International Conference Center, Environmental Protection Organization of Iran – Pardisan Park
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January 1 to December 31, 2010- Nader Ardalan and Dr. Steven Caton awarded Harvard University Kennedy School Middle East Initiative, Kuwait Foundation Research Grant entitled: The New Arab Urbanism in the Gulf.
An architect/planner, Nader Ardalan, and a social anthropologist, Steven Caton, team up to do focused research on the new urbanism in the Gulf Region with a focus on four of the new  e-education cities: Academic City in Kuwait (New Shedadiyah Campus for Kuwait University); Masdar Institute of Science & Technology (MIST) in Abu Dhabi (promoted as the energy and technology city of the future); UAE University New Campus, Al Ain; and Education City in Qatar (represented as a knowledge and media hub from which information disseminated around with world). A series of Focus Groups, personal interviews with senior decision makers  and site observations were made in January & February, 2010. They asked two basic research questions: the architect asked, “To what extent are their built environments ecologically sustainable?” the anthropologist asked, “To what extent are their societies resonant with local cultural values, while emerging into a global culture of diverse demographic constituencies with sustainable meanings and sensibilities?” The Results of the Research Findings will be published in spring, 2011.