Written by: Fatma A. Khalfani

Abandoned Fishing Village

Al-Jemail is an abandoned fishing village located in northwest of Qatar in the middle of the road between Abu Zolouf and Al-Hassan Khor. This village was inhabited until the beginning of the twentieth century. The ruins of houses and crumbling buildings in this village shows how the area was full of houses around and behind the mosque which is located at the core of the village with fish-men’s house along the sea shore.

Unfortunately the site was subject to significant disturbance within the past three years as a film company altered several of the buildings, and some of the buildings on the site relate to the changes that they had made. This includes the demolition of some of the buildings and the construction of new buildings using modern cement and compressed ash blocks.

The site is considered as an archaeological site on held by QMA trying to do a comprehensive program in terms of conservation and preservation.

Historical Background

One of the most important archeological site in Qatar is Zubarah Town that was built as a fishing village in early 17^th century resulting the area to become flourishing centers of trade, fishing and pearling. The area gradually declined in 1783 as the tension within the area went up and Bahraini tribes  claimed self-governing over the island. The site went through short period of abandonment in 1811, while inhabited again in 1820s with smaller scale of fishing. In 19^th century, the site saw a steady migration of people from Zubarah to Bahrain and it was by 1937 that flourishing city was fully abandoned.  Daily life was resumed in the villages by Al-Nuami tribe in 1945 and with replacement of tribe toward city center in 1970s, the area was fully abandoned and hold by ministry of Culture and Heritage as an archaeological site ( Site 25). The ruins still exist today and visitors to the region can explore Al-Jemail and  two nearby villages  Al-Areesh, and Al-Khuwair that are currently on held by Qatar Museum Authority for restoration.

 Heritage Resources

All remains of the buildings, structures, activities or cultural features, that because of the passage of time are on or below the surface of the land or water, considered to be the village heritage resources that should be identified and evaluated and determined to be significant to the understanding of the history of a people or a place. Heritage resources encounter both cultural and natural resources of the village. The cultural heritage resources of Al-Jemail more structured to embrace the movable, immovable and intangible heritage. However, the natural resources is really limited to some self growing vegetation or plantation.

Regeneration of  Al Jemail

Rehabilitation (Archaeological Restoration and Cultural Reactivation)

The urban fabric of  the village is deteriorated as maintenance and improvements were not carried out. Progressively the deterioration increased until the structural damage occurred. Regeneration/ rehabilitation is a process applied to carried out improvements and to prevent deterioration from starting and/ or continuing. Understanding this deterioration process is essential for regeneration process.

Regeneration or rehabilitation of Al-Jemail Village is focusing more on archeological restoration of  cultural and natural resources while reactivating the identity and ideology. Moreover, the regeneration process addresses and encourages channeling new urban development into existing and planned area through rehabilitation and upgrading existing fabric and infrastructure.

Vision

Bringing the life back to the historic village and renovate  the place to become a place that creates opportunities and incubates possibilities through focusing on uses and activities, sociability, access and linkages, and comfort and images.

Aspects

The regeneration program encompasses different aspects under three main pillars:

Economical Aspects:

• Promoting the site to retain local expenditure & attract more spending from outside;
• Strategies to sustain new types of economic activity in the site.

Social Aspects:

• Identity- Promote some sense of inclusion and belonging;
• Improve the quality of life and develop greater pride of localities;
• Confidence to plan for the future;
• Enhance the capacity of localities to provide locally responsive services.

Physical & Environmental  Aspects:

• Removing Constraints and building on Opportunities;
• Improving infrastructure & land  redevelopment;
• Integrated socio-economic & physical renewal.

Strategies

The regeneration strategies are driven from built environment, economic viability, social provision and transport and movement principles. The strategies will aim to provide a range of measures which will eventually reverse the process of deterioration and make the site more a livable and a point of attraction for investors and tourists.

Historical Preservation: preservation of historical urban fabric and buildings centers the attention to improve first impression of the town, restoration of the historic building and adaptive reuse program of historic building to become a point of tourists attraction.

Urban Park Development: developing the green area and park using the native plantation in which archaeological remains of buildings is used as the basis of an urban park.

Urban park helps in cooling and cleaning the air, improves and modifies local wind circulations. Well-vegetated parks, in a variety of forms and sizes, minimize local climate change and reduces the impact of the urban heat island that may even prevent global climate change as village continue to increase in both size and population.

New Development: developing high quality mixed use development including public services like Hospital, School and markets, and detailed the incentive program that motivate the self regeneration process by developers

Urban Connectivity: Dedicate public transport route for bus, bicycle, and minimize the vehicular circulation while maximizing the pedestrian movement. Also, creating marine that connect the development with surrounding by initiating the Electric Water Taxi.

Vehicular Circulation: Minimizing through route traversing the site will protect the site from excessive car movement, decreasing negative impact on the way the place ‘feels’ and functions.

Bus Route: A fast, reliable, attractive bus service including a possible Park & Ride, to the Historic Area is important in reducing congestion and promoting sustainable forms of travel.

Cycle Path: Cycling is a mode of transport that the Urban Development  Strategy and Local Transport Plan will be promoting and water frontage plays its part in improving provision.

Pedestrians Movement: Walking will be the principal way of moving about the site and, more than anything, along the seashore will be a very pleasant pedestrian experience.

Economy: diversify the economic activities through which economic viability is increased to provide employment promises and strengthen movement in the town center to increase viability of the markets and town center shops.

Waterfront livability: decrease the tightness of the sea shore through creating the promenade and active public spaces with variety of activities Cleaning up the water front.

Pedestrianized Seafront linkage bridging the historic village with new extended area that encompasses diversity of uses and economic activities.The waterfront is pedestrianized at certain times and will link directly to a linear public park which provide much needed shade during the hotter months. This currently links the seafront to the historic city and will be enhanced with improved connections to the new extended area.

Stakeholders

For regeneration to be successful, all interested parties including local authorities, and private and voluntary sectors have to work in a more coordinated way to develop a holistic integrated approach drawing better future perspectives for the area.

This is a really critical time for Al-Jemail regeneration. There should be integrated long term plan to bring back the life again to the area. The development of treatments for the conservation of this impressive urban fabric has to be based on the understanding of the causes, mechanisms and effects of deterioration as the wise use and protection of archeological resources over the long term is a key re-generational interest.