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Todd Reisz
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Todd Reisz (toddreisz.com) is an architect and writer based in Amsterdam. He is editor and member of the Al Manakh team. Founded in 2006, Al Manakh is the collaborative initiative to monitor, reveal and forecast new urban developments unfolding in the Gulf region. Al Manakh 2: Gulf Continued(2010) was a groundbreaking work that revealed some of the countless facets of Gulf cities. Written during the region’s descent into economic crisis, the book explores how cities like Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai are responding to the global economic landscape as a means to continue holding their stake in a global context. These cities are at once challenged to confront their usual patterns of development and forced to produce revised responses to changing economic and social forces.

Continuing the work of Al Manakh 2, Todd continues to address issues addressed in the 500-page book through articles and interviews reflecting on the changing conditions of these cities.

Al Manakh takes its cues from the understanding that architects must act from an informed perspective about their environment. Al Manakh provides tools for approaching these cities. This knowledge is relevant to those operating in the region and beyond. These Gulf cities wield influence that increasingly surpasses local borders, as they invest in projects and companies anywhere between the US, the UK, India and China. And as these cities’ ambitions become a model for cities around the world, we could be witnessing future radical experiments in city-building.

This crisis has brought into focus the failures of past developments and the reconsideration of once ambitious plans. Most importantly, it highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the urban context in order to move forward. Al Manakh 2: Gulf Continued features over 120 voices, drawn mostly from the Gulf region, each addressing various themes ranging from sustainability in Abu Dhabi, the planned mega-cities of Saudi Arabia, Dubai’s crisis and its new metro, cultural preservation in Doha and trains departing from Riyadh. Pervading each of these reports is the specter of the economic crisis, and the effect it has had in challenging the ambitions and models of these cities.

Other members of Al Manakh include AMO, the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Archis /Volume Magazine and Dubai-based Pink Tank. The team published Al Manakh in 2007.

twitter: @Almanakh, @ToddReisz

Blog Entries by Todd Reisz

"Doha Is a Colosseum"

Posted January 23, 2012 | 1/23/12

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Last November I spent a week in Doha, with a day trip along Qatar's widest, smoothest and newest highway (the North Road). It had been more than a year since I'd been in Doha, and that year has been a big one for...

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From Dubai to Amsterdam, There Is No Divide

Posted October 4, 2011 | 10/4/11

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Woman crosses Maktoum Road in Deira, Dubai. Photo: Todd Reisz


Leaving my house earlier than normal this morning, I found the nearby shopping street eerily quiet. Amsterdam's center wakes up late because it's more about entertainment than general commerce. Opposite Rembrandt's...

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Making Sense of the City

Posted June 27, 2011 | 6/27/11

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Living in the Endless City. Edited by Ricky Burdett, Deyan Sudjic. Phaidon Press

The London School of Economics' Urban Age Project has published its second and just as heavy volume about the planet's most favorite subject: its cities. The first was called The...

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Bahrain: A Roundabout Way to Signifying Nothing

Posted April 5, 2011 | 4/5/11

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The Pearl Monument on the Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain, February 19, 2011.
'Symbolism means nothing.'

Bahraini man in the street, The Guardian, March 18, 2011

Last week the New York Times ran an article with a headline more obvious than...

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Asleep in Oman, Dreaming Dubai

Posted February 1, 2011 | 2/1/11

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Soccer pitch in Yiti, Oman


During a trip to Oman I learned something about the consequences of Dubai's development appetite, namely that it extends beyond its own borders. My traveling partner and I had been enjoying the drive-and-camp-where-you-may freedom Oman provides. Our...

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Deira Modern, Notes on Dubai

Posted January 15, 2011 | 1/15/11

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Al Muteena Street in Deira, Dubai

Deira was Dubai's most modern quarter. It still is, though it's often referred to as "Old Dubai," a generalization that only describes a stop on the Dubai visitor's course. To see a gold souk, a fish...

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Soul-Searching at Dubai's Cityscape (Slideshow)

Posted October 19, 2010 | 10/19/10

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Watching the Falconcity of Wonders film at Cityscape. Slideshow below. Photos by Todd Reisz.


First it was "booming Dubai," and then "sinking Dubai." Two years into one of its most cathartic states ever, where do things stand for Dubai? That question was...

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Reclaim Bahrain

Posted September 28, 2010 | 9/28/10

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

One critic sardonically called the biannual architecture show now up in Venice "the biggest, most glamorous architecture show on earth." It's more often than not a lot of hoopla for navel-gazing architects. This year's show has captured the usual...

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Rank My City: The Singles Charts of the City-Building Business

Posted August 25, 2010 | 8/25/10

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

'The list doesn't destroy culture, it creates it.' - Umberto Eco

City rankings drive urban planners, city mayors, presidents and rulers to do the things they do. Rankings are the singles charts of the city-building business, giving benchmarks for ambition. A...

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Riyadh's Icon-Clad Perspectives

Posted August 19, 2010 | 8/19/10

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Riyadh's skyline
[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

It's a cliché by now that the cities of the Gulf have embraced the powers of icon building. For many observers, the Gulf region's unfailing fixation with the iconic represents the deflated essence...

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Abu Dubai: A City Never Founded Yet Meant to Be

Posted August 9, 2010 | 8/9/10

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

Abu Dhabi and Dubai, two Emirati cities separated by only 120 km of highway, seem to be simultaneously competing and yet prepared to help each other out.

Our piece here last week focused on the complications and implications...

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Qatar's Bid for World Cup 2022: To Build a Nation or a Region?

Posted August 2, 2010 | 8/2/10

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Qatar's proposed Al-Shamal Stadium

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

How do you build a 'real' nation? If you've got the cash, the tangible stuff is relatively straightforward; lay down key infrastructure like power plants, water supply, gas, highways, seaports, airports,...

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Two Idols, a Song and Some Money Transfers

Posted July 26, 2010 | 7/26/10

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Al Quoz, Dubai

'Dubai Idol,' as the event is popularly known, gets a blurb in the local UAE papers around this time of year. The articles raise readers' eyebrows, cause grins and evoke a warmth, perhaps out of self-righteous pity, toward Dubai's most visible...

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Abandoned Cars and Memories of a Bashing

Posted July 19, 2010 | 7/19/10

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

Dubai's major English-language paper Gulf News reports today on a phenomenon that plagued Dubai throughout 2009, but now it comes with a new twist. The abandoned car -- left to acquire a sand coating in a Dubai parking lot,...

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The Architect as a City Critic

Posted July 12, 2010 | 7/12/10

[This article was written with Rory Hyde.]

The architect, perhaps more than other professionals, is a mythical figure. He projects a marriage of expertise with panache. Seductive imagery with poignant words. A suit man who doesn't carry a calculator because he can do the math in his head....

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