21st Century (2000–present)
Lusail City Masterplan (Qatar)
Core idea
New planned city north of Doha
Why it matters
Largest greenfield urban project in Qatar
Description
Lusail City (from 2006) was built north of Doha as a planned waterfront city for around 200,000, with districts of high-rises, marinas, islands, and a stadium that hosted the 2022 World Cup final, served by a new light-rail network.
Significance
Lusail exemplifies the Gulf's instant, state-led megacity and event-driven urbanism, conjuring an entire city from the desert and coast in little over a decade around a global sporting spectacle.
What shaped it
- Neoliberalism (1970s–1990s)
- Splintering Urbanism (Graham & Marvin) (2001)
- Global financial crisis (2007–2009)
- The skyscraper (1885)
Sources
Open it on the interactive timeline →hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.