Understanding Site: Worker's Housing

While the previous map seems to suggest the city is split a little too cleanly between an upper-class north and a working-class south, I next sought to map exactly where, as best I could discern, the migrant laborers lived.

While the area of the city south of the 'median line' plotted in the last mapping does contain all of the laborers' housing, much of the area is filled with gated villa communities. The majority of the migrant workers live off of this map to the southwest in a large complex known as the Industrial Zone. The map below shows a street-adjusted median and also includes the most heavily populated Friday worker's areas defined in the previous map.

In looking for a site, I sought three main qualities- first, that it be within walking distance to at least one of the worker's housing areas; second, that it be within reasonably close proximity to the median line to potentially draw non-laborers to the site; and thirdly, in a similar vein to the second, that it be a more or less visible site, likely located on a major road, rather than tucked within a neighborhood. This can help to attract people, whether laborers or not, to the site from cars or from greater distances.

On a different note, Souq Najada (in blue) was also included on this map (zoom into the crook in the median line). This is because while it is used by tourists, albeit to a lesser extent than neighboring Souq Waqif, it is more open to workers. There may still be some problems with allowing workers in on Fridays, though this is much more difficult to enforce due to the souq's inclusion of a mosque within the complex. Here migrant workers and Qataris alike will go to pray if nearby at any given prayer time. So as not to interfere with the souq's success among the laborers, I will likley place my project farther out in the city, in the intermediate workers' housing area. Sites on this boulevard, al-Waab St will be explored shortly.