A boldly designed development has been making the rounds among government officials in Qatar over the past year.
The concept creator of Qatar Magic Kingdom, a “mini-city” that contains residential and commercial districts, uploaded this video last week ahead of a design conference.
Speaking to Doha News, Canadian Chris Doray said he first began designing the concept last October. At the time, it started out as a speculative project, to be located in Al Rayyan near the site of the yet-to-be-built Qatar-Bahrain Causeway, he said. He added:
“The notion was that Qatar would have a ‘mini-satellite city’ that shall be situated at the North-West point of entry into the State of Qatar from what would have been the longest land bridge in the world.”
Doray has presented the design to various government entities, but no movement have been made on the project yet. One potential stumbling block is that it was originally slated to be located in and around Al Zubarah, which has now been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and thus considered protected.
Meanwhile, it will be years before Qatar actually sees a causeway built to connect it to Bahrain. According to the latest update in April, a third redesign of the bridge was being presented to officials in both countries for approval.
Construction on the causeway, which would cut travel time between Bahrain and Qatar from around five hours to 30 minutes, was originally supposed to start in 2010.
High costs pushed the project back to 2014, with a completion date of 2017, but those plans also got scrapped. Now, the causeway is not expected to be completed until right before the 2022 World Cup.
Thoughts?
so….it’s basically around 10 skyscrapers in the middle of nowhere…What the Qataris have to understand is that building a small city has to have a purpose. These developers and consultants are trying to make money by producing fancy 3D renderings. The city has to be the destination for something: entertainment, culture, shopping, business, education etc.
This is what the “Pearl” developers have never understood…
If “construction” itself is the purpose there is no sustainable future…
Maybe and it’s a big maybe if the causeway to Bahrain was already built it could be used as a commute town to Bahrain, but then again why would you want to live in expensive Qatar when you can live in much cheaper Bahrain.
I’m not sure what this is for except for some developers to make a lot of money out of Qatar, to give them something they don’t really need at an expensive price.
Lusail has to be finished first and that is supposed to take up to 500,000 foreigners. Considering the locals want the expat population reduced not massively increased so I cannot see the logical business case behind it.
A place in the Guinness Book of Records?
XXXX XxXXXXXX owns more unoccupied residential towers than anyone else in the World? How wealthy is that?
Build it. We can add it to those anthologies of “Hauntingly Abandoned Places” that are always popular on the internet.
As this development is right next to (if not right on top of it!) al-Zubarah, Qatar’s only archaeological sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL), UNESCO would not be ‘amused’ if this kind of development will be seriously considered, and if it is to be build, Qatar runs the risk that al-Zubarah is removed from the WHL which would be an enormous loss of prestige for Qatar. Hopefully somebody in the government realises this and makes sure this development is a non-starter!
I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. Any development would be dependent on the ‘Causeway’, and that is not going to happen in the foreseeable future? Another political squabble, another redesign, another financing agreement, another fisherman arrested. it could go on for decades?
If Bahrain & Qatar really ‘wanted’ the causeway built it would have been opened by now.
Hey Qatar officials, please provide the following ASAP, because me and my homies are getting really sick of Malls and Shisha lounges every weekend, and meeting up and getting in the car with no where to go.
An amusement/theme park!!!!!! A real go-kart arena not like the villagio bull****, with a big and well organized paintball arena next to it and other fun things to do. Skydiving. Basically another Aspire where public can actually use for sports and not be denied. A beach close by downtown thats not owned by a hotel, a beach that’s nicely set up with a good atmosphere to it, something like SouthBeach (not the beaches we have). A zoo. An aquarium like Miami’s ‘Seaquarium’. A museum of cool science (not all of us are artsy!).
Ok can’t think of anything else. Basically make Qatar a fun place to be at. I’m getting really bored!
Sincerely,
A VERY very VERY, bored citizen.
P.S The Majlis is always fun though! Maybe make a huge public Majlis with a lot of TVs and PS3, pool tables, and air hockey tables in it, and a little cafe?? Sounds awesome!
Another P.S Don’t playa hate! Qatar can get very boring, and you are delusional if you’re going to disagree with me.
Please, learn from all the Pearl mistakes first. Secondly, how will you attract 100,000+ people willing to move and to live in a deserted place like this?
Not only is it in close proximity to the UNESCO World Heritage site, it is also located in the UNESCO Al Reem Bio Reserve. Moreover the site is potentially located on one of the most significant multiphase prehistoric sites (the OLDEST radiocarbon dated site) in the State of Qatar. Archaeological mitigation ahead of any substantial infrastructure works such as this would be extensive.
On another note, do they realise how shallow Zubara Bay is and how much muck would require shifting to create the lagoon?