Manama, Bahrain
Bahrain, a small island archipelago located in the heart of the Gulf, is often described as one of the most developed economies in the region. Along with Dubai, it certainly offers the only model as yet for post-oil economics amongst the Arab oil-producing states. With its oil resources about to dry up, Bahrain realised that it needed to invest in other economical activities to maintain and develop its progress. During the last decade, therefore, Bahrain has started to take major steps towards economic diversification, primarily by addressing the financial and tourist sectors. To emphasize the new reality of the Bahraini economy, and to highlight its altered identity as a post-oil country within the Gulf region, the Ministry of Oil was eradicated at the end of 2005. The search for a new identity for Bahrain and its capital city, Manama, has swiftly encouraged new models of development based on providing hybrid urban spaces and iconic developments.
In this chapter, I will narrate the story of an individual city, Manama, in relation to local, regional and international influences. I will critically examine the major transformation that Manama has witnessed from being a small town based on pearl-diving and maritime trade to a city which is now trying to use large-scale urban projects and iconic buildings to become a global player – all with the aim of creating an international hub that will attract tourists, business visitors and investors. Ironically, Manama’s past relationship with pearl-diving appears to be endless, given that all of its newly constructed iconic projects are related to pearls – either as a morphological reference, or as an attractive commercial name that invokes history to facilitate marketing. With this type and volume of projects, Manama, like other Gulf cities in the vein of Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, is undeniably one of the key centres for unprecedented levels of development in the Middle East. One ought to note, however, that it is much smaller than these other Arabic Gulf cities: Manama’s estimated population is currently around 330,000 citizens in its wider metropolitan area.
The chapter sheds light on a new emerging form of urbanisation resulting from global influences interacting within the Gulf context. Hybrid urbanism will be discussed as a major form of development which is clearly present during the last five years in globalising Gulf cities including Manama. Hybridity, as a significant result of cultural interchange and diversity, is one of the primary characteristics of global and post-global societies. I will argue that the general transformation of Bahrain’s urban identity – and that of Manama in particular – into hybrid entities, is already having a huge impact on development, imagery and social structure. The chapter will thus investigate and evaluate the impact of globalization, hybridity, and post-oil economics on the production of actual places in Manama. This topic will be studied from two perspectives: first, there will be a historical review and interpretation of the emergence of architectural and urban hybridity in Bahrain; second, there will be a closer investigation and assessment of the workings of architectural hybridity within Manama’s contemporary urbanism.
BACKGROUND TO GULF CITIES
Major cities in the Gulf region have for decades been experiencing rapid changes and transformations in their social, economic, environmental and physical structures. One of the most unique features about Gulf cities is their demographic structure. The ratio between the local and expatriate population is reaching phenomenal percentages. For instance, in the case of Bahrain, local citizens today represent only 50 per cent of the total population. An even more radical example can of course be seen in Dubai, where locals form just over 15 per cent of the population.1 What is important about these figures is that it shows the clear presence of hybrid identities within most contemporary Gulf cities. Due to economic reasons, those expatriates are often stay more or less permanently, and in the process they dwell, interact with, influence and become influenced by their surroundings. Demographic trends of the local and expatriate populations, which can be seen as ‘internal’ factors of a city, determine the rate of growth of their relative sizes and the degree of spatial differentiation or integration; whereas ‘external’ factors, mainly globalization and the shift towards hybridity, have major effects on the changing economics and lifestyles of Middle East countries. Special attention thus needs to be paid to how urban space in Manama can be shaped and dimensioned to satisfy the new expectations and needs of its diverse inhabitants, who while living in the same city environment, exhibit significant cultural and socio-economic variations.
Debates around this issue rely on our ability to understand social dynamism and what people think about their domestic environments – in other words, how they organize themselves and why. How do traditions work in society? How and why do people create new traditions? It seems evident that every society has its own continuous traditions; they may change and take on different forms, but their existence is essential for that society to survive. Citizens in Gulf cities have long tried to maintain continuity through the strong impact of their main religion, Islam. These traditions can be linked with what Rapaport calls the ‘cultural core’.2 By using this term, he differentiated the idea of essential cultural values from the more ‘peripheral’ values which are modified to suit changes in life circumstances. The real challenge for contemporary Gulf cities seems to emerge from their desire to develop in a global world, with a growing tendency towards openness and transparency. Therefore, religion might now be seen as part of a Gulf city’s identity but it is not the sole one. Beside religious factors, social structure in Bahrain has long been shaped by the power and hierarchy of tribes, and the cosmopolitanism of its demographic structure.3 Today, the right of citizenship is overriding religious beliefs and tribal allegiances in the new hybridised Gulf condition.
HYBRIDITY DISCOURSE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
The contributors to the 2001 book on Hybrid Urbanism set out to revise our understanding of city building and identity formation.4 Their concept of ‘hybridity’ was borrowed from post-colonial theory to challenge both essentialist and multicultural explanations of these intertwined processes.5 According to this view, built environments and the social meanings they convey are neither the products of individual cultures nor the creations of discrete groups. Rather, they are syncretic, the result of a constant interplay of cultures and traditions. Yet, as Alsayyad rightly states, hybrid groups of people do not always create hybrid places, and hybrid places do not always accommodate hybrid groups of people.6 This argument will be used to examine the status of the newly introduced concept/process of hybrid urbanism in Manama and Bahrain in general. The hypothesis will be that due to increased openness, the desire for a more diversified economic base, and existence of multicultural groups of people, hybrid places can be created. It will also be argued that historically, cosmopolitan nature of a place or a city like Manama might facilitate the process of hybridity.
City building has often been portrayed as the self-conscious efforts of a few powerful people seeking to create distinctive and authentic urban visions. Some participants in the process in places like the Middle East might have in the past been colonialists or western authorities, while others were locals, but almost all belonged to elites who could operate within a global network of policymakers, architects and planners. This interpretation seems especially true of the modern era, although some researchers suggest that global interaction was shaping cities as early as the thirteenth century.7 Straightforward accounts of colonial dominance and indigenous resistance give way here to analyses suggesting that even in the inequitable power relationships created by Western imperialism, urban forms grew from combinations of cultures rather than the simple imposition of European ideas. In Celik’s view culture was a crucial element in power structures in the colonial condition, according to Celik.8 Architecture and urbanism have an obvious advantage over other cultural formations in shedding such direct light on social relations and power structures. Additionally, many scholars suggest that understanding urban history needs to be intertwined with the study of urban processes that embody the intricate interaction of social, economic, political, technical, cultural, and artistic forces which bring about the urban form and give dynamism to the city over time.9
5.1 Map of Bahrain showing its contextual relationship
More importantly, as argued by Bhabha, the colonial relationship is not symmetrically antagonistic, due to the ambivalent positioning of the colonizer and the colonized.10 Ambivalence is connected to the presence of ‘hybridity’ in which the other’s original identity is rewritten, but also transformed through misreadings and incongruities, resulting in something quite different. Such a process can be seen in Manama during the last decade as it has developed at significant pace into a cosmopolitan global center. Its reputation as a unique and vital trading city supports its effort to retain a regional importance and aspire to global importance. Historically, all the Bahraini cities seem peculiar: heterogeneous, hyperactive and with great deal of commercial exchange and maritime trading. This back-story has enabled Manama to go through a smooth process of transformation from a old trading city to a modern hybrid one. As Katodrytis has argued in terms of Dubai, hybrid cities demonstrate in their apparent lack of identity a complex urbanism based on an invisible infrastructure: a fluid and non-hierarchical system of activities, goods and participants. More than just a static collection of buildings, these cities can be described as a piling up of activities that change more quickly than the planning process can respond to. Katodrytis rightly states that existing buildings seem unable to sustain this dynamic, complex and fluid ‘urban condition’, one which is hybrid, synthetic and post-modern.11
A more accurate description of Bahraini urbanism can thus be generated from the fact that it is a city state in terms of urban setting. In other words, because of Bahrain’s nature as an island of very limited area, there is major difficulty in any attempt to separate the country from the city. Hence, reading Manama’s story actually gives a fair reading of the driving forces for all of Bahrain’s urbanism. In the next section, I will try to shed some light on Bahrain’s economic, cultural, social, geographical and environmental character so as to offer a deeper understanding of Manama, and given that both entities interact, overlap and intertwine continuously.
CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF BAHRAIN
Bahrain consists of a group of 33 islands with a total land area of about 700 km2. The unique relation between Bahrain and the sea established its economic development, with its two main cities, Manama and Muharraq, originating as primitive fishermen’s settlements on the Gulf coastline. Historically, the major factors which shaped Manama were pearl fishing and trading. Bahrain was also famous for building traditional wooden boats used mainly for pearl-diving, fishing and trading. Some historical documents suggest that by the beginning of the 20th century, Oman and Qatar had purchased more than 100 fishing boats from Bahrain. The port of Manama was then so vibrant that it had over 100 trading and fishing ships entering and leaving on a daily basis.12
Looking more closely at Manama, there is a lot of evidence which shows the importance of the Gulf to the life of the city, its local community and its urban morphology. The urban structure of the road network is marked by the orientation of the main roads towards the Gulf. The old port that was once the main gate to the city, called Bab-al-Bahrain (Bahrain Gate), was a commercial hub that extended up to the main market. The city in its early stages therefore extended along the coast in a north-east/southwest direction, having a long frontage onto the coast that was then regularly interrupted by a series of lanes leading inland.13
5.2 Distinctive urban and architectural features of traditional Bahraini settlements
From an environmental perspective, Manama, like most of Bahrain, is located in a hot humid climate. This climatic condition is largely responsible for its urban morphology and architectural forms. Natural ventilation is a major challenge since it is so important in buildings to try to keep out humidity. A unique street pattern can thus be noticed clearly in Manama’s spatial order. As is also observed of many traditional cities in the Middle East, the requirement for shading from the sun was achieved by having narrow winding streets.14 The tight urban pattern gives Manama’s old core its distinguishing character. In the case of wide roads, the market, communal spaces were shaded by hanging out traditional clothes. In response to the climate, the city also relied on two housing typologies. In earlier times, houses were made of very light framed structures consisting of mat huts with a sloping roof, known locally as barasti. The second typology used masonry load-bearing walls and relied on local building local expertise. Other techniques were also imported from surrounding Gulf countries to enhance the environmental performance of dwellings. For example, ventilation was improved through wind towers, locally known as badjir, which originated in Iranian traditional settlements.
Bahrain’s maritime location therefore played a crucial role in shaping its history, politics and social structure. Politically, it has long been a strategic centre between the two Islamic entities – the Arabs and the Persians, respectively the Sunni and the Shi’a Muslims – which today are regionally crystallized in the two regional powers of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Bahrain was thus a transit point between Arabia and the Persian and Indian sub-continents in many senses.15 This explains its well-established cosmopolitan demographic formed mainly of Arabs, Persians and Indians.16
While the city of Muharraq, which sits on a smaller island just to the northeast, was considered to be Bahrain’s political centre up to the late-18th century, Manama retained its purpose as the locus for foreign occupation and a focal point for regional and international trading networks. British colonial interests in Bahrain were mainly economic, with Manama acting as the base for British commercial operations in the archipelago. Only after the agreements of 1881 and 1892, when Bahrain became a de facto British protectorate, did British interference in the affairs of the islands increase dramatically. As a result, Manama became the stage for a power struggle between the Al-Khalifa rulers and the British colonists.17 This was a significant moment in the city’s history: while there had been earlier fishing settlements on the northern coast of Bahrain for centuries (references to what became Manama date back at least to the 14th century), it had been the advent of the Al-Khalifa dynasty in 1783 that transformed it into a proper urban centre. Historical sources duly note that the twin cities of Manama and Muharraq were founded soon after 1780.18 British interests thus challenged the existing power order; however, the Al-Khalifa rulers managed to survive and retain their power to the present day.
Once established as a key trading, fishing and pearl-diving centre, there were no natural barriers to Manama’s expansion due to its flat topography. Its only limits were the presence of the Gulf to the north, as well as some cemeteries surrounding the city core. Paradoxically, over the last decade, not even the Gulf was considered an obstacle to expansion given an organized and rapid process of land reclamation. The Bahrain Financial Harbour, begun in 2004, is the most important project in Manama constructed completely on reclaimed land; its second and third phases are intended to add even more land to the total area of the city. Similar projects, including man-made islands of Durrat Al Bahrain and Bahrain Bay, demonstrate the tendency to use land reclamation to accommodate iconic mega-projects.
URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS IN MANAMA
As mentioned, Manama was truly established by the end of 18th century, directly after the Al-Khalifa ruling family had achieved political stability. From 1818 to 1905, the city grew from a small village of just 8,000 people to a sizeable town of 25,000. Its role as a port city within the Gulf region made it a hub for transnational communities, most of which are now represented to different extents in the social fabric. The immigration of labourers, in search of a better life, continually shaped Manama’s population by making it be characterized by cosmopolitanism.19 Manama was also unique because it became a regional capital created by the British following the signing of the 1892 Protectorate Treaty. As a result, the city became the headquarters for British power, and was from where the whole Gulf region was managed and controlled. In terms of religion, the co-existence of the two main Islamic sects, Sunni and Shi’a, is part of the social mosaic that makes up the city.20 Both sects are represented by distinctive groups organised around large families: some are local Bahrainis, some are Persians, and some are Arab Bedouins. They once co-existed in Manama with other non-Muslim entities such as Oriental Christians, Indians of various sects, and Jews. Such a rich tapestry was further enhanced by the arrival of other ethnic communities, initially as a consequence of economic prosperity, and later due to geopolitical factors which characterized the colonial period.21
5.3 Aerial photograph showing the contrast of Manama’s old urban fabric to newer modern planning
5.4 Details of Manama’s traditional architectural vocabulary
5.5 The old and the new in Manama, showing the distinctive Bahrain World Trade Centre (BWTC) and the reclaimed land for the Northern City
As in other Middle Eastern cities, Bahrain’s traditional urban form was the product of harmonious interaction between cultural norms and climatic conditions to produce effective housing clusters that used standard architectural elements and simple local construction techniques. The guiding principle was ‘Form follows Family’, according to Yarwood.22 Following the discovery of oil in Bahrain in 1930, however, it is noticeable that the traditional urban structure started slowly to change from a compact irregular organic form to a modern grid system. From 1930 until the 1960s, urban changes in cities like Manama were the result of a massive influx of foreign labour, the introduction of town-planning principles by the British colonial power, and the pursuit of a modernisation process. In 1934, the new city of Awali was built, and thereafter many modern areas adopted the ‘Form follows Function’ doctrine, sprouting out especially around traditional areas in Manama and Muharraq. In order for Manama to modernise, new functions were added to the city form: wide roads, institutional buildings, housing blocks and oil industry facilities became the new elements in this transformation. In the more traditional areas, there was also a shift of local communities to newer housing areas due to many factors: dilapidated traditional areas offered cheaper accommodation for foreign labourers, uncoordinated building activity and the absence of a comprehensive conservation strategy led to the loss of urban homogeneity in traditional areas, plus there was a widespread lack of appreciation of the value of traditional dwellings opposed to modern housing projects.23
Even though oil was first discovered in Bahrain during the 1930s, its full scale commercial production started around 1950, following the disruption of the Second World War. At this point the British colonists allowed masses of foreign