Public transportation is not wildly popular in Saudi Arabia since fuel is so cheap and many households have private drivers to escort them from place to place, but the government is trying to shift public perception of this mode of movement by developing a brand new metro system. And Zaha Hadid has recently won a bid […]
Israelis are not only clean tech startup masters but also – increasingly – big fans of public transportation, which is why Moovit makes such good sense. A dynamic new mobile app that tracks buses, planes, trains and other forms of transport in 30 cities across the globe, this user-generated platform makes getting from point A […]
King Mohammed VI rode with French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and head of Moroccan government Abdelilah Benkirane on Casablanca’s spiffy new tramway during its debut run, which traversed the distance between United Nations Square and Mohammed Square on 12 December, 2012. Designed to reduce air pollution, ease vehicular congestion and increase economic development in what […]
We used to think of Beirut as a brown, concrete city lacking color and green space, but the Dihzahyners are challenging such dreary labels by painting the city white, pink, purple, green, orange and every other color of the rainbow. A collective of artists and designers armed with buckets of paint (non-toxic, we hope?) and […]
We’ve been talking about chronic water shortages in the Middle East and North Africa for a long time. But now a new and troubling trend is beginning to emerge in the region: municipal, regional and national governments are taking more drastic measures to police water consumption. Jordan broke out the big (security) guns to prevent […]
The privately-owned Abdali development company promises that the new 384,000 sqm commercial center in the heart of Jordan’s capital Amman will offer “lush inviting spaces that beckon and call for your attention.” “Notice the elements subtly woven into the new downtown’s [sic] environment,” their web marketing person gushed. “Delight in the blossoming urban forest close […]
After six years of failing to negotiate with them, a Catalan designer is going public with a story that could cause Qatar tremendous embarrassment in the lead up to the 2022 World Cup. A member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and bound by the Paris Convention and the TRIPS […]
It only costs Izhar Gafni 9-12 USD to produce this sleek, waterproof and roadworthy cardboard bike. At the behest of his wife (who was tired of Gafni’s talk without action), the Israeli Kibbutznik developed an earth-friendly alternative for urban cyclists that is “so cheap it’s not worth stealing.” Like most innovators, Gafni defied the naysayers […]
The Kuwaiti-Spanish Architecture firm AGi scooped two coveted awards at the International Property Award held in Burj Al-Arab, Dubai. In addition to being recognized for its Wafra Living Complex, the firm’s experimental Wafra Wind Tower project has received the Best Architecture Multiple Residence Award. A Google and Bloomberg TV channel collaborative, the International Property Award […]
Not to be outdone by Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, Dubai will soon begin construction on its own ‘sustainable city,’ where green transportation options include horses. Lest it seem that the new 743,000m2 development project entails a remarkable step backward, solar-powered vehicles are also planned, which is every bit as ambitious (and unlikely) as Masdar’s long-since-abandoned […]
Ten minutes after a fire broke out in Doha’s Villaggio Mall yesterday, an expatriate and Doha News reader Paula Rodrigues Duarte claimed that officials failed to discourage her from entering the mall. “Not security or police. I was actually walking towards it unknowingly till I saw people running back and turned around and left. No alarms, […]
It has been a year since the HAAZ Design and Art Gallery in a popular shopping district of Istanbul received a sustainable upgrade from renowned designers Global Architectural Development (GAD), but the vibrant space continues to shine. As space and materials become increasingly limited in cities everywhere, it is more important than ever to make […]
The bad news is that Jordan’s Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) was suspended last year amid concerns about the associated cost and feasibility. Although the multimillion dollar project would have considerably reduced traffic and smog in capital Amman, details of the system conceived by the Greater Amman Municipality in 2009 are still being ironed out. […]
2012 Marks the ninth year that green globes have been awarded to Israel’s most sustainable movers and shakers, and a small Arab school northeast of Tel Aviv is among this year’s nine recipients. Located in Kafr Qasim, the Alzahraa school has not only established an ecological garden and solar station in their own school, but […]
Despite having enough solar power to energize the planet for the next 20 centuries, Saudi Arabia has instead reaped the benefits of its oil reserves for decades. This wealth has spurred a spate of massive developments in Mecca, transforming a small desert hamlet into a thriving metropolis. But this may be a curse for Islam’s […]