Places to Visit to see Sustainable Doha
April 24, 2015 By: Amruta Kshemkalyani

Since a few years, I have been traveling to Doha mainly for work. There are many sustainable projects (green building projects) in Qatar. While I worked mainly on LEED projects in Doha, they also have their own sustainability rating system called GSAS/QSAS. But since last year I am visiting Doha for pleasure, while my dear husband works on sustainable projects over there :-).

Souq Waquif

My favorite spot in Doha is Souq Waquif, it is must for me on every trip! This old souq has a different charm. The narrow allies and hidden staircases, cobbled paths, handicraft, and souvenir shops and nice restaurants. This place is always full of energy. The recent addition of art galleries, old markets of birds, animals and what not, this all makes it a place cultural and traditional hub of Doha. This time we spent an evening in Souq waqif but also explored the rest of Doha, the newly developed places and I came across many sustainable design examples in all of these places.

Aspire Park

Toborochi (baobab) Tree, Egyptian goose, Olive tree (clockwise)

Having a constantly running toddler with me, visiting a park was on top of our list. So we visited one of the best parks in Doha, Aspire Park. The summer just started in full swing after many cycles of sand storms last few months, so it was considerably hot. But my son was very happy to get such a large open space for himself as compared to staying in a cool hotel room. He ran, showed me many birdies, ran behind them, wanted to wake up slipping ducks in a shed to cuddle them and played in a nice play park till his heart was content. Meanwhile, I couldn’t fell to notice different types of trees planted in the park and different species of birds who made Aspire park their home. Because of this, for older kids visit this park can be educational too. The lighting in the park is solar powered. In the Middle East where there are not many natural plantations, these kinds of vegetated open spaces are very useful for residents. Though these parks consume many gallons of water daily, the parks are essential to make cities livable for families. Only thing was there were fewer trees in the park so adding some shading element will help to create more shade in the park. This park must be great fun to visit on cooler days.

Katara cultural village

Sustainable design elements in Katara

Another place which we visited and would like to mention here is Katara cultural village. It is a huge complex placed next to sea and beach and has traditional local architecture consist of many sustainable design features. Many one or two storied traditional houses like buildings are connected with narrow lanes. These narrow lanes create a wind tunnel effect, which helps to cool down the temperature a bit. All these open public spaces were shaded making it comfortable to walk through this complex. Here people can come together even during the hotter time of the day. There were falaj-like small waterways on both sides of the lane along the buildings, which I think mostly for cooling effect. Generally, traditional falaj is used for irrigation purpose. Most of the Qatari cultural authorities have offices in Katara.

There are many upcoming and work in progress projects which are going to make Doha even more livable city. Some of these projects are Rail, Downtown Doha etc. Qatar is developing faster for football world cup 2022, but I am happy to see they are giving enough importance to sustainability as well.

Katara cultural village, Pigeon towers

There are many interesting eco-travel destinations in the Middle East, you can read about them here. And don’t forget to subscribe here to join our tribe.