Dr Hassan Radoine

Chairperson, Architectural Engineering Department, University of Sharjah

Title of presentation : Heritage, Identity & Urban Planning: Case of Sharjah, UAE

The urban and territorial planning in UAE is in need of urgent attention of researchers and officials. In spite of its fourdecade high urbanization rate and the construction boom that the country has known, Emirati cities are under great risk of losing their social and cultural identity. The UAE federation was brilliantly created in 1971 to unite the country as a political structure, but its territorial, spatial, and urban structure is yet to realize this expected aspiration. The imbalance between urbanized areas as isolated giant theme parks, and the country's vast land misrepresents the cultural acumen of UAE. In spite of its strategic position historically and geographically, its rich cultural heritage is not explored in its urban planning and development. Heritage herein means not the historicized artifacts of museums, but the resilient sustainable socio-cultural dynamic elements that make these cities a true mirror of UAE's history, people, and culture.  This paper attempts to address the above issues, taking Sharjah city as a case study. The city gained a reputable title: the cultural capital of the Arab World in 1998. However, notwithstanding its numerous architectural cultural projects, the city hardly portrays this image due to poor urban planning and governance.  Despite the fact that a noticeable damage was done to Sharja's heritage, this paper presents the resiliency of its rich urban history, and argues that it can be rejuvenated through comprehensive and integrating planning. This planning approach is based on exploring the urban heritage of Sharjah as a potential for its sustainable urban development.