Manufacturing the Image of Doha: From the Public Face of Architecture to the Printed Media

This paper explores image-making efforts in the city of Doha. A multi-layered critical discussion is employed and articulated in a number of procedures that include conceptualizing theoretical underpinnings for understanding image making in terms of contextual and critical approaches, identifying the types of efforts that took place and that are currently taking place towards image making, mapping the contextual and critical approaches on actual examples from the city, and examining the printed media by conducting a content analysis study of two widely acknowledged magazines in an attempt to answer the question of how the country wants to portray its capital city through image-making to the global community. The results of this exploration convey a commitment toward image making, presenting an image of Doha as an emerging international hub. The paper concludes by arguing for the need of critical consciousness in response to that fact that image making practices in Doha continue to subdue the profession to client aspirations through oversimplified imaging while ignoring the professional discourse that scrutinizes the quality of those images and the meanings they convey.