Sharjah, UAE
On land and in the sea, our forefathers lived and survived in this environment. They were able to do so because they recognized the need to conserve it, to take from it only what they needed to live, and to preserve it for succeeding generations.1
The city state of Sharjah is the result of a complex interaction of environmental, economic, political, and cultural factors across successive periods of time which shaped its particular physical form and social composition. Decisions made in response to multiple fast-changing economic and political pressures have greatly affected the urban planning of Sharjah – the most prominent of these factors being economic boom and the related population growth.2
Before the discovery of oil in the 1950s, Sharjah was under the protection of the British Empire. At that point there were only approximately 1,000 people living along the coastline in what is currently known as the ‘heritage area’. Economic resources were limited, and so local people were mainly dependent on fishing, pearl diving and sea trading. The British rulers produced a typical outline plan for Sharjah, around its creek, which still forms the basis for the city today. However, if one looks closely at the current formation of Sharjah, one can see that the city has been built without sufficient regulation or sense of urban planning. Due to the availability of land and the relatively low population in past eras, Sharjah was not yet being challenged – as it is today – by problems such as urban sprawl, traffic jams, lack of parking spaces, and an increasingly dysfunctional urban infrastructure.
In the 1960s, once oil extraction had got well underway, the new-found economic prosperity of Sharjah allowed rapid urban change. Oil became the single major source of income for the country. The introduction of modern technology that accompanied oil drilling, along with the advent of extensive trading exchange with the rest of the world, made the means of modern life available to the city’s citizens. Sharjah became one of the cities in the Middle East most eager to follow the western model of modernization and urban development. As a consequence, its environment was transformed to accord with the new local ambition to modernize the city as quickly as possible. A foreign workforce was invited to participate in the country’s urban development process. Indeed, continuous economic prosperity and the resulting demand for labour soon attracted a large number of non-Emiratis to come to work in Sharjah. This led to a dramatic growth in population: there are now an estimated 890,000 people in Sharjah’s metropolitan area, the result of which the ratio has in recent years reached around 20 per cent citizens to 80 per cent foreigners, like in neighbouring Dubai. The population increase has also caused daunting problems with spectacular consequences for the urban planning, not least in terms of the serious disruption of Sharjah’s surviving historical fabric.
THE CONSERVATION AND ADAPTATION OF OLD SHARJAH
From 1720 or so, the powerful Qawassim tribe first came to settle along the most strategic Gulf coastline from Ras Al-Khaimah further north down to Sharjah. Later on, in 1820, a general treaty signed with the British imperial forces caused the collapse of Qawassim maritime activity and divided the kingdom up into smaller sheikhdoms. Internal conflicts between members resulted in independence for Sharjah and Ras Al-Khayma as separate emirates by 1914. It is notable that the Qawassim tribe made Sharjah their urban hub, and it was there that the initial settlers survived through fishing, pearl diving and sea trading. Sharjah became in time a typical Arabic and Islamic walled town. Although its urban pattern shows some localized influences, it was the broader ideals and forms of an Islamic city which were predominant. An early map of Sharjah drawn by the British military in 1820 revealed that – while still obviously a small town – it already possessed several important features of a Islamic city that included:
• Al-Sour (defensive city fence/wall): Sharjah’s sour (1804–1819) was built by Sheikh Sultan I bin Saqr Al-Qasimi to protect it from invaders. The sour was constructed out of local materials such as stone reefs and sandstone brought in from the coastline and Abu Musa Island. This defensive wall was around 2.75 m high and 0.5 m thick. It had three main entrances through which Bedouins could enter the city with their camels and goats to sell them in the Al-Arsa market. By 1886, however, there were no parts of the sour remaining due to the expansion of the town.
• Palmary area: this was located outside the sour next to the water supplies.
• Al-Layyeh area: this was a small fishing village located to the south on the other side of the creek from Sharjah.
• Al-Jubail area: this was located outside the sour and had an elevated cemetery at 10–15 m above sea level.
• Coastal souk: this market was located along the coastline of the creek but within the sour, and it sold fish, gold and various different goods.
Surviving evidence from Sharjah’s early development shows that the city consisted of several types of architectural and urban elements. The most notable houses had clear Persian and Indian influences, and in general the built fabric was of a somewhat ‘primitive’ nature, called ‘arish. The Islamic community was established in several dense residential neighbourhoods. However, the slow growth of Sharjah during the 19th century – a period of decisive internal changes and important external influences – did not enable the city to reach the degree of urban maturity that was the case in other Islamic capitals. It was for this reason that the still-nascent Sharjah found itself unable to resist the pressures of modernizing change that impacted from the beginning of the 20th century (see Plate 16).
10.1 Development phases of Sharjah, UAE, from 1822–2000, showing the gradual move inland from the old port (top centre of map)
Hence, in 1930, Sharjah witnessed the birth of its first airport, immediately altering its urban morphology from the traditional to the modern. The airport was constructed by British military forces as a key transit point on the route between India and the United Kingdom. It brought in new financial income to the city at a time when its pearl trading was declining, and led to the need to form a new gate into the old town, connected by land and sea. This significant piece transport infrastructure underlined Sharjah’s strategic geographical position as well as introducing new patterns of technology and urbanism. The airport was created as a small military urban district containing more than 1,200 air-conditioned housing units, water reservoirs, power station and hospital, all protected by an encircling wall. The construction of the military airport and accompanying district influenced the whole traditional setting of Sharjah through the arrival of major new roads (albeit originally as dirt tracks). What is now Al-Uruba Road, currently used by trucks and lorries, was in fact the first landing strip. In 1938, the process of modernizing Sharjah’s infrastructure was given a further financial boost when the local government handed out contracts for British oil companies to explore the area for oil reserves.
THE RECTILINEAR AND THE GRID-IRON
In 1968, just when the British military forces were preparing to leave the United Arab Emirates after 150 years of protectorate status, Sharjah had expanded in size to include new districts such as Maysaloon, Al-Falaj, Al-Sharq and Al-Mujarrah. It was therefore decided to draw up a plan that divided Sharjah into a more orderly, western-style grid. This master-plan was devised by the British civil engineering firm of Sir William Halcrow & Partners. From that point on, the city started to have even newer transport infrastructure such as metalled roads, roundabouts and a bridge connecting the old city to Al-Layyeh on the other side of the creek. In addition, with the creek now starting to dry up because of soil deposition, Sharjah’s urban form shifted significantly from a localized model to the modern urban archetype. The trend towards a rectilinear, grid-iron layout was stressed by the 1968 master-plan, and had impacted on the ground by 1980. The traditional old town was now stretched out to espouse the linearity of an ordered, westernised urban pattern. Consequently, the historic hub of Sharjah was confined to a series of heritage spots on the map.
10.2 First master-plan for Sharjah as devised by the British firm of Halcrow & Partners in 1968
The emerging grid-iron plan showed the emphasis now being placed on connecting roads at the expense of well-defined neighbourhood zones. The master-plan gave priority to the main avenues shown in red for its first stage, then to other projected urban roads marked in yellow for its second stage; there were also various roads around or outside the periphery (as indicated in white), which were projected to be built during both the first and second stages. The extension of roads served to enlarge the body of the city, creating a more stretched urban territory. Sharjah’s old city began to shrink even more under the vehicular pressure of the new road-based infrastructure.