26 February 2012
Muscat: The Gulf Encyclopedia for Sustainable Urbanism (GESU) Group visited the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) yesterday. The team, headed by Prof. Nader Ardalan of Harvard Graduate School of Design, will focus on sustainable urbanism in the Gulf region.
The research project of the group aims at creating the 'Gulf Encyclopedia for Sustainable Urbanism', which will make the research findings widely accessible for professionals and students of the subject in the region.
Prof. Nader Ardalan said that researchers were studying 10 cities, including Muscat, in the eight countries in the Arabian Gulf.
"The GESU project is expected to be completed in three phases and will draw on the region's environment, both land and sea, its urbanism and architecture, and its society, culture and economics," he said.
At SQU, the researchers exhibited the materials on Muscat city which they had gathered during the first phase of the project and discussed it.
The next phase of the research will involve the contemporary historic perspective, drawing relations among growth, planning, architecture, urban design, and economic and socio-cultural studies. The project will generate ideas about development for the future that are friendly to the environment.
HH Sayyida Dr. Mona bint Fahad Al Said, assistant vice chancellor for External Cooperation, SQU, who interacted with the academics, said that the university was looking forward to play a key role during the second phase of the project. In the first phase, the university will play the role of a facilitator for developing the encyclopedia.
She promised all support from SQU in providing further information on the geography, topography and marine ecosystems of Muscat to the GESU team with the help of researchers in the university.
The GESU study is meant to solve the lack of written resources on the subject. The similarities, differences, and interconnections among the eight countries that border the Gulf -- Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Iran and Iraq -- have not been previously studied.
The initial research is seen as important for the region's coastal strips, as despite differences in environmental and socio-economic conditions, the countries share the coastal zone of the Gulf, and have a direct impact on each other. The project is funded by Qatar Foundation.
Muscat: The Gulf Encyclopedia for Sustainable Urbanism (GESU) Group visited the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) yesterday. The team, headed by Prof. Nader Ardalan of Harvard Graduate School of Design, will focus on sustainable urbanism in the Gulf region.
The research project of the group aims at creating the 'Gulf Encyclopedia for Sustainable Urbanism', which will make the research findings widely accessible for professionals and students of the subject in the region.
Prof. Nader Ardalan said that researchers were studying 10 cities, including Muscat, in the eight countries in the Arabian Gulf.
"The GESU project is expected to be completed in three phases and will draw on the region's environment, both land and sea, its urbanism and architecture, and its society, culture and economics," he said.
At SQU, the researchers exhibited the materials on Muscat city which they had gathered during the first phase of the project and discussed it.
The next phase of the research will involve the contemporary historic perspective, drawing relations among growth, planning, architecture, urban design, and economic and socio-cultural studies. The project will generate ideas about development for the future that are friendly to the environment.
HH Sayyida Dr. Mona bint Fahad Al Said, assistant vice chancellor for External Cooperation, SQU, who interacted with the academics, said that the university was looking forward to play a key role during the second phase of the project. In the first phase, the university will play the role of a facilitator for developing the encyclopedia.
She promised all support from SQU in providing further information on the geography, topography and marine ecosystems of Muscat to the GESU team with the help of researchers in the university.
The GESU study is meant to solve the lack of written resources on the subject. The similarities, differences, and interconnections among the eight countries that border the Gulf -- Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Iran and Iraq -- have not been previously studied.
The initial research is seen as important for the region's coastal strips, as despite differences in environmental and socio-economic conditions, the countries share the coastal zone of the Gulf, and have a direct impact on each other. The project is funded by Qatar Foundation.
© Times of Oman 2012
