Urban reconfiguration and revitalisation: public mega projects in Doha's historic centre

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.