Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses pivotal issues of architecture, urbanism, cultural identity and globalisation, and in doing so offers two original lines of investigation. It looks critically at the buildings and cities located around the entire perimeter of the Persian Gulf. The book focuses on analysing the key coastal cities in the six countries that possess substantial Gulf coastlines. It seeks to convey the latest cultural, architectural and urban influences around the Persian Gulf. The book treats the concept of architectural globalisation, with this term being usually translated into Arabic as al-awlama' and into Farsi as jahani shodan. It also wishes to sidestep the limitations in the notion of critical regionalism', which, as Adrian Forty points out, is merely a new form of 19th-century architectural nationalism.