Municipality ‘to develop areas near Musheireb’

Construction work on the 35 hectare area was officially kicked off during a ceremony on Wednesday where the site was also renamed ‘Musheireb’.

Being in the heart of Doha, ‘Musheireb’ is surrounded by the Al Diwan, Musheireb (an area adjacent to one being developed), Al Jasra, Al Najada, Al Bidda, and Al Asmakh districts.

“That would be the responsibility of the Urban Planning & Development Authority (of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Urban Planning),” Dohaland chief executive officer Issa al-Mohannadi, developer of ‘Musheireb’ said on Thursday.

Projects director Mohamed Masoud al-Marri said construction on Phase 1A was already underway while “enabling” work on Phase 1B will begin in March.

“We will have two contractors; one for infrastructure and another for site enabling. The names of the contractors will be announced later,” Al-Marri said.

Phases, 2, 3, and 4, will be rolled out starting 2011, officials said.

Meanwhile, a project blueprint of the biggest urban redevelopment exercise in modern-day Qatar shows the developer adopting a sustainable approach in most aspects of the construction.

Methods being employed include prefabrication thus minimising on-site labour and maximising production and efficiency, the blueprint notes.

Buildings will be aligned to encourage ventilation and will have a local climate-responsive built form, as opposed to energy-hungry

air-conditioning units that are commonplace in Doha.

Colonnades and other shading devices will be used to mitigate the great heat and intense light of the sun. Even the street grid will capture the north-south wind and caters for road traffic.

“The concept here takes the best of traditional city design with its lattice of shaded pedestrian lanes and walkways, and combines these with well-defined routes for road traffic,” it adds.

Dohaland officials have been persistent in maintaining that isolated locations encourage car use while only an integrated mixed-use community promotes walking and use of public transportation.

Demand of water will be satisfied through a central cooling system which is designed to use and re-use groundwater and grey water.

Aspects of the home at ‘Musheireb’ re-interpret the traditional courtyard house and provide flexible internal layouts to suit different family needs and the climate, opening up when the weather is cool.

Each dwelling will feature a private ‘sahan’ and a majlis; the traditional reception space that mediates the transition from public to private realms. “There will be about 1,000 residential units at Musheireb including apartments and townhouses,” the officials said Thursday.

“When we say a population of around 27,000 for Musheireb, we are also including the transit population which will visit the area during the

day,” Al-Marri said.

Aspects of streets at Musheireb are airy and open liwans featuring major frontages, while simple and less ornate walls with screened openings and projecting bays are to be found lining minor, more private streets and lanes.

The officials said that only by understanding how the city evolved, was it possible to reveal its authentic character; the street patterns, alleyways, the Old Wadi.

For that, the project team launched a series of international competitions where a long-list of 100 participants was short-listed to 11 and then again to five.