Promoting urban development and managing cultural heritage: critical issues of cultural revival in bahrain

Abstract

Alongside rapid urbanization of the region and the city, Bahrain has placed a significant emphasis on the revival of historical cultural and built heritage, in recent years. Focused on attracting global attention and local investment whilst fostering economic growth and addressing some of the social challenges related to rapid urbanization, Bahrain’s new city projects are using elements of heritage to promote the development projects both at the local and international levels. Indeed, cultural heritage enables people to better understand previous generations and the history of where they come from and can thereby provide an automatic sense of unity and belonging. In these, numerous critical issues arise related to the need to recognise and retain authenticity as an inherent value of cultural heritage in order to employ such development in the task of uniting people. The objective of this paper is to examine how the engagement of heritage in development has incited a cultural revival, within the transformation of mega city developments. It aims to demonstrate how relevant or irrelevant authenticity is, in relation to promoting heritage restoration and redevelopment of heritage buildings. The paper evaluates the presence of authentic historical fabric in the revived architecture of old Muharraq - the previous capital of the country that has undergone a renaissance of tangible and intangible heritage from the past. It critically analyses and questions how this new-built heritage is being produced, by whom, and most importantly for whom. The research employs the study of documentation of these projects, reflecting on their aims and motivations. It buttresses the analysis by the engagement of people’s perceptions derived using a survey of opinions. The intention is to gain an insight on how local residents relate to these renewal projects and if they do indeed promote national pride and a sense of belonging to their historic past. In conclusion, the paper seeks to locate if authenticity is, if at all, relevant to the people’s engagement with their cultural and built heritage in Bahrain. Moreover, it will evaluate the ways in which the cultural revival has promoted investment and tourism at local and international levels and help create a sense of belong among the people.