Learning from Gulf Cities

Learning from Gulf Cities is the culmination of a long-term collaboration between Harvey Molotch and Davide Ponzini, with architectural photographer, Michele Nastasi, whose photography critically investigates and interprets urbanization within the Gulf and beyond its boundaries. His work illustrates the transference of similar urban modeling from one region to another, a process that is often flawed or incomplete. Nastasi’s images reveal to us how local context alters the nature of an architectural design project, however “global” the architect or international the funding source. In their dual roles as receivers and transmitters of contemporary urban trends, cities like Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi increasingly influence the shape of places beyond the Gulf and the region. This exhibition challenges depictions of Gulf cities as insular, insubstantial or merely flamboyant imitators, and instead portrays them as both originating, as well as reflecting, what is happening in the wider urban world