in the
USA and VU Amsterdam. He has been working in Dubai
for 10 years.
Chiho Namba
Architect, Cultural Engineering
Anna Bolton-Riley
Landscape Architect, Little Majlis
Chiho is a design architect at Cultural Engineering

where she is currently working on a new library, gallery and caf called KHAZZAN in Al Khazzan Park.
She has been working as an architect in Dubai for eight
years and received her academic training in architecture at Kyushu University in Japan.
Anna received training in landscape architecture in

New Zealand from Lincoln University. She worked as
an architect in Dubai for 14 years before founding an
eCommerce company called Little Majlis, a website
that showcases local GCC product designers of items
ranging from jewelry to clothing to furniture. Little Majlis is designed to enable the local creative community
to promote and sell their work.
Mona Campbell
Landscape Architect, MC2 Landscape
Lucio Frigo
Founder, MATERIA
Mona is a landscape architect who has worked in the

UAE for over 20 years. She founded her own design
studio called MC2 Landscape.
Lucio is a real estate developer who invests in the

power of architecture and community to change cities for the better. He founded MATERIA after a decade
of experience in real estate development and investment at some of the world's leading investment funds
and investment banks. He is based in Dubai and travels
throughout the Middle East and Africa to manage MATERIA's projects.
Jason Moriyama
Principal, Moriyama + Teshima Architects
Sumaya Dabbagh
Founder, Dabbagh Architects
Jason is the principal of Moriyama & Teshima Architects, a firm based in Toronto, Canada. He is currently
working on the design for the Union Museum in Dubai
and his firm has delivered numerous cultural institutions in the region including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Sumaya has more than 20 years of experience in architecture and received her schooling at Bath University.
She began her career between London and Paris and
returned to the Gulf in the 1990s to understand her
own heritage. Founded Dabbagh Architects in 2008,
her Mlieha Centre of Archeology building is indicative
of her sensitive, contextual designs with a feel-good
quality.
History
According to Islamic ownership laws, land ownership pre-1960 in Dubai was

determined by how long a settlement had been there. If people had been living on
a site for a significant period of time, they were declared owners. By 1960, all land
surrounding the Dubai Municipality building was owned as was the majority of
land throughout Deira. This meant if the government wished to build on central
plots, they would have to negotiate a price with the owners. In light of these laws,
many public works developed after 1960 were done on reclaimed land dredged from
the Creek where the government was the default owner of the newly-created plots.
In addition to business, social activities and basic necessities were equally satisfied
in the Creek, be it a swim or cleaning. Life in Dubai revolved around this
significant inland stream misleadingly known as a humble creek.
The civic center

Harris master plan recommended the creation of a civic center where public
service buildings and government services were concentrated. He suggested
the area surrounding the pre-existing Dubai Municipality building in Al Rigga
neighbourhood, however that land was unavailable.
Dubai became known as regional and then global trading hub after incentivizing
traders by abolishing taxes for foreign traders in 1894. Then at the turn of the
century in 1903 a British shipping line made Dubai a port of call heralding in a
25-year boom for the city. These early measures established Dubai as a destination
in its own right among sea-based merchants.
onto narrow laneways, too small for cars but readily traversed by pedestrians.
The area is a dense maze of traditional single-storey homes, modern workers
apartments, the modest headquarters of local business empires and offices all
squeezed into the souks winding pathways.
of the United Arab Emirates for miles providing a safe harbor for safe sailors and
a strategic hub for traders and merchants. Dubais first settlements were built on
the bank of the Creek with the local economy centering on maritime trade with
boats from Asia, Africa and elsewhere in Arabia.
Our setting is Khor Dubai, the inland creek which separates

the area into two districts, Deira and Bur Dubai. We pick up
the threads of Khor Dubais history in the 1950s, the start of
Dubais plan to become the city it is today. The regions ancient pearling industry had collapsed in the 1920s, the Great
Depression hit in the 1930s and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed
Al Maktoums 32-year leadership as Ruler of Dubai began
in 1958. Known as the father of Dubai, he led the emirates
urban development and is credited for his vision of building Dubai's diverse economy which is not reliant on its oil
reserves which were discovered in 1966.
History of development
Under the leadership of Sheikh Rashid, profits from the citys trading industry
and later oil production was invested in building infrastructure starting in the
1950s. Dredging the Creek, altering its coastline and building ports and bridges
were the forerunners to other world renowned public works such as the Burj Al
Arab and Burj Khalifa.
City planning
In 1959, John R. Harris was hired by Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum to
be the first city planner of Dubai. Harris plan envisioned Dubai growing out
of Deira beyond the Creek to promote diversifying methods of trade by air and
road. He created building heights for the city and guidelines for developers whose
projects of the day entailed creating modern apartments to house the growing
number of foreign workers arriving in the city.
The sites of the Dubai Public Library, the first post office and surrounding civic
buildings are all on reclaimed land at the end of a jutting peninsula that forms the
final curve before the Creek meets the Arabian Gulf.
During the development of the reclaimed land along Deiras reclaimed coast, the
government launched a design competition to generate interest from international
designers. The Deira Corniche Competition was to feature a large roadway for
traffic to circumvent the narrow streets within Deira and give easy access to the
developing civic center at newly reclaimed southern tip of Deira.
Google Image
History
Meeting Spot
First Post Office
Dubai Public Library
Ol Spice Souk
Abra Station
Sheikh Ahmad bin Rashid

bin Shabib Mosque
---
Original Coastline
---
Al Buteen
---
Al Ras
Images: Brownbook archive
Google Image
12
Key Dates
1833 Eight hundred members of the Bani Yas tribe move
to Dubai led by Maktoum bin Butti, founder of the Maktoum family
1880 Sheikh Ahmad bin Rashid bin Shabib Mosque opens
1929 Collapse of the pearling industry due to discovery
of artificial pearls and the onset of The Great Depression
1954 Sheikh Rashid commissions a study on the economic
impact of deepening and widening the Creek by Sir William Halcrow
1955 Dubai has two districts spanning 325 hectares, Deira
and Bur Dubai
1956 The first concrete building is built, heralding the arrival of modernism in Dubai; concrete becomes the material of choice displacing clay, palm fronds, date palms and
coral.
1957 A central municipality is established to govern the
city's growth
1959 John R. Harris presents the first master plan of Dubai
1961-63 The Creek is dredged three times to accommodate more traffic and ships carrying up to 500 tonnes
1963 Dubai Public Library opens
1964 The first bridge linking both sides of the Creek, Al
Maktoum Bridge, opens
1966 Dubai issues a joint currency with Qatar, the QatarDubai Riyal, marking the start of financial sovereignty
1971 Dubai joins the United Arab Emirates federation; John
R. Harris presents his final master plan for Dubai
1972 Port Rashid opens and large cargo ships are detoured
into the port rather than proceeding into the Creek
1973 OPEC oil embargo quadruples the price of oil from
about $3 a barrel to nearly $12, creating larger funds for
private and public investment in infrastructure
1973 (or 1974) Sheikh Rashid commissions John Harris to
design the World Trade Center, 4km away from the Creek
1974 Deira Corniche Design Competition occurs; new town
planning department is founded to oversee growth
1975 Al Shindaga underwater tunnel opens
1976 Al Garhoud Bridge opens
1980 Deira Sea Competition is announced
1986 Master plan from Constantinos Doxiadis shows that
one third of Dubai's population lives in Deira or Bur Dubai
1993 Dubai has 58 districts spanning 17,841 hectares; Harland Bartholomew & Parsons present their master plan of
Dubai
2013 Proposal for Khor Dubai to become a UNESCO World
Heritage Site is reviewed by the UN
2015 The Dubai government announces the launch of the
Dubai Historical District development to support registering Khor Dubai as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
13
Details
1950s
There were about 22,000 buildings

in the 50s and in 1980, 80 percent of
them were demolished and then rebuilt
(Gulf News, 2015).
The buildings at the time stood two
storeys high with a wind tower, a courtyard and sikkas around the house.
If you go back in time to imagine being
on a dhow in the 50s and 60s coming
from India, Iraq or Iran and just crossing through and seeing all of these waterfront buildings. It must have been a
beautiful and enchanting view. It was
compact, dense and very interesting
typologically.
1959
The first master plan for Dubai was

designed by a British architect John
Harris. The plan was more like a survey
but notable for still today because it
was the first time anyone did this kind
of work. He took an aerial photo and
superimposed it to this very high level
plan of how he assumed the city would
expand. Harris worked closely with the
ruler Sheikh Rashid and was the architect
who designed the World Trade Center.
1971
When industrialization became popular, Harris prepared a second reiteration of the 1959 master plan for Dubai.
He presented it to Sheikh Rashid in
1971. He focused on street arteries, hierarchies of the road and expanding
the city.
1974
On the reclaimed land around Al Ras

area, the municipality launched an
international competition called the
Deira Sea Corniche Competition. In 74
they were already planning these spectacular, special or monumental types
of architecture they really had that
type of appetite back then and this
competition was the start.
1976
George Candilis master plan was never

implemented but his plans shows a vision for Deira. His idea was to demolish
80 percent of Deira and then rebuild it
according to his plan. He used to head
Unit Habitation and lead a lot of Corbusier's international projects.
The whole city was under construction,
not so different from the state of Dubai
decades later, but it was in response
to a huge housing shortage in the city
for foreign workers. The combination
of housing developments being constructed along with the dredging of
the Creek and city expansion meant
Dubai was in essence a massive construction site at this time.
14
1983
Constantinos Doxiadis was the master
planner of Detroit, Islamabad and Riyadh, and specialized in mobility. He was
hired for his expertise on how to deal
with roads, infrastructure, highways, and
hierarchy of streets. He regraded the entire city to let these arteries of roads penetrate dense districts.
1986
All of these massive plans from Doxiadis came into play while people were
thinking of Dubai as an oil rich, modern
city but then there was a glitch. In 1993,
oil dropped down to about $6 to $7
and that led to a situation where they'd
already invested in infrastructure but
now had a shortfall in their budget.
The United States consulted and created an infrastructure-to-debt relationship which put Dubai on a long-term
plan. So, five years on, they'll have
infrastructure and debt. This meant
Dubai needed to liberalize its economy,
open up the market, allow for foreign
direct investment, and allow for globalized penetration and funding to come
in.
Considering this situation, it's not surprising the way Dubai morphed and
molded into the way it is. It was these
specific decisions that really played
into their decision-making power and
it was survival. It was that or default.
1993
Harland Bartholomew & Parsons master plan was the final citywide master
plan. Bartholomew was an American
architect and his design came two
months before they planned the Palm
Island and a lot of other developments
so the trajectory was set.
Dubai needed to urbanize, they wanted
to commodify their land value and they
needed to allow for indirect investment
to penetrate all aspects of land development, including urban development.
This outlook was reflected in part of
Bartholomew's plan as seen on the opposite page.
In conclusion, of the five master plans
Dubai has had since 1959 have each
been implemented in varying degrees
and were designed to varying scales.
The table below shows a graphic representation of the programme each planner took on in their master plan.
Urban Memory
Urban Memory
Photo courtesy of Richa Harwani
A place is determined by the people who live there; their activities, interactions and memories connect its series of structures and spaces to create an
identifiable place. By gathering individuals recollections about a place, a collective memory takes shape. This informs how newcomers think and feel as
they navigate their surroundings and how long-time residents identify their
home. The end result is an intangible urban memory which no one owns yet
everyone relates to. The following pages gather the recollections of people
who grew up in Khor Dubai and through whose eyes we saw Deira and Bur
Dubai during this workshop.
Ahmed Mohammed Saeed Al Falasi was born in Shindaga. Now in his 60s, these are his childhood memories.
I used to go there to Shindaga to pray.

The people there are asking me, 'Why
are you living so far and you come by
your car in early morning to Shindaga 5
o'clock, 4:30 a.m. to pray here?' There is
a feeling there. You cannot forget your
past. The place where you've been born
your energy, your soul still loves that area
because they started from there with
you. When you go to that area, still you
feel some good energies coming to you.
You go back and you're remembering the
past of that life.
18
Shindaga, Ghubaiba, that's what they

call it: Al Ghubaiba. So the area where
the water is floating or remaining. Over
the course of my life I've seen the area
change from a place where locals lived in
villas to a place full of business, markets
and eventually apartments for foreigners. It was like Downtown Dubai, because
it was full of the souks, everything was
there. People coming from outside, buying from there, living there.
19
Relationships between traders and merchants

The currency in use before the UAE
formed was the Indian rupee. A lot of
Indian merchants lived in Dubai and
trade with India was common. Hindu
merchants were known for their shops
and their import-export businesses of
textiles. There was a large souk devoted to shops offering tailor services and
selling various cloth. The merchants
were also known for their wealth and
became known as money lenders.
The majority of these Hindu, they
called them Nehru at that time because they are richest, and at that time
if you have 1,000, 2,000 rupees that
means you are rich.
People would go to the merchants to
borrow rupees when they needed to
buy items they couldn't get through exchange and bartering.
the mountains, they bring honey, they

bring charcoals, they bring some oil
anything related to the milk.
If they earn 5 rupees during their sales
they will repay maybe 2 rupees towards
their loan, keeping the rest to buy essentials for life in the desert or mountains. The process will repeat until the
loan is completely repaid. Merchants
and customers knew each other and
had a relationship. "It was a good deal,
a good life."
"When you are at the age of 5 or 6, father used to take you to the souk just
to show you and help him with carrying
something. Sometimes, they give the
shopping to the porter who loads all the
things." tThen as a small child, your job
was to be the guide for the porter to
lead him to the family home.
The person asking for the loan would

give dried lemons and take the loaned
rupees. With every rupee repaid, a dried
lemon was discarded by the lender.
The loan would be repaid over several
months with no fixed payments or interest. The typical borrower will take 5
rupees, buy what they want, necessary
required things and they will leave Bur
Dubai. They return to their homes for a
month or so before returning to Dubai
with new wares to sell.
When they came from the desert, from
20
My Father's Farm
My father was in charge of logistics for
transport across the Creek for Sheikh
Rashid, the Ruler of Dubai at the time.
He owned 20 abras which would shuttle people between Bur Dubai and
Deira. After some time he decided to
sell the majority of the boats to start a
dairy farm in the middle of Shindaga.
He got the idea because the Hindu community needed fresh milk twice a day.
It was worth it for him to make this farm.
That small farm grew to around 75, 85
cows. We used donkeys, horses and camels to shift the milk from the farm to the
buyers. However there was a problem
buyers had to provide their own containers. This proved to be an impossible arrangement for several Hindu customers.
They asked my father to find another
solution to bring them milk at home. He
said Ok, I will make things between me
and you. Your guys are drinking whiskeys and you bring port, whiskeys from
outside. So that whisky bottle, don't
throw it we want it. We will wash it
and clean it and will fill it with milk, and
that milk will be supplied morning and
evening. So the whiskey bottles it was.
My job was to collect the money from
all the customers at the end of each
month and keep track of who paid and
who owed money. All this calculation it
was under my lookout because my father was not educated. He said My son,
I can trust him more than others, so he
gave to me the task of collecting the
money and bringing it back.
The Christian gentleman

I'll give you a story of a Christian gentleman. He came from inside the Middle
East; he spoke Arabic but he's Christian
I think from Damascus, Syria. So when
they found him with the long beard he
dressed all of the time in white they
thought he's one of the religious people
and he's very close to God. That gentleman was also able to read the Quran
and such, so they said 'You have to be
our Imam, our leader for praying.' He
got a shock. Why do you want me to
be Imam of Muslims. I don't know your
Islamic code?' And they said No, we feel
that you're a religious person and so he
started praying with them for six months
here in Dubai. He used to do everything
from A to Z and in the end he's still Christian. See? Because they trust anyone.
Suddenly one person came from outside who knew him by mistake and he
found him. [The visitor] said How are
you? Did you convert to Islam? The
gentleman said no. I'm just praying for
them. This is a story given to me by father.
21
Areesh House
From a childhood club house to an air
conditioned house outfitted with all
the comforts of home, Areesh House is
tucked into a quiet corner of Bastakiya
with the Creek a short walk away.
We used to play football here, on this
ground and we used to have a small
tent. Once we finished playing football
games we gathered in there." Ahmed
and his friends would split sandwiches
among themselves any other people in
the area who wanted to share a meal.
"All the foreigners who were close by in
the area they came to have sandwiches
with us they bring some sandwiches,
we bring some sandwiches and we
share that.
From the age of about 10 years old
Ahmed and his friends called this football pitch and tent their own. Now the
pitch is gone, the land ideveloped into
a cluster of buildings and the tent has
been upgraded to a building. The cooling, pillows and carpets only came decades later when the friends had grown
up.
When we finished studying and we
started work, then we had the salaries.
Each friend contributed to financing
the basic operations of the majlis and
over the years the house became more
than just a space for old friends to
spend time together.
22
Through word-of-mouth and invitations from Ahmed, foreigners and tourists interested in learning about Emirati
history and culture show up for Thursday night dinners or to sit with Ahmed
for a chat over a cup of tea. His friends
and he have been gathering at the majlis for over 30 years now.
We used to do this even before the
booming of Dubai. To Ahmed, the
boom began in 1995 with the construction of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel
[known now as the Burj Al Arab]. The
defining moment in Dubai's history for
Areesh House came 13 years later from
an unexpected party.
In 2008, Areesh House became an important footnote in the history of the
UAEs diplomatic relationship with the
United States. Former American President George W. Bushs security team
arrived weeks before his visit to scout
locations. Bush's trip was the first time
a sitting American President had visted
the UAE. One of the stops in his schedule included a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler
of Dubai at the Center for Cultural Understanding in Bastakiya, a few feet
away from the majlis. As the agents
were scouting the area, they wandered
into Areesh House.
They found this Majlis to be the right
room for the security to be an opera-
tion room for them to secure the visit of

the President. They went back to Highness and they told him We found this.
We don't know if this is a cafe or coffee
shop, They don't even know what we
are doing in here and we want it to be
our operation room. Highness said 'No,
you can't take things of others without
even informing them.
So the Dubai police returned to Areesh
House to ask Ahmed and his friends
whether they would allow American
agents to use their space during the
visit. We said most welcome, any time.
We have no objection.
The encounter piqued the interest of
Sheikh Mohammed and after Bushs
visit was over, he began to support
the Majlis financially in appreciation of
Ahmed and his friends efforts to promote Dubai and Emirati culture to visitors.
After 2 p.m. any day of the week,
Ahmed can be found drinking tea in
one of the Majlis' sitting areas talking
with friends, showing visitors his archival photos, samples of UAE national
dress and snapping photos of visitors
to update his Facebook page.
Ahmed's movement between neighbourhoods and homes shows how

locals and foreigners' residences
shifted as Dubai grew.
Moving dates
Mid 1960s
Ahmed and his family move from
their home in Shindaga to Al Riffa
Some of father's farm was there so
we came close by and built a new
villa for my mother and my brothers.
1977
Ahmed and his family move to Al
Jafiliya. [Al Riffa was] crowded with
all the foreigners in that area and it
was unsafe a little bit because we
don't know them and it was a shock
to have bachelors around houses. So
we shift from Al Riffa to Al Jafiliya.
In Al Jafiliya, the majority who lived
there were other locals or long-time
residents who either had bought new
property or, if they were Emirati, had
been granted new plots and houses
from the government. Ahmeds father was given 8,000 square feet
where he built a new villa with eight
rooms plus a majlis, dining room,
store and kitchen. It was big at that
time [compared] to where we were
from.
1988
Ahmed gets married and moves into
his own villa in Al Jafiliya. Before it
was all local. Now its more with Indian and Pilipino [residents] there
more crowded.
Early 1990s
Ahmed and his family move into a
new villa in Al Mankhool. Up to 1988
the population was not that big a
number so it was easy for the government to give you every four, six
years somewhere [new] to go, he
explained.
The Dubai government continues to
provide newly married Emiratis land
and a loan to build a home, however
the plots given are now are located
further outside of the city as plots
within
established
neighbourhoods are already leased or owned
privately.
Things have grown and become
more commercial, its become more
business, he says reflecting on the
various neighbourhoods he has
lived in.
23
Rashid bin Shabib grew up in Dubai.

There are his memories of his childhood in Deira.
These gentlemen (top) own

the current shop but the
shop before used to be a very
popular ghedu shop. Ghedu
is shisha, so it's a very typical shisha that was imported
from Iran. They used to bring
all this information and this
was the a gathering spot of
information. So you'd smoke
ghedu, you'd get the news it
was a very popular thing. So
news like who sold for what
price, what's the price of rice,
what's the price of commodities.
The Jaffer Ali Cafeteria is

an old juice hangout. This
is where everybody would
come. When we were kids we
all used to come here, my father used to bring me here everyday after work. You come
here to have a bit of laban, to
have a bit of yogurt. This guy
is still here, same guy. So he's
one of the original in the spice
market and the rest are more
traders, commercial they're
feeding tourists, but this guy
is still here.
Image: Zain Ali
24
Image: Lucio Frigo
National Tailors is a tailor that

has been here I would say
he's one of the oldest tailors
at least 70 years. Every Emirati or every family member
in Dubai has made a kandura
here. It was by Abdul Hamman and Mehdani. His sons
took over and then his grandsons took over, and people
still come here. I still make my
kanduras here. There's something so important about this
specific shop because of urban memory and this type
of continuation of physical
space. The grandfather still
comes here and he's still the
shopkeeper. Although he's a
large property developer now,
he comes back here everyday
with his grandsons. It's very
typical, so people continue
to do it in that way. There are
very few shops that I can say
today still carry on in this way.
They're still continuing to be
here and they still make kanduras for every single family
member for Eid. These places are very important. The
only reason this building still
stands is because he owns the
building so when buildings
are redeveloped or when land
is redeveloped, all of these
places tend to go.
Richa Harwani grew up in Deira and Bur Dubai.

These are her memories from her childhood neighbourhood.
Indians have been based in Dubai for

more than 100 years and make up 42
percent of the population. I, being Indian, refer to Indians as us: Dubai is home
to many of us. We have been based
mostly in areas such as Bur Dubai,
Karama and Deira, which are the oldest
parts of Dubai.
Before the cityscape we see now, the
most visited tourist spot in Dubai was
the Creek, The Dubai Museum and The
Forts all in these creekside areas. To
date these areas are densely populated
with South Asians. Along and around
The Creek is also known as Little India
or Mini Mumbai by some of websites
which promote Dubai as a tourist spot.
To a very large extent, it is true. An area
in Bur Dubai known as 'Meena Bazaar'
is completely populated by Indians.
Photos taken in Deira and Bur Dubai throughout

the 1990s are courtesy of the Harwani family.
25
My Father's Journey
In 1991, my father came to Dubai with
very limited money and no particular
job in mind. He got some help from
relatives and started working as a
salesman for an Indian company. He
stayed in Ras Al Khaimah and travelled to Dubai everyday for work.
After learning from his experiences
at this job, he was able to start up
a business of his own. He opened a
business in the same field as his first
job, electronics.
In 1998, he purchased a shop on rent
and called it Sunray Electronics. It
was based on all kinds of electronics
and electrical supplies sold on wholesale. I was born in Ras Al Khaimah
and moved to Dubai the same year
my father purchased his shop.
We moved to an area called Old Pakistani Consulate in Bur Dubai. The
two main areas of Dubai were Bur
Dubai and Deira. My fathers shop
was in Deira while we lived in Bur
Dubai, and the Creek divided these
two areas.
My father travelled from one place to
the other by abra, the traditional local boats. It costs 1dh per ride, still today as it did back then. This was the
most convenient means of transport
as it only cost 2dhs to go and return
from his work.
We lived this happy life for most of

my life until we moved out of the
area and came to the outskirts of Bur
Dubai, near the bank street. This was
quite far from the Creek and all those
fun activities eventually came to an
end. My father started driving to his
shop and no longer used the abra.
We rarely went to the creek again
and mostly went to other parks since
by then we had a car.
We moved farther away from the
Creek a second time and finally settled where we currently stay at the
bank street. We have lived here for
the past five years and never plan to
move further away from here.
Most of the Indians in Dubai live in
Bur Dubai and we have built our little
India here. From Indian souks to temples, we have it all, and dont find it
necessary to move out of here.
This was considered the most convenient route as traffic jams in Dubai
could, and still do, last for hours. This
was always the better way as we
stayed right next to the creek and
his shop in Deira was opposite to the
abra station. He would walk up to the
abra station in Bur Dubai, which was
a good exercise for him, as he tells
me.
A few years ago, my father had to

shut down his business in electronics and electrical supplies and find a
new line of business. Electronics was
not doing well enough for us as we
were growing older and it was time
for my elder sister to join university.
So my father started his chain of food
stuff, which he named after me, Richa
Food.
The new place and new life excited

us a lot since we finally lived in the
heart of the city. This place was nothing like where we lived before; it was
much more lively. There were developed localities and the infrastructures were clean and new.
But not much changed; we still lived

in Bur Dubai and his shop was still in
Deira. All that really changed was his
means of transport between the two
places. With the coming of the Dubai
Metro, he now takes the train to work
and back instead of driving because
of parking issues in Deira.
I remember our building was right

next to an ancient mosque in the
area, Shabib Mosque.
Our days
started with the beautiful morning
prayers and the end to the day was
marked by the evening prayers.
Our school was not too far from the
area; it was located in Oud Metha,
which is approximately a 10-minute
ride from home to school.
The best part of the days were the
evenings where we would go to the
creekside and play there till my father
26
returned from work and we would

pick him up from the abra station.
The creekside used to be the closest
playing area. Though there were no
actual rides to play on, it was a huge
open space to cycle around or simply
roller skate while our mothers would
walk around the area with the mothers of other children. We were a lot
of children and we met there almost
everyday and played all evening.
The story of my fathers changing

journey to work from abra to car to
metro says a lot about all the things
we have been through with the developments of Dubai and each of the
small changes in our lives.
27
Richa Food
At 7 oclock on Thursday, Vinod Harwani is a few hours away from the
end of his work week.
He owns three shops spread
throughout the sikkas of Al Ras with
his 15 staff spread over each location. The whole area is full of wholesalers, many of whom also specialize
in food stuffs.
He and his staff will take orders from
customers who call, email or walk in
and within a few hours from making
a sale they will be loading their products onto dhows often bound for a
Gulf country, Iran or India.
The food is imported from all over
the world to the company warehouse in Ras Al Khor, another district further inland along the Creek,
before it is re-exported within the
Gulf, Africa, India, Europe and North
America.
Sitting in his newest shop surrounded by shelves of sample products, he
remembers how challenging it was
to start the business 5 years ago.
For two years it was hard, he says.
Formerly he sold electronics wholesale before deciding to make the
switch to a new product line when
he was 40 years old.
His 21-year-old daughter Richa, who
started working alongside her father
three years ago between her university classes, remembers the difficult start. It was a bumpy road. He
had to start over again and hes not
young.
To help him build a base of customers and learn the business, Vinods
brother lent him his own food business name: Bagason. The shop is located next to a mosque which Vinod
thinks of gratefully. It has very good
vibes, he says.
Images: Erin Hudson
Faith and business go hand-in-hand

for him. There is a Hindu shrine next
to Vinods desk and a lemon with
hung by the windown to ward off
bad vides.
The shops are now the center of their
family life, with all the staffs families
coming to the shops to celebrate Diwali to bring wealth to the business
for the year ahead and the children,
like Richa, beginning to work alongside their parents.
The Bagstan shop still retains its

original name with Vinod's second
shop, his first shop called Richa
Food is located a few meters away
across a small courtyard accessible
only through sikkas which wind their
way out of the larger roads.
Now the business is stable and growing and Vinod has launched 12 of his
own brands to sell along with major
global brands like Nescafe and Lays.
28
Numbers
Annual turnover 50 million AED
15+/- staff
900m2 of office space
3 stores in Al Ras district in Deira
Shipping to 5 continents
2 warehouses in Ras Al Khor
29
Our Temple
Images (clockwise): Sumaya Dabbagh, Richa Harwani, Sarah Nankivell, Anna Bolton-Riley, Erin Hudson
The Hindu temple has existed

here since 1958 even before
the seven emirates came together to form UAE. This was
permitted and executed by
the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh
Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum. The temple sits next
to a mosque in the busy Bur
Dubai area and lies opposite
the Dubai Museum. This temple, commonly referred to
as Shiva and Krishna Mandir,
can hold up to 200 people
at once as it consists of two
floors. This is so far the only
Hindu temple in the UAE, and
also consists of a Sikh temple,
or the Gurudwara, on the top
most floor of the building. All
religious festivities and holy
ceremonies start here. The
first floor consists of the Shiva and Krishna Temple, where
30
we worship the idols of them

and hold Arthis, Hindu recitals. This is also where the
Prasad from the temple is
served to the general public. The Sikh Temple or the
Gurudwara is a quiet place
where the holy Sikh book is
recited to the public at certain prayer times.
We feel very lucky to have
a temple space of our own
which is respected by the authorities and also allows us to
perform our religious rituals
in our temple. At the ground
floor lies a lane of shops selling ritual necessities such as
Prasad, sweets or fresh flowers to serve the God. They
also sell small idols which one
can purchase for their own
small temples in their homes.
The Workshop
The Workshop
Words: Phillip Jones
Charrette is a French word for the cart which instructors would use to collect architecture students assignments;
if your assignment didnt get on the cart once time was up, you wouldnt get the grade. Over centuries it became
adopted into the English language to mean a workshop with a tight deadline.
Traditionally, charrettes are used in architecture schools to transform high-level ideas into concrete proposals quickly, however recently theyve become a way of involving the public in the design process. Charrettes are increasingly
used as a way for designers to hear directly from the people who are living and using the spaces in question what
they want to see change or remain the same.
This charrette was a unique twist on the latter approach; the charrette asked participating architects, engineers and
academics to document what elements of Khor Dubais urban framework we can learn from and contemplate how
we might incorporate these lessons into our future projects.
Led by Rashid bin Shabib, we walked through the lane ways of Deira past the Emirates first public library, post office,
old spice souk, one of Dubais oldest mosques and finally the dhow wharf where boats are still unloading various
wares onto sidewalks that can barely contain them.
Throughout our walk, we heard stories of childhood memories, favorite places to hang out, places where not only
commodities were exchanged but also world news, art, craftsmanship, values and life philosophies. We walked
through the original planned framework of sikkas, which all lead to the port where goods are still brought to and
from shops and trade centers on hand carts. We saw Sunni and Shia mosques steps away from one another and
walked by Dubais Hindu temple.
The following pages showcase our field notes, the approach we followed and the lessons we came away with.
The Route
As narrated by Rashid bin Shabib

Original coastline
Deira
1
Shindaga
2
3
Al Buteen
district
Al Ras district
6
7
Khor Dubai
11
10
Bur Dubai
The whole idea of this walk is to try to

get people a little bit closer to what the
urban fabric of Dubai is. The idea is for
all of us to walk around and try to identify what makes Dubai quintessentially
Dubai. Not just from a design or aesthetic point of view but the whole urban fabric; design details, the hues and colours,
the public realm. Then we can slowly try
to retrospect on the historic elements
that shape Dubai from a traditional point
of view and look at the modern heritage
which plays a very important role in
shaping what created modern Dubai. We
want to get people to understand what's
shaping and what has shaped traditional
Dubai and its plans as buildings were redeveloped and recreated.
1 Al Ras Metro Station

2 Deira Sea Corniche overlooking Shindaga
3 First post office & Dubai Public Library
4 Old Spice Souk
5 Dubai Municipality Museum
6 Sheikh Ahmad bin Rashid bin Shabib Mosque
7 Al Sabkha Abra Station
8 Deira Corniche
9 Bur Dubai Textile Souk
10 Shiva Mandir & Krishna Mandir Hindu Temple
11 Creekside Cafe
35
Al Ras District and the Deira

Corniche
There's a couple of things in this area
that mark the beginning of development in Dubai. First of all, we're on
reclaimed land. If you look at those
buildings in the back that was the
beginning of the setback. The water
would go all the way back there. The
land reclamation was done with the
ambition of something called the Deira
Sea Corniche Competition. The competition was the beginning of a lot of
development, and a lot of conceptual
large scale city planning of mixed-use.
The competitors included people like
George Candilismany architects who
used to work at Corbusier's office. The
result was all of these new conceptual
post-modern or modernist city plans.
But none of it was ever built. This part
of Dubai was never considered where
Dubai wanted to expand. They wanted
they city to expand towards Abu Dhabi
so the competition was abandoned.
What's interesting specifically about
this site is if you look at these two
benches; these are the prototypes designed by an Iraqi architect Moath Al
Mousy. He graduated from Iraq and
was one of the post-modern architects
thinking about how can we identify
or redefine vernacular in that context.
There were a lot of Iraqi architects
that graduated from the University of
Baghdad and there was a split. The
likes of Zaha Hadid went on to create
all of these really architecturally daring,
structurally boring developments and
then you had a different group who
moved towards ideas of how to identify
shade and structure at a very different
scale. Al Mousy was one of them and
started doing these benches.
These were early prototypes meant to
shape the public realm and civic space
in general. This was a form of creating public space, shading and trying to
continue the urban language. They are
very special in my perspective because
they have this motif of trying to look at
shading, wind towers and context.
36
Shindaga District
The other project is behind us: Shindaga. My grandfather is from Deira from
my father's side and my grandmother
from my mother's side is from Shindaga. They always fight and say 'Oh, I married a foreigner.' So between Shindaga
and Deira they considered the other
foreigners.
Shindaga was really derelict in the
1970s and 1980s while Dubai was developing; it was abandoned and everyone was looking at these type of four or
five storey buildings. There was a guy
called Rashad Bokhash who started to
look at the area and say that traditional
architecture matters so let's restore
these buildings. They solicited the help
of Muhammed Makiyah, who is an Iraqi
architect. If you are familiar with the Regents Park mosque in London, hes the
same architect that restored it.
The restoration of Shindaga is questionable to a lot of people but it had
to be done. Its block work was cladded
with a kind of mortar that replicates the
lime mortar. Originally the brick and
mortar used in our building structure
swas coral and lime but in the restoration they used block and cement, brick
and mortar, and cladded it with artificial lime. No matter what we feel about
the architecture, it's still living on and
that matters.
Along Deira's corniche is where a lot
of the economic development and
the rental structures first started to
develop. The property development
boom started in the 1970s and 1980s
when they started to extract oil and
all of these buildings especially the
banks, really played a special role. This
was considered 'Bank Street' so this is
where all the finance happened. It was
the earlier DIFC and this type of architecture played along.
Although the buildings are new, or
relatively new, in the context of Dubai,
what's interesting is that the urban fabric didn't give way. The plots still exist.
From a structural engineering point of
view, the setbacks and regulations are
really off, but the reality is they kept it,
which is something really important. A
lot of the spacing and the codes of today are not applicable to what we see
there. They couldn't untangle the urban
fabric so they just said, it's cheaper for
us to dredge it and put a highway on
the corniche around Deira.
37
Post Office and the Deira

Public Library
The building behind me went through
different translations in trying to incorporate the new federal government.
Before the Internet, a lot of people
needed mail so this type of building
was being built across the city. I'm not
sure who the architect is but it likely
would have been an Arab modernist
typically Iraqi, Jordanian or Palestinian. This symbolizes the introduction of
concrete and they were trying to shape
what the architectural language should
be and what civic spaces, public halls
or assembly halls should be.
The post office is one example of how
it was shaped and if you go to other
Emirates, you'll find similar examples
of this type of architecture. Initially the
parking lot was planned as a garden
so it was a small park which was later
converted into a parking lot. This was
a very special symbolic sort of space.
Right behind, you was the first library of
Dubai and I highly recommend a visit if
you ever get a chance to all the architectural documents and plans are actually donated to this library. They have
one of the best collections of planning
and architectural documents. There's a
lot of information there.
This library is also an important example of the introduction of concrete,
and trying to shape typology and landmarks. Why would they pick such a location? It must have been this form of
symbolism. It must have been this idea
of creating symbols. This was likely
something they were very proud of;
they placed it at the mouth of the creek
where the dhow boats would come in.
For me, that placement comes from
this idea of reimagining. Dubai used to
be known as the Venice of the Middle
East. These dhow boats would come in
from far away, from Zanzibar and from
India and go through creek and you'd
have waterfront buildings that were
two or three storeys. This is a modern
iteration of that idea but in a new way.
38
Al Ahmadiya School
This is the Al Ahmadiya School, the first
high school ever in Dubai. My father
studied there and a lot of other older
generation Emiratis did too; Sheikh
Mohammed studied there, Sheikh Maktoum studied there.
It was in very poor shape so they restored it and then over restored it. They
added more details to it and they added more traditional things. In general, if
you bring any of the older generation
their comment would be that it didn't
look like this. It was very minimal, it was
very simple, the access to it was more
straight-forward.
They took a symbolic way of trying to
create a statement about traditional
architecture and then made it into a
museum. It's not wrong, it's not right.
Is it meant to be in this way? Should it
be restored? It's more a question for
architects, city planners and decisionmakers, but it's there and it's a very important landmark in the city.
39
Sikka Culture
This is a very typical section of a sikka.
A sikka is a very small alleyway. Originally it wasn't meant for vehicles as, in
general, a sikka is much more compact
and oddly shaped. As we walk along
you realize that this is very much part
of the urban fabric the sikka culture.
It basically provided shade with potential space for interventions like pop-up
retail markets and it was very informal.
For example, informal markets.
We can also see these three or four
buildings in the middle of the street
that's part of the urban legacy. It
comes from generations and generations of land being passed down and
then re-developed for other purposes.
This is very indicative of the planning
measures and the origins of these demarked plots that have paved way for
newer buildings and this typical mixeduse of retail on the bottom and residential on the top. It might sound standard
but it's very unusual for Dubai. This is
not usual in newer developments in
other areas.
The other interesting thing is the plots.
Theyre oddly shaped so the owners
must have inherited them but then the
second generation and third generation decided to build on them without
altering the shape. They are also very
odd buildings because theyre actually stuck to the adjacent building,
which is a typology or a type of building style that you would see in Europe.
You could see them in London, all the
side-by-side buildings slammed in next
to each other with no setbacks. That
is very much typical of the sort of the
building types here as well.
Typical Deira
This building is without an elevator,
which was a very typical type of plan
for a building; a central staircase right
in the middle that is not air conditioned. You have all of these types of
mashrabiyas which create a breeze.
With the concrete blocks and layout
of the apartment units, this is a very
typical elevation of a building. In Dubai,
now, this is unusual.
40
Spice Souk
The spice market was originally known
for wholesale where retailers would
stock products and inventory, not to sell
to the local market, but to be loaded on
the dhows for re-exporting. Dubai was
a re-exporter from the very beginning.
They would bring cargo from Zanzibar,
Iran, India and then it might be re-exported within the Gulf or other places.
Boats even used to leave Dubai and go
up to the southern part of England.
A shopkeeper here would have a longterm relationship with a shopkeeper
in, say, Zanzibar and then, like stories I
would hear in this past month of March
for example, they'd bring saffron from
Iran then send it on to Zanzibar as part
of the export. Some people operate
their supermarkets in Nigeria out of
here for example. A month ago apparently somebody bought 20 G-classes
and they put them on the dhow wooden boat.
The spice souk is a restored project by
the Heritage Department and, whether
you like the architecture or not, it's still
quite popular. A lot of the older generation still come here, they still use it and
you see a lot of wholesale still going on.
Dubai Municipality
This is the first municipality building.
Again the land its sitting on is all reclaimed so this was really ground zero
of the waterfront. The Dubai Municipality was on the waterfront and this was
its very typical building; the mezzanine
on top and the ground floor kept for
services. It's nice they've kept it that
way. There's a small museum upstairs
now, nothing fancy but if you're free on
a Friday or Saturday it's worth walking
around. They have nice books.
Now we're going to move towards
Al Buteen which is one of the oldest
parts of Dubai. This is where the plans
are original and the distance between
buildings are original. A lot of Dubai really started, from a property development point of view, in this area. Keep in
mind the proximity of buildings, the elevations of buildings and imagine these
buildings opening up and being frontages to these sikkas and how these
narrow alleyways become the point of
entry to these buildings.
41
Shabib Mosque
This whole area is where a lot of the
trading started in Dubai. A lot of the
merchants and trade shops would begin in this area and then slowly urbanize
from here. The plan around this whole
area slowly began to give way, but the
sikka formation is still very much something that's here. As you can see, storage for the shops here is usually on the
front of the shop.
This mosque actually belongs to my
great-great-grandfather and it still carries on within the family legacy. However there's a ministry called Ministry of
al Waqf so basically you have to give
back the mosques and they become
part of the government's restoration
project. It belongs to the ministry now
and the Heritage, or al Waqf, Department. This means you can't touch it
it's up to them, they keep it and manage it. We can contribute in kind. For
instance, in Ramadan, you can have
food and different activities but in general it belongs to the government.
When you hear rhetoric globally about
Dubai people assume that Dubai developed only a couple of decades ago but
the reality of it is Dubai has been here
for centuries. People have been trading
and civic space has been allocated here
for a hundred or so years. Buildings or
plots of land have been allocated to
family members dating back to the
1880s, like this mosque in my family.
There was a bit of master planning
in the way these old buildings were
formed. For example, if you look at
these shaded forms. In 1986, Doxiadis presented the third master plan of
Dubai and he proposed these interventions which Arab-ize the city. His idea
was to bring back the market-feel with
these shade structures because it hides
away the towers. So if you look at the
building, these shaded canopies or colonnades are placed to hide it yet allow
you to bring back that local language
and create more of an Arabic feeling.
There's also landscape allocated plots
there. So you can see the type and setback of the buildings and how walkways were planned.
42
Electronic Street
This specific street in Dubai was once
known for its pearl exports. Dubai was
known for these pearl banks in the middle of the ocean. People would go and
bring in pearl, but after the discovery of
the cultured pearl in Japan, the whole
economy collapsed. What is interesting was how the legacy of infrastructure that was created around the pearl
industrymostly boat manufacturing,
lived on.
These dhows and the complexity of the
joinery to create them required special techniques so carpentry was such
an important skill which Dubai really
owned. We knew how to build complex large-scale dhow boats that would
travel great distances. Once the pearl
industry collapsed, all of the boat makers left Jaddaf, left all of their wood and
carpentry workshops and they came
here. They started to occupy all of these
shops and Dubai started to export
doors, fixtures and furniture. In Saudi,
we were one of the largest exporters
of doors, fixtures and other forms of
joinery. This was told to me by a guy
who works in DIFC as an MEP consultant and whose grandfather owned a
shop here. He explained the story to
me about how they all took shops and
started manufacturing doors with complex steel work and iron mongering and
it just continued from there.
Now you can see that it's completely
changed. This street is now informally
called 'Electronic Street' and 'Lighting
Street' because this is where they sell
all the lights. It's been taken over by
Chinese retailers for the most part.
Those benches over there, that's a
very typical form of traditional public intervention. These benches would
be made out of a very common wood
called balinga wood and was used to
make the dhow boats. They would be
oiled with fish oil and then made into
these benches that would be scattered
all over the city. This was very typical of
any space you'd have. They would be
used for a majlis, a social gathering or
a breather space. Whats notable is the
shape is very original and if you look
at the height of it, it's a very unusual
height that is very typical for this kind
of public bench.
43
Return to Deira Corniche

Now we're back as what was considered 'Bank Street'. You can see the
Emirates Bank that was designed by
Irving, an American architect who did a
lot of banks in America, doing this colonnade structure mezzanine.
Walking next to the dhows, you can
see the re-export culture for the
shops; how they start to load up different things. They've moved from very
typical products such as saffron and
other forms of fast consumable moving goods to electronics. So they'll be
loading up 100 refrigerators on these
wooden dhow boats and they'd go to
Somalia or Yemen. Its changed yet its
still an affordable and practical form of
transporting goods.
There is a parking lot along this road
that was made by Jaffa Al Khan who
was a very famous Jordanian architect. He worked under Kenza Tongay
and many other established architects.
What he did was a very typical model
of mixed-use on the bottom and then
parking space on top. So they would do
retail shops and then have cars being
parked on top.
They would do this model of build, operate, transfer and hand it over to the
private sector, which was the beginning of a lot of master plan work. This
is just one type but it was a successful approach that started in the 1950s.
To note, this is not the original it was
converted in 1975.
44
The Hindu Temple

Now that we've walked through the
Textile Souk which is the major wholesale industry based here in Bur Dubai,
or Meena Bazaar as it's known, we are
going to do a quick detour to the Hindu
Temple. Stay close it tends to be quite
crowded. Then were going to gather to
do our workshop in a cafe just around
the corner.
45
The exercise
As explained by Dr. Noah Raford

The goal here is to assemble some
wonderful minds and some very observant eyes from various parts of
the world, from various disciplines, to
walk through what was the cultural,
architectural and economic genesis of
Dubai. We're here in the DNA of Dubai
as it were. Very much in the Learning
from Las Vegas approach, today were
learning from Deira.
So the idea is that while we walked
through Deira and Bur Dubai led by
Rashid who provided use some cultural
and historical background, and your job
was to do two things: Take photos and
make notes. The photos and notes will
focus on the following aspects of the
built, social and cultural environment:

The environment: It can get quite

warm around here so we want you
to pay attention to examples of
climate control; contemporary and
traditional.
Transport: Different modes of

transport are the citys engines
for social and economic exchange.
How has this place been designed
to facilitate hand carts, pedestrians, bicycles, cars, dhows, abras
and a metro system?
Retail land use: What is inside the

buildings we pass and how are
commercial retail spaces being
used? Look for how buildings and
streets were designed to facilitate the movement of goods and
people.
Public space: How are people using public space, who is in the
space and how are they interacting
with one another? Elements could
be aesthetic or cultural; they may
work well or poorly; they might be
traditional or modern.
Lucio Frigo
The process: Contributors made notes throughout the walk according to the instructions and
then discussed several photos as a group in Creekside Cafe.
Patterns and motifs: What patterns in the streets, facades, storefronts or people are visible? We
are looking for symbols and aesthetic elements.
There was no right way or wrong way

to do this; this was just a structuring exercise to help us pull out some relevant
details that we will show later on to
identify some interesting patterns and
commonalities from what we see.
The following pages display the photos,
grouped by category, taken by contributors during the walk through Deira
and Bur Dubai.
Lucio Frigo
46
ENVIRONMENT
Lucio Frigo
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Chiho Namba
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Shailee Kothari
Shailee Kothari
Shailee Kothari
Steve Taylor
47
TRANSPORT
Zain Ali
Lucio Frigo
Peter Stephenson
Zain Ali
Shailee Kothari
Zain Ali
Taraneh Sabhan
Zain Ali
Steve Taylor
Shailee Kothari
48
Lucio Frigo
TRANSPORT
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Chiho Namba
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
49
TRANSPORT
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
50
Anna Bolton-Riley
TRANSPORT
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
51
TRANSPORT
Sumaya Dabbagh
Anna Bolton-Riley
Sumaya Dabbagh
Lucio Frigo
Sumaya Dabbagh
Anna Bolton-Riley
Zain Ali
Sumaya Dabbagh
52
Sumaya Dabbagh
Zain Ali
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
TRANSPORT
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Zain Ali
Lucio Frigo
Zain Ali
53
RETAIL LAND USE
Zain Ali
Aurelia Duplouich
Zain Ali
Dr. Noah Raford
Zain Ali
54
Peter Stephenson
RETAIL LAND USE
Phillip Jones
Mona Campbell
Lucio Frigo
Anna Bolton-Riley
Lucio Frigo
Anna Bolton-Riley
Zain Ali
55
RETAIL LAND USE
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Lucio Frigo
Zain Ali
56
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
RETAIL LAND USE
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
57
RETAIL LAND USE
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Sumaya Dabbagh
Anna Bolton-Riley
58
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
RETAIL LAND USE
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
59
PUBLIC SPACE
Bart Leclercq
Dr. Noah Raford
Taraneh Sabhan
Taraneh Sabhan
Bart Leclercq
60
Bart Leclercq
Shailee Kothari
Richard Wagner
Zain Ali
Mona Campbell
Shailee Kothari
Anna Bolton-Riley
Shailee Kothari
Lucio Frigo
PUBLIC SPACE
Zain Ali
Richard Wagner
Sumaya Dabbagh
61
PUBLIC SPACE
Sumaya Dabbagh
Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Zain Ali
Phillip Jones:
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Lucio Frigo
62
Sumaya Dabbagh
Lucio Frigo
PUBLIC SPACE
Zain Ali
Anna Bolton-Riley
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Lucio Frigo
Dr. Noah Raford: Public Space
63
PATTERNS
Steve Taylor
Shailee Kothari
Mona Campbell
Aurelia Duplouich
64
Shailee Kothari
Shailee Kothari
Zain Ali
Mona Campbell
Lucio Frigo
PATTERNS
Shailee Kothari
Lucio Frigo
Lucio Frigo
Richard Wagner
Zain Ali
Anna Bolton-Riley
Lucio Frigo
Lucio Frigo
Lucio Frigo
65
PATTERNS
Lucio Frigo
Lucio Frigo
Anna Bolton-Riley
Lucio Frigo
Lucio Frigo
Anna Bolton-Riley
Lucio Frigo
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Chiho Namba
Anna Bolton-Riley
Sumaya Dabbagh
66
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
PATTERNS
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
Anna Bolton-Riley
67
PATTERNS
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Phillip Jones
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
Sumaya Dabbagh
68
Sumaya Dabbagh
Commentary
Commentary
Ports and markets are almost always the seeds of civilization

which grow into cities, but the port of Dubai Creek is more
than just the birthplace of the larger city Dubai has now become. Today the Creek continues to be a strong economic
center very much in use. Global trade is still actively happening in ways similar to how it did decades, even centuries ago.
Many shopkeepers have intervened in architectural design
and engineering to add new layers that serve their business.
In some places, the active layer of present life almost masks
the historic framework. The result is a dynamic place with a
multitude of layers where present and past come together to
create built-environments which are truly unique. In this charrette, we observed what elements of the past are visible today
to a passersby and speculated on why these elements remain
today. Are they here today for decoration, to facilitate movement, business or perhaps shade? The following pages describe the elements we saw that, while anchored in the past,
are still very in use now.
Lesson 1
Transport and movement
In discussion after the walk through Deira and
Bur Dubai, many contributors reached a consensus around six key lessons the Creek districts illustrate which could be incorporated
into future projects in other areas for their merit
and intrinsic value. The following are highlights
from that discussion.
Anna Bolton-Riley
Steve Taylor
One way
Its interesting how these extended

pavements serve as little mini plazas.
These are active centers. I wonder if
that was intentionally planned or did
that just happen to be a side effect of
the traffic engineering? They are probably some of the most active places in
the whole area. Noah Raford
Its like that because of the one-way
system. The road engineering is such
that everyone's moving straight so
automatically this space is created.
Mona Campbell
Normally one-way spaces are not good
for pedestrians but given the very narrow width of the streets, it really is good.
One thing I noticed about the traffic is
that it's not moving very fast. In a way
it's a shared space, even though it's not
intentionally done like that. It's an in-
72
Peter Stephenson
teresting example of a one-way system
that works quite well from a pedestrian
or mixed-mode standpoint. Noah Raford
combination of wholesale goods, huge

boxes of stuff and the abras and dhows
being loaded. Its a very characteristic
moment. Noah Raford
Hand carts
Loading and slower traffic
Because of the seekers you get these

hand pulled carts and you see it in
many cities around the Middle East. It's
just something that should be retained
in any development like this. Steve
Taylor
A quick anecdote about that: My father would say this is how you would
start as a young boy working the rickshaw to make a bit of money. So when
they were anywhere from 11 to 14, this is
what they would do and they'd earn a
living. Rashid bin Shabib
That's something, at least in Dubai, you
only see here. As you mentioned it's the
The shops are smaller, the plots are

smaller. There's only so much they can
do within their shops, so they need a
space outside of their property to do
activities like organize their boxes and
bikes. Since there is more blockage on
the sidewalks, theyre generally tighter.
Zain Ali
I would say this is one of the more car
dominant places of the interior but it's
an interesting example of mixing of
modes. Noah Raford
Lesson 2
Scale
Anna Bolton-Riley
Sumaya Dabbagh
One thing I found striking at the post
office was you had the shading structure just at almost your head height and
that scale felt so comfortable. Another
example in terms of that nice scaling is
the tree canopy. Noah Raford
For a pedestrian area, it's a street scale.
Here you can actually walk around and
there was so much richness in that experience. There's a lot we can learn.
Sumaya Daddagh
73
Lesson 3
Unique aesthetics
Anna Bolton-Riley
Sapna Govind
Sapna Govind
Phillip Jones
Visual Complexity
I like how all of these things actually add to the aesthetic value
of the faade. So let's say your
plumbing systems, AC or the pigeon protection, they add layers
to these facades. Sapna Govind
This is the kind of condition any
modern developer tries to avoid
yet that's something that adds
character. It's a lived-in visual
complexity. Noah Raford
It's all about the little accoutrements. For example at the post
office, the lamp, the little number
and the relationship of the stairs
so that layering and play with the
materials and the landscape occursit works really well. Somebody really thought about those
little planters that makes all the
difference. Phillip Jones
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Water views
It's just one of these experiences

one of the must-see and must-experience. It's fantastic, especially
as the sun goes down. In terms of
your ability to step down and get
close to the water, its rare. The
only time you get to do that is at
the abra points. You don't get to
see water or touch water easily.
Mona Campbell
One of the most memorable parts
of this trip was being on that abra.
Imagine being in that setting
50 years ago. It must have been
spectacular. It must have been
such a beautiful vista for you to
enter Dubai. Rashid bin Shabib
Mona Campbell
Lesson 4
Informal public space
Sumaya Dabbagh
Bart Leclercq
Dr. Rob Cooke
Bart Leclercq
It's the combination, the trees, the curb,
the activity, the street furniture and the
informal human scale of the place.
Noah Raford
some tea and then only two feet away

were four other people eating a meal. So
much happening in one small little place.
It was really alive. Bart Leclercq
The space near the old ghedu place, for

example, wasn't a very big place, it was
just an opening between shops that allowed people enough room to gather.
Those public spaces don't require a lot
room. Phillip Jones
What I liked about this shade structure is

that you don't see the building anymore.
The building disappears once you're under that canopy and parts of the walk
are completely under shade so it always
feels cool. Rashid bin Shabib
These sidra trees are gathering points.

Noah Raford
It highlights the value of a living, breathing thing in front of all the harsh hardness of the cars and buildings Mona
Campbell
You have lots of activities, lots of people

sitting there socializing, sitting to drink
Dr. Rob Cooke
75
Lesson 5
How people relate and use space
I think we should learn from

people. The great stories told
by Rashid were about people,
their lives and how things
were built around them and
how they control things. How
people react to things and lay
design has to be maintained
so that those people continue to live here and have their
shops here. Dr. Rob Cooke
I was struck by how there's
this continuation of cultural
processes and relationships
to the space which very much
still exist. That's very much
what heritage is. It's not the
built environment, or the actual physical fabric, although
that's an important part, heritage is the relationship people
have to the landscape, to the
place, the processes and uses
of it. It's how we interact with
the past and the present and
how we use the past. Sarah
Nankivell
There's still people using it
still living there and remembering. Noah Raford
76
There was a bit of a debate

on the street some of us were
talking saying This looks very
real right? But what is real?
Someone else said No, no, it
isn't real because something
has changed. It doesn't matter, that's not the point. What
is still the same is the density
or massing of buildings and
the use of the buildings. To
me, this is an alternative, it's
not an older model, it's simply different from that. Lucio
Frigo
It's the people who are in this
area that really make it alive.
It's an inclusive environment
for all people whereas other
districts are exclusive. There's
only certain people who can
interact there. Anybody can
interact in this environment.
Steve Taylor
Lesson 6
Ownership
Aurelia Duplouich
Zain Ali
Zain Ali
I wouldn't see the urban fabric
in Deira changing because the
government only owns those
stretches on the outside of
Deira. The rest is all privately
owned. So I can't imagine it,
unless the developers or landowners themselves pulled
down the buildings. Rashid
bin Shabib
Phillip Jones
When you look at a lot of

the new developments versus the established developments here, there are many,
many different people who
own businesses here. It's in
the hundreds of thousands
business owners here whereas
back there you have specific
institutions, businesses.
Rashid bin Shabib
Here it's totally unbranded.

The shop is customized by
each owner and that creates
a lot vibrancy. If you take retail in new development, the
cost of development leads to
brands and that is such a homogeneous offer on any high
street you go to.
Aurelia Duplouich
77
Photo Essay
by Luis Castaeda
Image of mailboxes. Does anyone still get hardcopy mail? Of

course, but it seems that the Emirates Post Office still plays a role
in this neighbourhood. Hand delivery. In addition, the mailboxes
are in public space not inside the post officeeven though they
are private little spaces. One box is hand written by the owner.
Image of graffiti. Very rare to find graffiti anywhere in Dubai in general.
Perhaps this isnt graffiti, perhaps it's a code for a building to be understood by some official department. But it is a rare thing to see this scale.
Only themost well-known museum doesn't get a proper sign. The

haphazard sign, low-tech sign also indicates what the priorities
may be in the areaselling wares and products not culture.
Mosque, Burj Khalfifa image: Interesting composition of the building

structures which make up Dubai, including construction. In addition,
they serve as visual landmarks for pedestrians and drivers to navigate
and know the direction of the city and where they are.
Signature on broom stick, taken at the Spice Souk. Again, all signage or signs indicate navigation or serve as store ID. It's nice to
see someones personal signature on an object. This belongs to a
specific person.
Dubai 10-11-011. Dubai changing; Deira changes every second. This is a
document of a moment in time (if that is a date). I find the numbering
sequence interesting. Maybe it is not a date. Another code?
78
Moon light fixture. Nice visual combination of elements.
Windows with reverse graphics. These are the only graphics I noticed
which are meant to be seen from the inside of a space.
Image of delivery man: Us and Them, or Us vs. Them?: Took this

image and couldnt help feeling that we were intruding. We are
visitors, out of place. Yet it is also about curiosity, curiosity of difference.
Wooden sitting area canopies re-purposed. Here they are not meant to
be sat under. They are stuck together to make a larger roof structure out
of its original function.
Announcement board. There were no announcements. No time for

announcements in such a hectic area. Things and people are constantly on the move with no time to inform of change.
Green gate: Interesting attempt at guarding and protecting something

that can be wheeled around. Fence indicates keep away from someones property.
79
Words and images: Sarah Nankivell
Dubai's Living Heritage

Where history is the study of the past,
heritage is the many ways the past is
used in the present. It is an active, dynamic relationship between then and
now, formed through constant renegotiation, reconstruction, and recreation
of the values we choose to take from
the past with us into the future.
As an emirate in a country federated
in 1971, Dubai is developing its international identity as a modern, multicultural city and negotiating which
aspects of the past will be meaningful
and representative of that identity in
the present and future. This process of
identity formation involves deciding on
which elements of the past are culturally significant to the Khor Dubai community and how these elements will be
preserved and presented as heritage.
Dubai has witnessed rapid and profound globalization over the last 50
years. This process has included the
destruction, transformation, and reconstruction of much of its built environment and the collapse of traditional social and economic ways of life. Despite
a multitude of changes, Khor Dubai
stands as a remarkable testament to
how the continuation of cultural practices evokes our sense of place and
past with or without the original
physical fabric.
The vitality and authenticity of Khor
80
Dubai is now better understood as a

larger expression of continued cultural
practices and traditions that have been
renegotiated into the context of present day spaces, social networks, and
constructions of meaning. Its heritage
should be understood as a balanced,
beneficial relationship between past
and present, and also between stakeholders, most notably those who live
and work on the creek.
Using this conceptualization of heritage, the significance of Khor Dubai
cannot be reduced to a single building
or artifact because it is tangled in the
many layers of meaning and memory
attached to it. The myriad recollections
of the past that converge here are represented throughout the many forms
of heritage layered within this landscape today. Each relationship formed
with and within this environment is part
of a unique expression of cultures and
events that has shaped Khor Dubai into
the complex, living heritage landscape
it is today.
Listening to the memories of people
who grew up here, the activities they
used to do and still do supports this.
Crossing the creek in an abra, a method of transportation used for centuries
by locals and tourists alike is one example. Others include National Tailors,
a tailoring shop where Emirati families
have gone for generations to have their
kanduras made, the Spice Market, a

recent reconstruction of the original
structure that continues to be a hub
of trade and social life, and the banks
of Dubai Creek, where ships continue
to be built using traditional methods.
This incorporation of traditional styles,
plans, symbols, and practices into the
modern landscape not only safeguards
the past, but also generates new spaces and forms of social interaction and
creativity for the present.
On hearing such stories of urban memory and modern life, it becomes clear
that this place is meaningful not because of the buildings themselves, but
because of the social relationships and
activities that take place within them.
It is practices and places such as these
that provide the creeks landscape with
resonance and meaning as they are
carried from the past into the present
and continue to shape the characteristic heritage of Khor Dubai as plans for
its future are created.
The living heritage of Khor Dubai, which
can be seen, heard, felt and even tasted
in the briefest of walks through its sikkas and souks, carries a valuable lesson
on what heritage is: It is not part of the
past it is a process that happens in
the present and should be informed by
the unique and dynamic cultural landscape in which it occurs.
Photo Essay
by Dr. Rob Cooke
Here we see a father and son having an informal game of cricket. Could
this area be designed or developed to encourage more social recreation and utility like this?
Hand carts are used to transport goods into the souk area from the
creekside, typically using the roadway due to the discontinuous nature
of the pavements.
On the approach into Deira from the metro station is a modern

square with palm trees for shade, but the space looks very little used. Perhaps due to the surface car-parking dominating the
space and approach. This space has a formality about it which is
inconsistent with the language of Deira.
Once you are able to cross the traffic and get to the creekside the
views, sense of place and animation are wonderful and need to be
celebrated.
81
Sikkas provide natural shaded areas for

walking, resting and oblique views to other
streets and openings.
A typical residential mixed-use building showing high-density residential occupation with appropriate massing and street relationship. It illustrates the use of mashrabiya patterns to shade stairwells and balconies.
The retail spaces at the ground floor are typically set-back or provide
a shaded colonnade or awning to provide shaded pedestrian areas.
A typical street scene deep in Deira

where new meets old creating a vibrant,
semi-shaded space.
Shade within the souks is consistent and well

considered in Deira and Bur Dubai.
The patterns of mashrabiya are more ornate in

the souks than in the streetscape.
82
Shops within Deira are serviced from the front which helps to animate the streetscape and creates a co-habitation space between
merchants and the public
Traditional buildings stand out from the general surroundings in terms

of massing, maintenance levels, materials and finishes.
Irregular street angles and sikka connections create small street

openings and informal spaces for gathering, often anchored by small
street trees.
This space opens out into a very animated intersection with another small baraha dominated by a street tree creating a valuable
focal point for human activity. This combination of small gathering
spaces connected by sikkas and furnished with street trees is a
memorable feature of the area.
This shaded wider pedestrian street provided a very popular and valuable place to gather outside a traditional mosque connected by sikkas
and small barahas.
83
A relatively modern building showing a rare use of masonry as a finish

material to provide a different pattern style from the majority of building facades, though the heat rejection units are familiar.
The role of the street tree is demonstrated in more detail here as a

focal point and opportunity to rest, meet and even for orientation.
This scene is virtually timeless and the picture could have been
taken any time in the last 30 years apart from the mobile phone.
Where streets open up they provide an opportunity for a traditional

seating arrangement once typical across Deira as well as storage of
goods in the streetscape for onward carriage. This area becomes a focal point for consolidation of goods, people, thoughts and stories.
Dubai Creek and the area of Deira has a lot of living heritage value
and these valuable elements need to be recognised and supported. The important message is to place and maintain people at the
heart of all considerations, from hand-cart pullers to merchants
and visitors, and away from the automobile. Building owners must
also be made to see the value of maintaining and improving existing buildings and the municipality must look to create more social
utility from the existing spaces between buildings.
84
The final part of the study tour takes us back to the creek and demonstrates again the value of the connection to the historic creekside that
still functions today as it has for over a hundred years, though the Creek
is now separated from the souk area by a wall of buildings and street
traffic and infrastructure.
Words and Images: Robert Marshall
Deira and Cars

Historically, Deira functioned as a dynamic transportation hub with a focus
on the Creek waterfront and its international connections to the rest of the
world through the Arabian Gulf. The
Creek was tied to pedestrian street
markets, goods were transported and
distributed by hand carts and abras
connected Deira to its neighboring
district across the Creek, Bur Dubai.
Everything that we find charming and
unique about Deira today, like its linkages and contextual relationships,
were formed before the introduction
of the automobile as a dominant mass
transportation system.
While we were exploring Deira as part
of this workshop, I could not help but
be impressed by how well what remains from the old social and physical framework of the city continues to
function as a transportation hub even
now without cars. Everything about infrastructure for the automobile in Deira
seems to be added on. Deira was been
planned and built at a pedestrian scale
and it is interesting to recognize Deira
as a zone with a stronger pedestrian
focus one that recognizes the unique
history of the area and the character of
its urban form.
Moving into the neighborhood, the

system of one-way streets allows automobiles into the urban fabric along
rights-of-way with sufficient width for
vehicular traffic. It feels more like a
secondary transportation system with
deference to pedestrian movement.
This system may well have been designed to calm vehicular traffic further
and create stops at cross-walks and intersections and to give stronger preference to pedestrians.
The first major imposition of the automobile starts at Baniyas Road, which
was built on landfill reclaimed from the
Creek. It is a four-lane limited access
roadway that has become the address
for many of the office buildings established in Deira during the 1970s.
85
With its roundabouts, right-hand turn

ramps, fences and pedestrian barriers,
the road has become a physical barrier
between Deira and its waterfront. Other
automobile-related infrastructure in the
district includes surface parking on residual open space and pedestrian tunnels under the roadway all emphasize
the imposition of the automobile on this
pedestrian urban framework, however it
is notable that the space for pedestrian
pathways continues to exist albeit in
transformed ways.
Many cities with these kinds of older
districts have worked to discourage use
of automobiles and encourage pedestrian accessibility as Deira has done.
As a unique district within the larger
urban framework of Dubai, Deiras future development could be tied to even
further embracing and regenerating its
historic urban fabric through reclaiming the land and connections that have
been taken over by automobile infrastructure and converting it back into
pedestrian space. One example of a
recent development that takes this approach is the metro green line which
runs through Deira and provides a new
pedestrian-focused form of mass transportation.
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Images: Lucio Frigo, Erin Hudson

Words: Lucio Frigo
Dubai Reimagined
There is an exciting and very populous
part of Dubai that has been left out of
the contemporary image the metropolis has created for itself. The city narrative acknowledges this area known
as the Dubai Creek as the historical
cradle of the city, while residents consider it either a weekend attraction or
the true centre of social life, depending
largely on nationality and class. This
area includes neighbourhoods such as
Deira, Karama, Bur Dubai, Bastakiya
and Satwa that encompass over 30%
of Dubais total population. Wholesale
activity, which largely occurs in these
areas, accounts for 29% of Dubais GDP
making it the largest grossing sector
with a value of 106 billion AED in 2015
according to Dubai Statistics Center.
Deira, known as a beacon for all the
other neighbourhoods, is the oldest
part of the city, originating in the 19th
century as a pearl traders post. These
areas are essential to Dubai in terms of
economics, land use and sociocultural
routines for many residents, yet they
are not automatically equated with the
Dubai brand.
The long history of the Creek area has
been recognized by the Dubai government and efforts began in 2013 to designate the area as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. Most recently, the gov-
ernment officially launched a series

of developments called The Dubai
Historical District in 2015. Celebrating
the history of Dubai is paramount for a
comparatively new city which also has
a Bedouin culture and trade history
that spanned a millennial. However, by
trying to protect some of the last physical sites that evidence this history,
the autochthon urban fabric of Dubai
Creek could be at risk of dying a slow
death in the name of tourism, entertainment, gentrification and eventually
adhesion to the standard globalised
development model. The globalised
model of preservation is starting to
claim full control on this truly autochthonous model of development without recognising its true value: its thriving social life.
In order to prevent the decay of the
Creeks vibrant districts, an alternative
approach to development is needed.
First, this means reassessing our understanding of Dubai in order to reposition the image of Deira as a place of
the present, not the past. Secondly, we
must acknowledge and consider how
the Dubai model could benefit from
many successful urban design strategies implemented in Deira.
Our efforts and understanding of our
responsibility as professional urban

operators contributes to how the design, building or regeneration of the
communities of tomorrow will occur.
As such it is paramount to establish
a framework through which we could
reimagine Dubai. To reimagine Dubai
means to learn how to look at the urban environment through different
lenses in order to grasp this citys many
identities and consider what each can
add to the whole.
We need to remember it is not enough
for us to seek the beauty of design.
More precious still is for urban planning to address another kind of beauty:
peoples quality of life, their adaptation
to the environment, social encounters
and integration of elements. We can
learn from the example of traditional
sikkas, souks, wind towers, courtyard
houses and traditional typologies. Using this approach, our collective aim
should be to envisage models that can
foster a community spirit for such a
complex mix of nationalities and cultures. As I will discuss later, Deira provides a strong case that this spirit can
be achieved through the design of urban cores with multi-purpose space.
Where many international observers
seem paralyzed by the supposed impossibility of creating true public space
87
due to issues like climate or legal framework, we have the blueprint for finding
solutions already built and functioning in Deira, which proves daily that
an area can thrive amid complex often
contradictory identities in an environment of constant variance and change.
In Deira I believe there exists the potential for the establishment of a more
inclusive and nuanced model of development for Dubai, one that will not
require changing existing policies or
altering conditions of the market. Fully
exploring the merits of this perspective
is significant as a city that can thrive
out of complex and often contradictory identities without segregation or
homogenisation is a truly successful
cosmopolitan hub.
Repositioning the Image of Deira
What immediately strikes a casual pedestrian walking around Deira is the

dense urban fabric of narrow streets
and alleys. This is the product of choices and contributions of several generations of residents that, following the
settlement of 800 members of the Bani
Yas tribe in the creek in 1833, arrived
to inhabit the area. A spontaneous
development spurred by the booming pearl trade and later, from about
1903, the opening of a British shipping
line that was stopping by the harbour.
The result is an urban fabric that allows a great number of people to be in
close proximity to the harbour, thriving
amidst a range of mixed-use facilities,
where shops fill the ground floor alleys
and residential or office space occupies the upper floors. Density means
higher footfall for the shops but also
naturally shaded alleys for citizens that
are encouraged to walk and socialise.
This spontaneous and harmonious interconnection between economical,
demographical and environmental
concerns in Deira is perhaps best symbolised by the many sikkas. Narrow pedestrian alleys between buildings that
allow for shaded decompression chambers where people can take solace
from the desert sun and where natural
ventilation is maximised through orientation towards the coastal north-western winds. The use of attractive masonry screens that draw in air cooled by
the breeze is often another feature of
the faades in these alleys. Long-term
costs for residents are substantially
reduced by minimizing building maintenance and artificial climate control.
This is an autochthon solution borne
out of a holistic approach to a problem,
much more subtle and sustainable than
any mechanical acclimatised solution.
Traditional urban infrastructure also
caters to informal social gathering
points scattered throughout the area.
A point in case are the many basta public bench areas enclosing a narrow
88
strip of pavement where people of

various ages and backgrounds sit down
to socialise or simply enjoy a cup of tea
bought from a nearby cafeteria. Here,
the sheer pleasure of sitting, watching the urban symphony in full swing
and exchanging a few words is enough
to bring people together. There is efficiency and wisdom in informal neighbourhoods, where their planning is
borne out of necessity and spontaneous initiatives by city dwellers. This
sort of collective learning process generally necessitates public intervention
for investing in its infrastructure and
civic core.
Deira stands for an urban texture born
in the tradition of urban enclaves that
are the unique result of local conditions, available materials and customs.
Far from aspiring to a foreign or past
image, Deira is a deeply local urban environment which has been determined
by global dynamics. Even today Deira
is the only place in town where we can
eat in an Ethiopian restaurant together
with Ethiopians, take part in a collective
Indian dance class and smoke shisha in
an Egyptian coffee joint within a block.
This is the only area where many foreign citizens of Dubai experience social life, an area where its vibrant
nature comes from the harbour which

occurred first instead of the opposite,
which is true for most of the last decades mixed-use areas. This is where
a great part of wholesale trading still
happens and where people from all
around Africa, the Sub-continent and
central Asia still come to negotiate big
shipments of everything from gold to
fabrics.
Learning from Deira
Re-incorporating Deira into the mainstream image of the city as an active

district instead of a historic relic would
change Dubais principles of development, but how? To begin, we must start
with ourselves, the professionals working daily to design this ever-expanding
city.
Some of the most significant changes
to our globalised world are not being
written in the language of diplomacy
and law, but rather in the language of
space-making. Accepting this position,
the process of creating spaces will often benefit from a coordinated effort
by the municipal authorities, however
it is also clear that any urban designer
has the responsibility and the potential to bring change over the course of
their work.
The typical complaint of architects,

designers and contractors working in
Dubai has to do with irrelevance of the
single operator vis--vis the local authorities. Another recurring complaint
concerns the dilemma of how to create
social space when working with private
real estate developers. As understandable as it seems, it is clearly a weak excuse on our part every projects connectivity to the public space and city at
large surrounding it should be required
and included within the design. We, as
urban thinkers, designers, developers
and contractors, are all part of this process of change and as such bear a clear
level of responsibility.
Our role, both when working on one of
the future regeneration schemes that
will spring up in Deira or on any of the
many greenfield projects is to resist the
seemingly standard and simple unidirectional model of development which
espouses technical advancement, globalisation and entertainment in the
pursuit of economic growth. Instead,
we should strive to find ways to reintroduce the centrality of social life in any
urban endeavour. The long term success of development that interacts and
promotes connections has been proven
time and time again a local example
is none other than Deira.
As seen in John R. Harris 1959 masterplan for Deira, it is the social core that
can guarantee the full sustainability of
a city and work towards its continuous re-invention. Typical measures to
achieve this include encouraging a
public-private framework for new developments where the government and
developers invest upfront in a central
core of commercial, educational, medical, transportation or cultural functions.
Surrounding housing will fuel these developments and fluctuate in response
to economy and population size, while
maintaining an appropriate level of
density to encourage walking, natural
sun-shading and social life. This is how
Deira, and most successful cities, developed.
The best way to see evidenced what
Deira can offer is through a visit. At
twenty minutes drive from Downtown
Dubai, one of the most celebrated
new developments, back in Deira a
Hindu temple sits meters away from a
mosque, an array of shops and a hip
new caf. How was this exciting urban fabric planned? Different cultural
identities seem to be attracting without any pre-programming, but lets
observe who passes by in more detail.
Merchants, residents, students, tourists,
shoppers and elders mingle with each
other and share the same spaces with

different individual purposes.
In Deira, where no major public space
has been provided, but where social
life between people of different backgrounds, social classes and ages do
nevertheless spontaneously arise, is
testament that a clear solution does
exist even within the present legal and
political framework of the UAE. The solution lies in the multi-purpose nature
of the urban fabric.
Most successful cities on earth have always been created by urban dwellers
themselves, thanks to or despite local
urban regulation. Proximity, density
and a mix of different urban actors is
what is common to them. Citizens and
visitors are at once producers, consumers, students or simply local residents.
This creates a continuous exchange of
ideas, goods and emotions which
result in a thriving social life borne
out of their continuous and spontaneous interaction.
Deira symbolises a different relationship to sustainability which encompasses economic, cultural and
traditional aspects at its core. It
purports a multi-purpose urban fabric where different people interact
89
while carrying out their different

daily tasks - work, socialisation,
commerce, education, religion and
culture. The proximity of different
social, economic, educational and
leisure establishments around a
common civic centre transformed
the neighbourhood into a community over time as by-product of
spontaneous social and economic
dynamics.
The citys sustainable future can
be built on an exciting and original
complex identity which is not solely
dependent on continuous stimulus
and growth. A truly original mix can
reach a harmony of its own so long
as it puts social life at its core. It
is not a question of abandonning
any utopian dream, it is simply time
to incorporate within the utopia a
more complex and inclusive image
where all existing participants are
represented and leveraged.
Deira has also proven to be able
to interpret and modify traditional and modern influences into locally viable solutions, producing
a population that coexists peacefully irrespective of their different
traditions, values and customs. In
the resulting combination of Arab,
Indian, Pakistani, African, Pilipino
and Western culture, local identities
remain either unmodified such as
National Tailors, which has dressed
generation after generation of Emirati families, or been amplified, as
90
in seen in the many commercial

ventures between local and foreign
businessmen.
Finally, by allowing for different
models to proliferate in a sort of
urban symbiosis such as that of
Deira, the city is more resilient and
less exposed to exogenous shocks
because, where business and economic interests can move overnight, people that have invested
emotionally and financially in the
city will not. To build these kinds
of powerful ties necessitates a collective history of place which, far
from being a presented as an image of itself in heritage districts or
museums, is instead inscribed in the
social bond among communities.
This living bond is more resilient to
time than any economic and technical solution. Collective history,
as built by local and foreign families that call Dubai home, can only
arise out of an inclusive urban development, allowed and established
by the authorities, and ultimately
designed by architects, developers and citizens over time. This nuanced approach to urban development, informed by all the different
identities of the city, fosters a sense
of community based on unique local, social and economic dynamics.
Towards an inclusive model of

development
Deira is a source of inspiration, and

thus a key component of what could
become a holistic and complex development model for the city in the future.
By considering Deira as an example of
an inclusive model of development, lessons can be extracted for incorporation
into other developments elsewhere in
Dubai. Far from celebrating one model
over the other, or to defend a supposed
ideal synthesis of them, the solution is
more likely to lie in the creation of a
framework where both models are recognised as equally vital for the originality and sustainability of Dubais future.
Today what makes Dubai such an interesting and exciting city is how different
and often contrasting models of urban
development exist side-by-side. Each
model, together in their full complexity,
contributes to a better city, however
this holistic vibrancy depends on the
contemporaneity of each model being
recognized and presented as such.
Glossary
Glossary
Abra
Small boats powered by diesel engines, these traditional
boats function as water taxis
along the Dubai Creek going back and forth between
Deira and Bur Dubai. The fare
is 1 UAE Dirham per ride and
holds about 20 people at a
time.
Baraha
Intimate public spaces where
people gather to socialize, eat
communally or any other kind
of friendly gathering. They are
focal points for interaction
between people in a neighborhood.
Basta
Wooden benches which are
distributed in public areas
such as sidewalks.
Dhow
The large boats which transport goods from the shores
of the Creek onwards to India,
Africa or other ports within
the Arabian Gulf are known as
dhows. The name was historically given to any boat that
sailed on the Indian Ocean
due to their sail rigging, which
was traditionally a triangular
sail.
Kandura
The kandura is an anklelength robe typically made
from white fabric. It is the traditional dress of Emirati men
and slight variances of the
kandura are commonly worn
by men throughout the Gulf
States.
Khor Dubai
The word khor means creek
in Arabic. Khor Dubai literally
translates to the Dubai Creek
and is used in reference to the
areas surrounding the creek.
Majlis
Literally meaning a place
of sitting in Arabic, a Majlis
can mean a private gathering where hosts receive their
guests or it can refer to the
meeting of a council or official
body in some countries.
Mashrabiya
This patterning or lattice work
that is often used in facades
or windows is a typical element of traditional Islamic architecture. One of its purposes is to allow natural light into
a building and a line of sight
to the outside without compromising privacy.
Prasad
Prasad are the devotional food
offerings made by Hindus and
Sikhs during worship and is
often shared among worshippers after their prayers.
Sikka
The narrow gap between
buildings which forms pathways through a commercial or
residential area. They are typically shaded due to the proximity of buildings.
93
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Observations of an Urban Framework

Publishers B+H Architects, Cultural Engineering

Special thanks to Little Majlis, a website

Our contributors are professionals,

Photo: Lucio Frigo

Photo: Dr. Rob Cooke

Photo: Richa Harwani

Three individuals who grew up in

Photo: Sarah Nankivell

A brief look at significant moments in

Photo: Lucio Frigo

A collection of essays discussing observations made during the charrette

Rashid bin Shabib

Robert began his 30-year career in Montreal

Rashid is an urbanist who received his training

Dr. Noah Raford

Noah is a futurist specializing in urban design

Aurelia began her career at the School of Architecture

Woodman studies the performative practices of visual

Shailee Vipul Kothari

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

Originally from Tehran, Taraneh moved to the UAE in

Sarah graduated from the University of Toronto before

Sapna Govind Meghlani

As an architecture student in her final year, Sapna has

Bart has been working as an Structural Engineer for 17

Dr. Robert Cooke

Steve received his schooling and professional training

Rob is a doctor of engineering and chartered energy

Peter has over 35 years of working experience in the

Richa is completing her final year of studies in graphic

Richard is a senior architect who grew up in former

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

Chiho is a design architect at Cultural Engineering

Anna received training in landscape architecture in

Mona is a landscape architect who has worked in the

Lucio is a real estate developer who invests in the

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

According to Islamic ownership laws, land ownership pre-1960 in Dubai was

The civic center

Our setting is Khor Dubai, the inland creek which separates

First Post Office

Dubai Public Library

Sheikh Ahmad bin Rashid

Images: Brownbook archive

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

There were about 22,000 buildings

The first master plan for Dubai was

On the reclaimed land around Al Ras

George Candilis master plan was never

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

Photo courtesy of Richa Harwani

I used to go there to Shindaga to pray.

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

Shindaga, Ghubaiba, that's what they

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK

Relationships between traders and merchants

the mountains, they bring honey, they

The person asking for the loan would

OBSERVATIONS OF AN URBAN FRAMEWORK