Hugh Roberts - An Urban Profile of the Middle East

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: SOCIETY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Volume 21

AN URBAN PROFILE OF THE MIDDLE EAST

M. HUGH P. ROBERTS

First published in 1979 by Croom Helm Ltd

This edition first published in 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1979 M. Hugh P. Roberts

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-19040-5 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62817-2 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-19231-7 (Volume 21) (hbk)

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

Some authors have their tasks of writing a book made easier with the help of various people. Some of those mentioned here did more than this; they made the difference between the book being merely a pipedream and a reality.

The project was made possible only after four trips to North Africa and two to the Middle East proper. The former journeys were carried out in the course of work with my employers, A.G. Sheppard Fidler and Associates in Bristol, in association with the W.S. Atkins Group of Consultants of Epsom, England. Duncan Thomas, Jack Penrose, David Thirkettle, Peter Brown, John Judson, Mitu Banerjea and Phillip Worthington in various capacities as mentors, technical advisers and providers of moral support were the most frequent sources of help, but there were many others in both firms.

The two trips to the Middle East were made possible through finance from the Bristol Junior Chamber of Commerces Export Research Award Scheme. Each year the Junior Chamber arranges a similar scheme to promote export research. The belief of the members that ideas such as those of town planning are as much a commodity for export as aeroplanes, chocolate, tobacco, or other products of Bristol, is a tribute to their foresightedness. Bill Rowsell as President of the Junior Chamber in 1977/8 and Alan Bate as Secretary of the ERAS committee were of special help.

People in a wide range of official and private capacities offered willing help and advice in a variety of ways. Mr Jack Evans in the British Overseas Trade Board in Bristol, Mr Neil Worman at the Department of Trade and Industry in London, Messrs Gallagher and Beaumont in the Middle East Department of the Foreign Office in London, Messrs Brian Wilson and Steven Fuller in the British Urban Development Services Unit, Mr Charles Griffiths in the British Embassy in Rabat, Mr Arthur Marshall in the same capacity in Kuwait, and Mr D. Hardinge, Mr M. Gowlland, and Mr E. Parsons in the British Embassies in Qatar, Dubai and Muscat respectively offered help in their capacities as British officials. Monsieur Derrouish of SNS in Algeria, M Tazi and M Mouline of SONASID in Morocco, Mr Alan Matheson and Mr Steven Hills in the Kuwait Municipality, Mr Hisham Qaddoumi and Mr John Lockerbie in the Amirs Office in Qatar, Mr Emmanuel in the Dubai Municipality, and Mr Mohammed Morad at the Omani Embassy in London, represented officials offering help on behalf of various foreign governments and other agencies.

In their consulting capacities A.G. Sheppard Fidler and Associates in Algeria and W.S. Atkins and Partners with Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners in Morocco provided clearance for reproduction of their material prepared respectively on behalf of SNS Algeria and SONASID in Morocco. In Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners, Peter Kettles assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

Llewellyn-Davies International in Iran and Llewellyn-Davies, Forestier-Walker, Weeks and Bor in Oman provided information on their work in those countries. John Bowers, Kenneth Conway and Malcolm Fullard were of special help. The Shankland Cox Partnership, currently reviewing the Kuwait Structure Plan, made their material available through the Kuwait Municipality; Rodney Hamilton was their representative in Kuwait. The W.L. Pereira Association of Los Angeles is preparing plans for Umm Said new town in Qatar, and Melvin Sieks, the firms town planner there, provided assistance. In Dubai, the Peddle Thorpe Chapman Taylor organisation representative, Russell Croker, provided on site assistance concerning the Jebel Ali project and he was backed up in London by the project leader, Rodney Carran.

The original ideas for the book developed from a research project, which forms the subject of , carried out in 1976 with two architects, three landscape architects, an agricultural economist and an engineer from two practices, in addition to A.G. Sheppard Fidler and Associates. The firms were Derek Lovejoy and Partners in Crawley, Sussex, and Mander Raikes and Marshall in Bristol, and the fellow members of the research team were Orlando Jones, Paul Davis, Adrian Jones, Duncan Thomas, John Grimshaw, Julian Cooper and Mike Boddington.