MENAtalk 09 | People and the City

'Learning from Al Khor'

13 May 2012

Timing: 7pm - 9pm

Dubai’s vibrant cultural, social and economic center for many years has been the Creek, or as it’s named in Arabic, ‘Al Khor.’ Recently, Al Khor has drawn competition from multiple centers of the city fabric, such as Business Bay and DIFC. While being destined to become the heritage tourist beacon of Dubai, with its vernacular architecture, shaded walkways, narrow streets and shops that spill out onto the sidewalk; the Creek has managed to keep the charisma of an original Arabic city and offer a true urban feeling. Al Khor is a laboratory for a future urban vision and can teach us many lessons about city making both within Dubai, across the region and with implications that extend globally.

The four MENAlab 2012 ‘Crossing Al Khor’ Discovery Walks introduced and enriched our understanding of the various people, places and stories unique to the neighbourhood. The Discovery Workshop built on this understanding and developed a set of topics as direction for a more systematic study of Al Khor. MENAtalk 09 ‘Learning from Al Khor’ invites the community to discuss the potential and challenges facing Al Khor. Guest speakers include residents of Al Khor, Authorities responsible for designing and implementing the long-term vision for Al Khor and Educators whose research has focused on Al Khor.