Site Analysis 3

Here I took a closer look at the site, mapping out exactly where the existing structures are as well as the semi-effaced roads. Judging by historical aerial photography, the roads are left to the devices of the sand, reappearing and disappearing between each year's shots. 'Permanent' roads are marked in a heavier gray than off-road paths. While it is difficult to tell, it seems as though most buildings are occupied as the makeshift paths leading to them remain intact year after year. There is one exception, marked in a lighter gray on the map below.

Based on my map, I again adjusted the effective build area, coming to a smaller total of 1.375 million sq. ft., making this area slightly smaller than Souq Waqif. I also designated a potential mosque site in green, placing it along the road and near to the existing upper-class housing to attempt to draw laborers, who live nearby, as well as upper-class Dohans to the site.

Site Analysis 2

This a diagram of the forces at work on the site at the immediate contextual scale as well as small city-scale diagram depicting its relationship to two of the major public/commercial sites in the city.

In the larger diagram, the site is depicted in orange, the al-Saad parking lots in gray (where the laborers play cricket every Friday), al-Saad stadium itself in green, perimeter walls of immediately adjacent ex-pat/upper class housing complexes in teal, and the traffic on al-Waab Street in purple. Finally, the presumed major entry point to the site for a walking laborer is shown with the dashed orange arrow.

In the bottom corner is a small diagram delineating the spatial relationship of the site to Villagio mall to the southwest and Souq Waqif to the northeast. The site is in the approximate middle of the path between the two.

Site Analysis 1

A comparison of the scale of my selected site and the other two Dohan souqs I examined, Souqs Waqif and Najada. Then, taking into account the existing buildings and throughways that existed up until a couple of years ago, I reduced that footprint to understand what constitutes the effective potential building area.

Annotated Bibliography

This has been sitting around for a while, but wasn't posted previously, so here it is. It's a little out of date by now, though.

Precedent #3: Mosque/Market Typology

While I was told that there existed examples of mosques and markets quite literally on top of one another, I could not find examples that closely integrated. However, below are two prominent examples of mosque/market combinations that are much more directly juxtaposed than Souq Najada. This precedent is simply to make the argument for the possibility of a closer integration of the souq and the mosque in this project as it moves forward.

Site/Program Mapping

Having chosen my site, I began to take a look at how the program I have been leaning towards will fit with the location. As a reminder, I had first looked at the market/souq type, geared specifically towards the migrant workers' needs and economic means. A quick study of the locations of laborer housing and existing souqs was a primary generator for choosing my current site.

In conjunction with the souq type, I also was leaning towards a public social (potentially religious) space. As my site is directly adjacent to a parking lot that is used by workers for weekend cricket tournaments, I was leaning heavily towards the addition of a mosque rather than a public activity space (these choices were delineated in Methodology 3).

Thus, the below map of mosque locations overlaid on the previous mappings to understand whether this addition might be suitable for the location:

While this had initially been intended as a more site specific map, I found it interesting that the mosque locations favored the trend line I had identified in my first mapping. I included a 5-minute/quarter-mile walking radius in light green (as well as a circle with a radius half that for summer) to get an idea of how these mosques might work within their neighborhoods. There are very few mosques in the southeastern half of the city, in some parts of the city averaging less than one mosque per super-block. The nearest one to my site is within what is the equivalent of a gated community, so I question how easy it would be for workers to gain access to. Thus, I think a mosque is an appropriate programmatic addition to this project.

Precedent #2: Souq Najada

Similar to (and across the street from) Souq Waqif, this souq exhibits an interesting combination of mosque and market within one complex. This is a programmatic combination that I will be looking into further in the next few days as I try to understand the shape that my program will be begin to take. Additionally, the wind tower is of interest environmentally, though this particular example has unfortunately been sealed off and conditioned now.