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Covering about three million square kilometres, the Arabian Peninsula is mainly a diverse landscape of hot humid sandy coasts, arid desert, sparse scrubland, stone-strewn plains, and lush oases, as well as rocky and sometimes fertile mountain highlands and valleys. In addition to the indigenous local populace, the population is composed of large groups of expatriate Arabs and Asians, in addition to smaller groups of Europeans and North Americans; these expatriate groups represent a major workforce community of skilled professionals and semi-skilled or unskilled labourers from over sixty countries. The region's contemporary economy, dominated by the production of oil and natural gas has created unprecedented wealth, which in turn has led to a momentous surge in intensive infrastructural development and the construction of new environments (Wiedmann, 2012). The ensuing impact of this fast track development on the built environment, in conjunction with the continuous and seemingly frantic quest for establishing unique urban identities (Salama, 2012), is seen as a trigger for introducing this special edition of Open House International.

This paper explores a new type of housing in India and resulting urban dynamics in Nagpur, a Grade A city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The accelerating urban growth rate led to a dynamic housing market to accommodate the on-going migration. A new housing typology can be identified as clusters of residential towers, developed as gated communities and marketed as first-class neighbourhoods for emerging higher income groups. This research is a timely effort to address the occurring challenges of future urban patterns produced by this housing typology in India. Various urban qualities are needed to foster sustainable urbanism. Housing patterns have a major impact on how urban environments work efficiently, how they accommodate different user groups and how city images, perceptions and thus lifestyles are affected. The paper investigates these new urban sites in relation to their socio-spatial interactions and the resulting production of urban qualities to foster a new understanding of this particular housing typology and its impact on urbanism in India. Analysing through the lens of three major urban qualities of urban efficiency, diversity and identity the study identifies the complex socio-spatial dynamics fostered by vertical gated communities in Nagpur city. The paper concludes with an outlook on the distinctive roles of architects and urban designers to develop synergies between this urban typology and its surroundings

Since the end of the 1990s, large-scale mega projects have been initiated in Gulf cities to enable an unprecedented urban growth and the expansion of new economic sectors. In this respect, mega projects have played a key role in redefining housing developments in Gulf cities. This paper explores the newly emerging housing typologies and their distinctive roles in defining new urban environments. The selected case studies are located in the Jumeirah District in Dubai, which can be seen as the first prototype of a large cohesive development area that has been built of nine rather differing mega projects including the iconic Palm project and one of the largest residential high-rise agglomerations in the Middle East. The paper is based on the evaluation of official planning data from each project as well as field observations. Conclusions are drawn to highlight key implications while identifying housing development tendencies.

The recent construction boom has led to new urban development dynamics in Gulf cities driven by real-estate speculations and large infrastructure investments. While in the past affordable housing for medium income migrants and their families was integrated within the fringes of old downtown areas and compound developments in the suburbs, recent investment patterns have led to an increasing challenge of these economically highly engaged social groups to find residences. In recent years, a newly emerging trend in the Gulf region has been the establishment of large scale mass housing projects as new dormitory settlements to address the growing demand for affordable housing. This paper presents an overview of current development patterns by exploring two major affordable housing projects and their impact on sustainability in Doha and Dubai. This is undertaken by establishing a preliminary assessment framework that involves relevant sustainability parameters. The assessment reveals the major differences between both projects and their impact on environment, economy, and society.

This paper explores the various roots and characteristics of current high-rise clusters emerging in new city districts along the coast of Manama and the resulting challenges to urban planning. Like many other Gulf cities Bahrain's capital Manama has witnessed rapid urban growth since local real-estate markets were liberalized in 2003. The recent developments have particularly focused on newly reclaimed areas along the periphery of Manama's city center. These new districts are mainly occupied by residential and commercial high-rises, which have been transforming previous urban morphologies. Today, the public sector is witnessing a wide range of planning challenges to integrate urban consolidation processes and to prevent infrastructural collapse. This paper therefore examines the evolution of urban planning that has led to the construction of high-rise buildings. In addition, the paper is based on GIS calculations and field studies regarding the increase of built densities, particularly between 2003 and 2008, when most developments were launched. In this regard, two case studies, Juffair and Seef District, were selected due to their main roles in recent development tendencies.

South Asian communities have lived in Scotland since the late nineteenth century, experiencing a substantial growth in the post-war period. This paper contributes a new understanding of the spatial practices of South Asian communities in the city of Glasgow based on statistics and surveys. The authors aim to address the gap in literature by analysing patterns of location and trends across the city region over the census period of 2011. The study furthermore integrates a walking tour assessment generated by checklists and a recording scheme. The attributes of cultural identity, economic diversity and socio-spatial practice of six urban spaces within three selected neighbourhoods are examined. Two urban spaces were chosen from each neighbourhood to interpret the diversity of land uses along each case study and the social interaction as well as economic activities of South Asian residents. This suggests that the idea of a coherent 'Asian community' obscures differences and generates assumptions regarding residential behaviour and 'in-group' identities. The research, therefore, provides an enhanced understanding of how these distinctive communities interact with a built environment, which has not been designed to cater certain spatial practices.

This paper aims to offers an assessment of the current transformation process of Doha's historic centre, which has become a major focus of public development strategies. While the historic centre was neglected during most of the second half of the 20th century, recent public initiatives have been leading to new urban morphologies and typologies. In addition to the redevelopment of the historic market and the investments in museums, a large scale mixed use development, known as Msheireb project, has been launched, which will replace an entire district. The objective of this paper is therefore to clarify how these public initiatives are modifying existing urban structures and to which extent this spatial reconfiguration contributes to major revitalisation objectives, such as diversity, consolidation and identity. The methodologies include a GIS survey to analyse the shift in urban densities, land uses and typologies as well as a Space Syntax study assessing the various levels of spatial integration in the case of the Msheireb project.

Recent efforts to formulate strategies that will turn Qatar's capital city into a global hub have given rise to a debate about the morphological and functional composition of one of Doha's most prominent areas - West Bay. At the end of the 20th century West Bay, also known as Diplomatic Quarter, was chosen by public initiatives to become the new Central Business District of Doha. Today, the appeal of West Bay as a business hub is contested by other emerging urban centres – such as the highly integrated Al Sadd area, which has attracted a wide range of advanced producer service sectors. It is therefore the objective of this paper to investigate the spatial configuration of Doha's West Bay, which arguably lays the foundations for the socio-economic interdependencies necessary for its vitality and sustenance. In order to quantify its intrinsic urban complexities, Bill Hillier's space syntax methodology is applied, which elucidates, in various scales, global and local grid conditions, and thus can be used for assessments regarding the distribution of land use patterns and infrastructural networks.

China’s capital Beijing is a special case of fast urbanization and monocentric development, resulting in major efforts to implement polycentric structures. The purpose of this paper is thus centered on understanding the phenomenon of an established edge city and the level of integration regarding all daily activities of its residents.

Since the end of the 20th century, Chinese cities have been witnessing rapid urban growth and expansion. One of the major planning challenges has been the implementation of polycentric urban structures to enforce integrated urbanism and thus less dependency on commuting to few main commercial and business centers. The methodological approach includes various mapping efforts and field studies to investigate the currently produced urban landscape and highlight the rather challenging reality of edge cities being produced in a very short period of time.

This paper explores one of Beijing’s biggest edge cities, known as the Yizhuang Development Area, which was created by an investment initiative of the municipal government. The city has been developed with a strong focus on functional planning aspects rather than a dynamic diversification of walkable districts with emerging identities.

This investigation attempts to add some new insights into the contemporary urbanism in Chinese edge cities and the general problem of missing urban design initiatives to enhance the overall urban quality of diversity and social interaction.