Sharjah, U.A.E.: the urban conservative dilemma

Abstract

This thesis has two broad aims, to outline and analyse the urban development of the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, illuminating significant events leading to the establishment and subsequent spatial expansion of the settlement. This analysis provides the basis from which the second part of the thesis is derived, thus fulfilling the second aim; to create a series of conservation zones in the city based upon the historical, architectural and cultural significance of groups of buildings, plus their feasibility for preservation according to their physical condition. It is to attempt to redress the balance of the wholesale demolition of historic areas of Middle-Eastern cities that this thesis is offered, in the hope that the suggestions contained within may provide, at the very least, a stimulus or springboard that could result in the extension and application of ideas to other Gulf cities, so resulting in the regional development of conservation zones. Chapters 1.1, 1.2 and 2 trace the establishment and development of the settlement called Sharjah, outlining significant historic events and their geographical impact upon the town, including the Master Plan of 1959.Chapter 3 widens the approach, comparing the town to others in the Middle East with respect to components considered to be essential elements of urban cores ('medinas').Chapters 4, 5 and 6 analyse these individual components; religious institutional buildings, suqs and residential structures, collating evidence to create proposed conservation zones based on both broad-based patterns and individual case studies to exemplify such findings in detail. Chapter 7 outlines potential problems of large-scale conservation schemes, offering some possible solutions but significantly, presenting the dilemma common to many such cities: the conflict of land use at the heart of the city: its historic urban core. Chapter 8 concludes the thesis by summarizing all previous evidence and submitting up-to-date findings from a field visit in 1991, thus illustrating any significant developments with respect to conservation in the city.