The shortlisting for the Unlimited Doha Design Prize 2016 took place last week on 1 March in both London and Doha, Qatar. We are thrilled to announce the chosen participants who will come together for the 8 day residency in Doha from 18 - 26 March. 

From the UK: 
Bharat&Jean: Bharat Bhargava and Jean Charles Jeanneau
The Edible Bus Stop: Will Sandy
Suzi Pain
RA Projects: Rashid Ali
Studio Ben Allen: Ben Allen and Omar Ghazal
Alida Bata
Scott Whitby Studio: Alex Scott-Whitby and Ming Teong 

From the Gulf:
Abdullah Alessa and Faisal Alzakari from KSA
Gizem Kahraman and Oemer Can Aksoy from Qatar
Bricklab: Abdulrahman Gazzaz from KSA
Maysam Al Nasser and Vincent Tse from Bahrain
AH Asociados: Nerea Corral Prados and Francisco Trujillo Baute from Qatar
National Engineering Bureau: Deena Al Terawi from Qatar
Fortune Panniman from UAE 

‘Those who take part will benefit from a chance to develop their creative thinking within a challenging, vibrant and constantly shifting cityscape and we expect that selected designers will come together to forge new partnerships and share ideas and best practice. We hope the prize will not only encourage people to participate, but also to think about how they can make the projects they work on in March 2016, a reality going forward.’ - Stephen Stenning, British Council Director Arts, Middle East North Africa 

Our participants will focus their research on the areas Al Doha Al Jadeeda and Al Ghanem, in Old Doha. To provide context and an insight into the areas we will be visiting Msheireb Downtown Doha (a 31 hectare site which has been redeveloped), the Doha Metro tunnels and mock-up station (with an approximate overall length of 300 km), and Jean Nouvel's National Museum, which are all due to open between 2016 and 2019.

With lead facilitator Simon Gathercole, from architecture firm Allies and Morrison, support from Iris Papadatou, from you&me architecture, and Doha Architecture Forum, the participants will form teams and develop ideas for a project based around the theme of 'The Open City'. They will focus on themes such as mobility, movement through space and accessibility.  

Additionally, the teams will attend a series of lectures and talks from our partners RIBA, Qatar Museums, Foster + Partners and Doha Architecture Forum. 

The residency will conclude with a presentation of the final proposals at our hub, the Doha Fire Station, followed by the selection of the winning team.

‘I’m delighted to be involved in the Unlimited Doha Design Prize. It will be fascinating to see how the design teams respond to the Old Town and develop their ideas on access and mobility in Doha'. - Simon Gathercole, Partner, Allies and Morrison