Qatar is a small country in the United Arab Emirates.
A five-story apartment building in Hamburg, Germany gets its juice from its algae skin. It’s an example of the kind of architectural innovation that could readily transplant to the Middle East. So why is partnership between designers, investors and government largely absent in this region? The continuing drought of global investment requires innovative approaches to […]
Representatives from six Arab Gulf countries that form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) recently expressed concern about the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Southwest Iran after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale struct the region earlier this year.
Islamic nations defer to astronomers in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Turkey (depending on political affiliation) to determine when the new crescent moon harkens the Holy Month of Ramadan. Dependence on real-time moon-spotting means heightened anxiety. Rumors reel about Ramadan’s start, leaving the requisite housecleaning and food prep open-ended.
World Environment Day festivities came to a close on Friday, June 7 in Qatar as participants in the celebration’s green competitions were crowned winners. The message of the celebration is to save resources for future generations, an important message for the emirate hooked on natural gas and cheap non-renewable resources.
Thirty-three people are dead from MERS, a coronavirus that the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling a “threat to the entire world”. MERS, for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, is a newly discovered virus that causes severe respiratory infection.
Water scarcity combined with desertification makes for a scary combination in the Middle East, but The Sahara Forest Project (SFP) is pioneering a promising solution: greenhouses that use saltwater to grow food in the middle of the desert.
Qatar’s controversial 2022 World Cup planning got a burst of star power when renowned Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who was one of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people in 2010, was appointed to join AECOM to design the Al Wakrah Stadium.
A belt made of tin. A hat made of cardboard. A dress made of newspaper with DVD and CD accents. These were some of many designs showcased during Qatar’s “long” celebration of World Environment Day starting in May continuing until after World Environment Day on June 5.
Earlier this year, Russian photographers Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov climbed the Great Pyramid of Giza, risking up to three years imprisonment (if caught) for a chance at remarkable picture-taking. They pulled a similar stunt on the rooftops of Dubai; a high-end example of “skywalking”.
When football enthusiasts flock to a World Cup venue, they expect more than a tent out in the desert to rest their weary heads, but that’s about all Qatar has to offer right now. In preparation for 2022, Barwa Real Estate plans to scrape together a massive artificial island to offer a luxurious temporary solution […]
When the call went out Mars One might have expected a few dozen people would be willing to accept a suicide mission to a dead planet. Instead, they were overwhelmed with more than 80,000 applicants including at least a dozen from the Middle East.
Tangram Gulf recently unveiled a naturally-cooled FIFA stadium design for the 2022 World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
Ask yourself: if you lived in the deep desert, where the sand burns your soles at midday, would you run outside and play soccer? No sane person should. But Dick Sweeney has sent us thought-provoking images of soccer posts in extreme environments that reveal just how much Arabs love their football.
Working in Qatar has clearly given the academic Mari Luomi access to lots of information about the climate change rhetoric and reality of the Gulf. It also puts her in a rather awkward position in terms of being able to voice her criticism. After interviewing Luomi for Green Prophet around a year ago, however, I […]
We are not alone in our awe of the Sahara Forest Project (SFP), which has already built a pilot project in Qatar that produces energy, clean water and food in the middle of the desert – all without a single drop of fossil fuel. Owned by biomimicry architect Michael Pawlyn, structural engineer Bill Watts, and the Norwegian […]