ABSTRACT
During the second half of the 20th century Qatar witnessed its rst modern urbanisation period accompanied by rapidly increasing oil production and lucrative oil export contracts. Today new development strategies have been initiated and implemented to diversify its economy; these have led to a second major urban transformation process. Doha, the capital city of Qatar, has seen rapid growth from a small shing village community in the middle of the 20th century to a vibrant emerging regional urban centre with more than 1.7 million inhabitants. This chapter aims to provide an exploratory analysis of the urban evolution of the city and describes the dierent stages of economic transformations that have had a signicant impact on the structure of the city’s society as well as its built environment. It also discusses the most recent transformation process that began at the end of 20th century as a result of a rapidly growing real estate development generated by recent liberalisation policies and extensive public investment.
