Bahrain plans new guidelines for urban and civic spaces

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain plans to introduce new guidelines for designing urban and civic spaces as part of the sustainability vision. The move aims at enhancing sustainability practices in the country and reconsidering the current approach to designing urban and civic spaces, said a tender issued by the Prime Minister’s office.

The tender says the project would involve a desktop study that sets out sustainable brown landscaping strategies and guidelines that can be implemented in Bahrain. The guidelines would also come with a potential prototype design exercise to set a standard in innovative landscaping and urban space design.

The tender launched for the project, the tender board says, attracted four bids from SLA As, SWA group, Martha Schwartz Partners Ltd and Edsa Inc. The board is currently doing a technical evaluation of the bids opened on Thursday.

Bahrain is renowned for its verdant groves of date palms. Since ancient times it has been an entrepot for trade and a source of natural resources for the surrounding area. Bahrain is widely believed to be the site of the ancient kingdom of Dilmun, a commercial centre that traded with ancient Sumer.

Bahrain features an arid climate and has two seasons: extremely hot summer and a relatively mild winter. During the summer months, from April to October, afternoon tempera[1]tures average 40 °C (104 °F) and can reach 46 °C (114.8 °F) during May, June and July.