ABSTRACT
This chapter explores image-making practices in the city of Doha, a city that has experienced the rapid urban transformations associated with building large scale work and learning environments, mixed-use developments, and cultural and sport facilities. It presents the contemporary architecture by utilising the metaphors of 'drama' and 'theatre' to reflect on the city's contextual geo-cultural politics. The chapter identifies theoretical underpinnings and approaches for understanding image-making as a base for developing a methodology to examine these approaches in Doha's contemporary architecture. It discusses this methodology based on contextual, critical, and perceptual approaches, image-making practices in the city. The chapter also explores various efforts to categorise and critically analyse the underlying contextual and critical approaches. Within the professional and academic communities the interest in creating meaningful places often results in a wide spectrum of approaches to place and image-making. Historically, Doha was once a small fishing village whose main source of income was from pearl-diving and the trade in natural saltwater pearls.
