From metro proximity to neighborhood livability: A regeneration framework for Al-Najma, Doha

Al-Najma is a centrally located inner-city district in Doha that illustrates a persistent Gulf urbanism paradox: proximity to three metro stations coexists with fragmented land ownership, deteriorated building stock, weak public-realm quality, and poor last-mile connectivity. This research study investigates how such a transit-served but underperforming district can be regenerated through a context-sensitive framework integrating sustainable urbanism, urban regeneration, and transit-oriented development (TOD). The study adopts a qualitative-dominant mixed-method case-study design, combining systematic site observations, visual documentation, short intercept surveys, field-coded maps, secondary data, and geospatial analysis, interpreted through the Integrated Modification Methodology (IMM), operationalized through compactness, complexity, and connectivity. The findings identify three root challenges—micro-parcelization and fragmented ownership, deteriorated building stock and weak public realm, and poor last-mile connectivity to transit—and propose a phased, governance-aware regeneration framework comprising land readjustment, incremental housing renewal, pocket parks and green corridors, complete-street retrofits, station-area improvements, and parking reform. The research study contributes conceptually by reframing Gulf TOD through neighborhood livability, methodologically by adapting IMM as an empirical diagnostic lens, and practically by offering a transferable model for hot-arid inner-city regeneration.