Gulf Research Project

(2006-current)
“Cutting across all other issues facing the Gulf Region and the world is climate change. Its practical and elegant mitigation by designing Sustainable Built Environments is our greatest challenge.” — Nader Ardalan

The Gulf Research Project is a multi-year academic program that eventually aims to explore and make recommendations for innovative strategies to achieve more energy-efficient, ecologically benign, and culturally relevant built habitats in the 8 countries surrounding the Persian Gulf. The studies advocate the benefits of innovations in environmentally and culturally more sustainable designs than the current planning, design, construction and real estate practices and models that are being used in this region, which for the most part demonstrate serious shortcomings due to high resource consumption, urban pollution, loss of quality and urban cohesion plus lacking an indigenous sense of cultural identity.