Place branding or city branding is a way to show what the city is about and how a city is portrayed through important elements. We started studying the Abu Dhabi branding, the brand is obtaining and building its reputation on the world stage whilst protecting the national identity and the authentic sense of the place which plays an important role to Emiratis. Besides, its a way that shows the spirit and essence identity of the culture.

Researching about AlKhor was all about knowing the facts and story behind Dubai. In Early 20th century Dubai was a small coastal village that lacked fertile oasis. The people of that time settled by the creek which lead them to pearling, trade & fishing. Soon Dubai became a prosperous land attracting settlers from India & Iran.

Influence of other cultures > Wind tower > Culture diversity.

The public space of Alkhor is quite interesting. There’s a variety of buildings including old traditional and modern building. Its a place that have this mixture of smells like spices and seawater. The sounds of birds and cars noise fills the place.

Asking my father and grandfather about the place and their memories

Putting the concept of my logo together

3 in 1

Alkhor in Arabic is written similar to 1971 in English .. So I tried combining these to aspects.

1971 is an important date to the emirates and to Alkhor it was the year when port Rashid was built.

Presentation Board

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Creating a logo that represents Alkhor the way i see was very interesting, sure challenging but what’s wrong with a challenge. I focused on the playfullness of the text the handwritten logo, because AlKhor in the past was not rigid and stiff. You have the see, the fish, the and birds which all in a way indicates freedom and the hand written type indicates freedom since you dont see any hard edges.

83. Land without Bread (1933, Bunuel): B-

84. A Day in the Country (1936, Renoir): B

85. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933, Capra): B+

86. The Raid: Redemption (2012, Evans): B+/B

87. It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012, Hertzfeldt): A-

88. Sadie Thompson (1928, Walsh): B+/B

89. Monkey Business (1931, McLeod): B-

90. Madam Satan (1930, Demille): A-

91. October (1927, Eisenstein): C-

92. Street Angel (1937, Yuan): C

93. Beggars of Life (1928, Wellman): B+/B

94. Earth (1930, Dovzhenko): B-

95. The Passion of the Christ (2004, Gibson): C-/D+

96. Désiré (1937, Guitry): A

97. Quadrille (1938, Guitry): A-

98. Miss Bala (2012, Naranjo): B

99. Carnosaur (1993, Simon): F

100. The Rape of Europa (2006, Berge, Cohen and Newnham): B

101. Project A (1983, Chan): B+/B

102. Vicious Lips (1986, Pyun): C/C-

103. The Heroic Trio (1993, To): A-/B+

104. Cabin in the Woods (2012, Goddard): A-/B+

Al Khor is both the most basic and the most essential part of Dubai. It is a happy, energetic, strong, united, and active area. As you can see from the map I have portrayed Al Khor as a mixture of various behaviors, characteristics, traits, and features through visual patterns such as radial, greed, and Mausual. Each attribute has a specific type of theme according to the atmosphere within the place. To me I see Al Khor as a twist that moves from old between new, and then old and new together. As you walk on its streets, between its buildings, and on the creek you’ll notice sometimes a clash between the old and the new, and sometimes a gentle blending of the old and the new, and sometimes something that is in between.

Another picture grabbed my attention was the Abra’s. visiting the place and noticing every detail allowed me to recognize the great amount of tourist found in the place.Moreover, most of the tourists ride the Abra and take lots of pictures which shows how happy they are in the place. Moving on, what I also liked is how Dubai uses every opportunity in adversiing different things as you can notice in the Abra there is some national anthem letters written on the shade of the Abra with different colors.

My concept of the map was to create Al khor’s map that reflects Al khor within the map I wanted to include those visual patterns that I felt in the place. Therefore I started finding the best visual patters that I thought express the place.

After drafting my map I wanted to remember where did I find every attribute. Therefore I made a mind map with circles in every circle is an attribute and among every attribute the landmarks that I found. Which I thought will help me in crating my map.

Later on we wrote some keywords that we thought described the place and I choose some keywords that describes the place, Such as  busy, loud, casual, crowded and Peaceful.

As I re-did my map and after organizing the attributes and landmarks I had a clearer image of the map and drawing. Later on I added a title and a short description. After it we wrote some paragraphs expressing AL Khor which helped me in writing the description of Al Khor’s map.

Interview #1

My first interview was with a family member that used to live in Al Bastakiya for several years to be specific his childhood years. As he was talking and telling me his story with the place and with his friends and families I felt interested and wanted to experience the place and live there during their time. He used to say after every story “ yeaah those were the days….. “  Which shows how much he used to miss those days.

As I was interviewing my uncle my aunt was sitting next to him so they started telling me stories of the past. They told me how their neighborhood was like a family, doors of houses were open for everyone. My uncle said that they used to play football in the neighborhood, as they got tired they all rush to the home that is next to them and go straight to their kitchen and drink water. While the mother of that specific home greets them and sometimes chat with them. My aunt added that the girls felt safe in the place as the boys used to defend them. Mostly they were all like brothers and sisters that lived together, played together, and enjoyed their time together. As boys used to play soccer girls used to cheer them and play around the neighborhood. All the woman in the neighborhood used to gather mostly every day in someone’s home where they used to chat, drink tea and coffee, stich clothes and many other stuff. As you listen to those stories you will wish to live a day of the past.

Interview #2

As I interviewed Rahul a person that used to work in a cafeteria located in Bani-yas square for long years. He said that at the beginning the place was crowded by people mostly tourists that used to visit the place and explore and the sales were high. However, for the past 3 years the sales dropped and the number of tourists visiting the place decreased tremendously. In fact , as we went to look at the place in the cafeteria to be more specific there was only 2 tables with people an Egyptian group and a man sitting alone, the rest tables were empty. The man himself was telling me that he is confused why the sudden decrease in costumers.

The story relates to my visual pattern where the place is quite and not crowded by people in our present time. However, I believe if I had to do my visual pattern of the place 3 years ago It would have been a crowded place filled with noise and people from different places .

My keywords are: 1.Crowded. 2.Colorful. 3.Happiness

My attributes: Colors, Texture and Smell

My visual system: Dilation

My landmarks: Al Bastakiya/Wind towr, Khalid Bin Al Waleed Street, Metro station, Mosque, Benches in Baniyas square, Baniyas square, Spice souk, Abra station, Abra and the Creek.

My Story: {when I first went to Al Khor I felt that I entreated another planet. It was like one family, very friendly, crowded and full of tourists. So immediately I conceived an idea of how to create a visual map of my thoughts. Al Khor is completely different place at the heart of Dubai. So creating an ” Al Khor Planet ” is the way to express my feelings towards Al Khor.}

THE PROCESS

I started with an outline of my map that was as a planet but in Al Khor way.

I added the materials on the board.

I displayed all the materials that I had which will represent Al Khor.

This is the final look. I decided to use some stuff that I can stick on the board. Moreover, I used every round of the planet as a landmark that will be easy to the audience to understand.

for my map i chose rendom as my visual exploration because there are  many things happen randomly in alkhor but they do affect the atmosphere of it and interact with the situation by nature, also because alkhor randomly catch the attention of many different people to visit and explore. those are some notes, thoughts and sketches that i went  through before reaching the final map

first i thought of make it looks like an island , a magical island but i did not managed to make it as magical as i imagined

so i just changed the idea and added random touches.

this is the final map

THE MAGNIFICENT KHOR

- the noise of the traffic

- the smoke from cigarettes

- the pollution

what i want to change

some materials needs to be changed to more heather and environmentally friendly to avoid future issues

The walk was very helpful, it is fun to walk around and descover places, in Bastakiya we met Dr. Eesa Bastakiy who told us about the place and how was the life before, many people were living in one house and share things together. Also he mentioned that most of the houses were destroyed and others started to collapse which lead to leave the place around 1975. he managed to picture their house and the area and his pictures were very helpful in terms of rebuild the area in order to look as same as it was years ago. About the trading, he said that the trade was mostly done with India and most traders have houses in Indian countries.

during the walk we saw many people from different age groups with different interests enjoying their time from the youngest to the oldest. there was also many tourists from different countries and nationalities. As we walk around we  gathered a lot of information about the attributes of alkhor, everything seems different, you can feel it as soon as you arrive to that place, something is incaraging you to walk observe and smile!

a picture of the wind towers in bastakiya

people were feeding the buirds

colorful patterns in the souqe

the ABRA which used to across AlKhor which considered faster than the cars because of the traffic

The Old Baladiya road that we went through to reach the Baniyas Square

cute child we saw he in the way and she was enjoying the moment when everyone was talking her picture and interact with us by changing the pose ^_^

sitting area in Baniyas Square

back to Bastakiya

another visit was to Tashkeel gallery in the same area which was established in January 2008, it is an independent resource for artists and designers living and working in the United Arab Emirates.

there we met Zainab Alhashemi, she graduated from Zayed University in 2007

her project was “The Haath Godi Project” which means hand power in Urdu, it is about gathering pieces from reused cardboards tubes to create a multipurpose piece of furniture.

other interesting Art works

other interesting works from XIV gallery

We were asked to do a background research about the area, this is what I got

BASTAKIYA ( THE OLD DUBAI) 

bastakiya is located in Bur Dubai by the creek, one of the oldest heritage sites in Dubai and certainly the most enchanting. According to

Dr.Eesa Bastaki this area exists from the early 19’s. “ traders from the Bastak area of southern Iran were encouraged to settle there by tax concessions granted by Sheikh Maktoum bin Hashar Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai at the time”. The area is characterized by traditional wind tower houses, built around courtyards and clustered together along a winding maze of alleyways (Sikka). The distinctive four-sided wind towers (barjeel), seen on top of the traditional flat-roofed buildings, were an early form of air conditioning. There are some excellent cultural establishments in and around Bastakiya, includingSheikh Mohammad Center for Cultural Understanding, Dubai Museum, XVA Gallery and The Majlis Gallery, while a short stroll along the creek will bring you to the Textile Souk and abra station, from where you can cross the water to explore the souks on the Deira side. Beyond theTextile Souk is Shindagha, another interesting old area where you’ll find Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum’s House and the Heritage & Diving Villages

sources:  My Best Dubai (2011), discover Dubai. Retrieved from http://www.mybestdubai.com/en/place/31/bur-dubai-karama-mankhool/areas-of-interest/bastakiya-old-dubai.html

Al Basrakiya- bur Dubai UAE. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C_DGS2_rAU&feature=player_embedded

In the class we had learned and made some visual systems, here are some photos from my sketchbook.

And then I made a very simple sketch about how my visual map will be a like.

Why did I choose it like that? Here my story is for the map.

I actually learned a lot through this progress, I had got a lot of information through our visit to Al Khor. I also learned how actually I could observe the places more not only reading books or searching through the Internet. Moreover, the definition of research has changed completely from the beginning of the course until today. My thought was wrong actually, but now I have knew how to research in more professional way. I can observe the place by many things as the smell, colors, texture etc.…

Obviously I will choose this method in my future researches, I guess that helped me a lot in interacting with people, making interviews and taking photos from the actual place instead taking them from the internet or books.

As the image shows after the walk I wrote down some main information I noticed .

Things that i have visualized and released that although the walk was tiring and exhausting however I had lots of fun discovering different places around Al khor. Moreover, i enjoyed noticing the different attributes that are found around the place.

What grabbed my attention was although the buildings and place has a mixture of the old and the new however as you walk around the place and especially through the spice market and wholes sale market you’ll notice that its unsafe and most probably you may get frightened walking there alone. Adding up, those men that are standing by the entrance of each section inviting you to go upstairs with them in some room where they have “fake Bags”. Such people give you the feeling of fear and that the place is unsafe, unlike the past where people used to trust one another and kids used to play freely around the place.

Another aspect grabbed my attention was how people from different religious, countries, aspects and from different backgrounds are all found in this one place. Where they communicate and work with each other. Therefore, what I felt was that the place with its mixture of old and new buildings reflects on its mixture of people.

As I started gathering some information and researching about the place, and after visiting several websites and reading some books. It was clear to me that I knew some of the background information about Al Khor such as how it is today one of the greatest tourist attractions in Dubai. Adding up, I knew the general information about Al khor, where it’s creek divides Dubai into two parts Diera and Bur Dubai. How the creek was used as trading in the past where Dubai’s economy relied on the trading that was happening in the creek between other countries.

 As I researched the place more I have discovered some useful and interesting information such as in 1955 they planned in devolving the creek to become one of the greatest ship and trade exchange spot. Therefore, in 1961 they started dredging shallow areas, building breakwaters, and developing its beach to become a quay suitable for loading and unloading cargo. The creek was dredged again in the 1960s and 1970s so that it could offer anchorage for local and coastal shipping of up to about 500 tons.

]]> http://rmhendqassim.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/methods-of-research/ Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:27:07 +0000 rmhendqassim http://rmhendqassim.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/methods-of-research/ “A research driven approach can help define the way problems are solved and illustrate the value of those solutions”.Therefore it is important to understand the research types and methods. As we understood the meaning and types of every research we have created a map of the methods of research as you can see in the image below.