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Modern Environmental Science and Engineering Volume 4, Number 8, August 2018
Contents Technical Papers 687
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
702
Design of Microturbines Kaplan and Turgo for Microgeneration Systems: Challenges and Adaptations
712
A New Device for Automatic Exposition of Passive Samplers in Air Pollution Monitoring
719
Klinkenberg Effect as a Phenomenon of Gas-permeability in Porous Materials with Skeletal Structure
726
The Environmental Rural Cadaster and Its Interface with Instruments of Environmental Regularization — Licensing and Water Permits
733
The Improvement Direction of Urban Public Senior Housing in South Korea
742
Tile Drainage: A Strategy to Cope with the Food Challenge Facing Mexico
749
Factors that Cause Buildings to Not Support the Selective Collect in the Neighborhood Ponta Verde: Partial Results
755
Seeing Valentino Castle through the Hands: Heritage Building Accessibility for Visitors with Visual Impairments
761
Customer’s Requirements for Social Housing Designer: Systematic Literature Review
769
Experimental Flow Facility as a Didactic Tool for Energy Saving Teaching
777
Flotation of Copper ORE from SOSSEGO Mine Utilizing Palm Oil as Collector Auxiliary
Modern Environmental Science and Engineering (ISSN 2333-2581) August 2018, Volume 4, No. 8, pp. 687-701 Doi: 10.15341/mese(2333-2581)/08.04.2018/001 Academic Star Publishing Company, 2018 www.academicstar.us
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan Mohammad Ramin Amiryar, and Junichiro Asano Department of Urban Planning, Japan Abstract: This paper endeavors to epitomize the indispensable role of Community Centers (hereafter referred to as “CCs�) in the sustainability and development of a community. The main aim of this paper is to reinforce the community by proposing the multi-purpose centers, and to rehabilitate the disappeared CCs in the planned residential districts of Khairkhana by rooting the key issues based on Russian planning system. Most CCs converted to stand-alone buildings, useless lands and even disappeared from the area due to serious impacts of land use changes. Reinforcing the current CCs and rehabilitating the old and disappeared CCs help us in strengthening the correlation between community residents, confronting the critical issues and recovering the real form of Khairkhana Planned Residential District. Therefore, we used the following criteria to analyze the issues within the study area: 1) Population: There are big differences between the number of residents and the number of CCs. we analyze the number of CCs according to the number of residents in different periods. 2) Land Use Change: CCs are in a severe condition. We analyzed each pattern (Stand-alone Buildings, Bared-lands and Different Functional) by number in the study area. 3) Physical condition: We analyzed the relationship between the Russian Structure Layout and CCs in Khairkhana micro-districts to find the physical status of current Layout. 4) Sustainability: we reviewed the Islamic and Western CCs to clarify their importance in sustainability and development of a community. Finally, we talked about activities’ situation and proposed an alternative method to reinforce the community and to rehabilitate the disappeared CCs. Key words: population growth, land use change, community center, reinforcement, rehabilitation
1. Introduction 1.1 Background and Purpose of This Paper The CCs play great roles from the start of a settlement, emphasizing in need of people of different social classes to meet, mix and work together. Neighbourhood through their associations, serve as channels of communication between their membership and outside entities. Neighbourhood centres function as vehicles of social control and they have the Corresponding author: Mohammad Ramin Amiryar, Ph.D., Professor; Asano JUNICHIRO research areas/interests: urban planning. E-mail: ramin_amiryar@yahoo.com.
potential to reduce strife both within the neighbourhood and between residents and outside factions. Neighbourhood associations also offer residents an opportunity to participate in making decisions that have a direct impact on their quality of life. Since the settlement attracted the attention of the historians in 1960s, most of the scholars debated about the nature of the progressive movement. The Settlement founded as a place where the admirable individuals and social activist, influential leaders and reformers indwelled. From that time the researchers and the academician especially the historians and the
688 A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
social workers have concentrated on redacting the settlement houses or the CCs [1]. The CCs are also formed in a modern fashion within Kabul City when the former Soviets formally started to make Planned Residential Districts in the 1960s. Russian planners through 30 years of technical assistance permeated many of their urban planning’s concepts and assumptions to Kabul planners [2]. Three Russian Master Plans were prepared in a span of 30 years for Kabul city. All the planned residential districts were structured and designed according to Russian planning principles. The Russian Residential Model, in which the CCs (school, kindergarten, and Mosque) are playing important roles either in fostering and religious aspects in it, is being called Micro-rayon1. The model (micro-rayon) which CCs are allied with green strips in the centre, divides the residential areas into two parts and cut the direct traffic interventions. This texture creates the best environment for the safety of children and the mutual interlocution between the community inhabitants. Unfortunately, Kabul city experienced major Land Use Changes (hereinafter referred to as “LUCs”) after the last Russian Master Plan (1978) due to strong urbanization under unstable political condition. The majority of public and private lands swapped into informal settlement and slums and eradicated the quiddity of Russian planning layout model [3]. As the consequence of these LUCs beside a concentrated poverty in this area, numerous CCs lost their modality in the planned residential districts. These evolutions also influenced the Khairkhana rayon which was the first urban expansion to use detached houses in Russian Master Plan. These LUCs caused to the conversion of picturesque CCs which have surrounded by green strips to stand-alone buildings, useless land and even their disappearances during this period. Amongst them, Mosque as an Islamic centre somehow remained stable and played a 1 Micro-rayon is used as an equivalent word for Micro-district or Micro-region in the Russian Language.
great role in the micro-rayon correlation and community issues’ dissolution. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the main issues, and describe the current condition and future hopes of CCs’ role in solidarity of a Micro-rayon. And endeavours for the community correlation, to not only preserve and fortify these CCs but also to rehabilitate the disappeared neighbourhood centres. 1.2 About Study Area Two adjacent districts (11 and 15) located in the north zone of Kabul city. Khairkhana as our study area is a residential complex which located between these two adjacent districts (Fig. 1). Khairkhana micro-districts are considered for the people who moved in from other crowded centres of the city. Low and medium income families especially the junior government staffs were supposed to live within targeted projects. The whole area was supposed to be detached house system similar to the Afghan Architecture traditional housing system. The area consisted from 5 parts and 13 micro-districts. It was an experimental project into low-cost housing system for 132400 inhabitants in an area of 1027.8-hectares land. Now, Khairkhana is a residential district in which declining the CCs, and the population increment is in a rapid and unprecedented scale. The area developed in a neighbourhood of concentrated poverty manner which lead the community to decline the demand for the CCs especially for the kindergarten and school. Buildings in the area used to be houses, shops, offices and public and private facility centres. Due to rapid urbanization most of these buildings changed their functions.
Fig. 1 Location of target area (source: Kabul Municipality).
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential 689 District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
2. Methodology
2.2 Key Issues
2.1 Choice of Study Area
We used some specific criteria to analyse the current condition of Khairkhana residential district. The study area contains several micro-districts varies in population from 39933 to 137661 (Table 1) which have lost most of their CCs.
This area has been selected for the research because of two clarifications. The first clarification is that the study area was the first experience of Russian Urban Planners to use detached house system for poor people of Kabul city. In contradiction with the previous system of Micro-rayon that the cinema and other cultural facilities used as the CCs. In this detached house system, the religious centres were included as the CCs which make it unique in the Russian Planning system. The second clarification is that the School and kindergarten have been declined dramatically as the CCs in this residential district especially after the 2000s due to strong urbanization and poverty that concentrated in the area. Khairkhana as an Islamic society only relied on Mosque as a CC which is not enough for this area. In order to obtain ordered development and sustainable progression in the community, parallel existence of the school and the kindergarten alongside mosque, is crucial. Therefore, we choose them in my study area to analyse with a focus on to return the quiddity of CCs with the reinforcing and rehabilitation goals.
Table 1
Population in each part.
Micro-districts For Rehabilitation Name Population (Inhabitants) Part 1 (M1, M2, M5, M6) 137661 Part 2 (M3, M7, M9) 130228 Part 3 ( M4, M8, M10) 61364 Part 4 (M11, M12) 48969 Part 5 (M13) 39933 M: Micro-district
Fig. 2
Basic issues and criteria. D11
Fig. 3
Target area structure plan.
D15
690 A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
We specified clear goals for specific criteria and identified key issues for the reinforcing and rehabilitation of Khairkhana CCs. The basic issues are the growth of population, the transfiguration of CCs, layout modality of study area, activities situation and reinforcement of CCs within the (5-parts) of Khairkhana micro-districts. Different criteria set to analyse these issues for the ultimate goal which is the reinforcement and the rehabilitation of the disappeared CCs. The criteria for the analysing of these issues are as follow: Criterion One (Population): We analysed the number of CCs with the differences of the population in different periods. Natural growth and immigration factors have been used for the calculation of both the past and the present condition. The total number of existing CCs in proportion of current population explained in section 3.1. Criterion Two (Land Use Change): We analysed the number and boundaries of transfigured CCs in different patterns. The patterns which are resulted from the land use changes from the latest urbanization. These transfigured CCs are divided into three patterns such as the Stand-alone buildings, Bared-Lands and the Different Functional. We summarized the total number of each pattern in each part of Khairkhana micro-districts in section 3.2. Criterion Three (Physical Condition): we analysed the relation of CCs and its related elements in the Layout Model of micro-districts. To realize this relationship precisely, we compare the original Layout with the existing situation in section 3.3. Criterion Four (Sustainability): we reviewed the Islamic and western neighbourhood centres to analyse their crucial roles in the sustainability of a community in section 4.1. Then we discussed and analysed about the activities situation in section 4.2. 2.3 Source of Data The following sources are used for the analysing of mentioned criteria:
1)
2)
3)
Kabul City Russian Detail Plans: We collected the hard copy of the data from Department of Urban Planning and Implementation of Kabul Municipality and converted them to soft copy. Satellite Images (2004, 2008 and 2013): We collected these satellite images from UN-Habitat, Ministry of Urban Development Affair (MUDA) and Kabul Municipality (KM). Official Documents: Validated data used from JICA (Japan International Corporation Agency) and ICT (International Consultant and Technocrats) and other urban literatures.
2.4 Method of Research In this paper, two types of research have been implemented. The first one is that the CCs from the Russian plans are compared with the CCs of specified periods (2004, 2008, 2013). The comparison is used for two purposes: a) population differences: In which the population increase is shown in the mentioned years to the proportion of CCs. b) Land Use Changes: How the CCs transfigured to different patterns in these periods and how is the current physical status of Russian Layout Model of Khairkhana micro-districts. for the comparison, we used GIS/ArcMap. In the second method of research, the official documents are used for some statistical purposes. Moreover, previous Studies are used to make a clear image of CCs’ role in the sustainability as well as to create a better understanding of Islamic activities in a community. We also introduced an alternative method to reinforce the existence CCs and a well-known rehabilitation method for the disappeared CCs in the study area.
3. Content and Analysis 3.1 Population Population growth was in a rapid and unprecedented scale during the last three decades in Khairkhana micro-districts. The need for the CCs to guide and
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential 691 District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
develop the community was more sensible. The high rate of population growth changed most of these CCs into to stand-alone buildings, useless land, and also caused their disappearances during these periods. In 2008, the density was estimated approximately 347 individuals per hectare which is the highest ever in the history of Khairkhana residential area [3]. Majority of these residents are consisted from nomads who moved in from other crowded places especially slum areas in this residential district. Their poverty affected these CCs’ existence in this residential district. The CCs (schools and kindergarten) were underfunded, under-resourced, understaffed and completely in conflict to the standard. These phenomena also caused to decreasing and disappearing of CCs. As a result, Table 2 shows the variations of the population from natural growth and immigration in the different periods that caused the disappearing of CCs. The CCs were established in the 1980s and 90s with the commencing of construction in Khairkhana residential micro-districts. The number of CCs in Table 2 extracted from District Passport of Khairkhana micro-district in each specified periods [4]2. As we see the result of Table 2 in Fig. 4, the population differences from 1982 to 2013 created big changes in the number of CCs. In 2004, the population increased approximately two times from 132400 to 274671, while the target area has lost eight schools, sixteen kindergartens, and one mosque. This shows that dropping in school and kindergarten, was a disaster. But the mosque element was stable and played a good role in both the community activities and educational purposes. In the meanwhile, in 2008 notwithstanding there was still rapid growth and calamity in the lack of kindergarten and school in Khairkhana micro-district, the security stability increased the demand for the number of school and mosque in this area. The number of 2 District Passport: is a document which includes all the information regarding a district.
schools increased slowly whereas the number of mosques had a good growth until 2013. However, people yet more did not pay attention for the kindergarten as it remained in the same amount. As a conclusion (5 school, 16 kindergartens) disappeared during this time, however, increase of (3 mosques) shows well-willingness of residents in its acceptance and importance. 3.2 Land Use Change Khairkhana micro-districts have experienced a rapid land use change after the strong urbanization stabled in the last decade. Most of the CCs changed their shapes and modality due to land use change in Khairkhana micro-districts. Majority of them changed to houses alongside the other residential parcels. Some of these CCs can be found as stand-alone buildings with no specific boundaries, while the rest of these CCs are available in the form of idle land with no special uses. In order to know the transfigured patterns of these CCs, we compared the Russian Plans with the study area’s Satellite Images (2004, 2008 and 2013). We selected three samples from different locations in Khairkhana micro-districts. For the better comparison of these CCs, three transfigured patterns have been defined as follow: Stand-alone Buildings (SB): The CCs that converted to alone buildings as result of land use change with no specific boundaries. Bared-Lands (BL): The idle lands which have remained from the CCs’ deterioration. Different Functional(DF): The CCs that change to another functional status such as houses, administration offices and etc. Figs. 5 to 8 show the availability of CCs from the 80s and 90s, 2004, 2008 and 2013. In Fig. 9, we can understand that there are five CCs (Two Schools, Two Mosques, and one kindergarten) that were considered for the study area in 1982. It is clear that every Community Centre has a specific boundary and typical shapes for buildings. On the other hand, the 2004, 2008 and 2013 images do not
692 A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
seem same as the original plan. The kindergarten converted to a stand-alone building with administrative function. Two schools decreased to one school because one of them changed to Bared-land. At the meanwhile,
Fig. 4
there is also a disappearance of one mosque in this area. As a result, all types of transfigured patterns from CCs exist in this part.
The fluctuation of community centres in different periods.
Table 2 Khairkhana micro-districts community centres in different periods. Khairkhana Community Centers Khairkhana Part 1 NO Associations 1 2 3
School kindergarten Mosque Sub-total
Pop_1982
41500
CCs 1982 7 5 11 23
Pop_2004 93089
CCs 2004 4 1 11 16
Diff
Pop_2008
-3 -4 0 -7
110959
CCs 2008 4 1 11 16
Diff Pop_2013 0 0 0 0
137661
CCs 2013 4 2 12 18
Diff 0 1 1 2
Total Disap 3 3 0 6
Khairkhana Part 2 NO Associations 1 2 3
School kindergarten Mosque Sub-total
Pop_1984
36000
CCs 1984 7 6 11 24
Pop_2004
73664
CCs 2004 4 2 11 17
Diff
Pop_2008
-3 -4 0 -7
87176
CCs 2008 6 2 11 19
Diff Pop_2013 2 0 0 2
130228
CCs 2013 5 2 11 18
Diff -1 0 0 -1
Total Disap 2 4 0 6
Khairkhana Part 3 NO Associations 1 2 3
School kindergarten Mosque Sub-total
Pop_1986
16300
CCs 1986 3 2 4 9
Pop_2004
41335
CCs 2004 2 0 5 7
Diff
Pop_2008
-1 -2 1 -2
70519
CCs 2008 2 0 5 7
Diff Pop_2013 0 0 0 0
61364
CCs 2013 3 0 6 9
Diff 1 0 1 2
Total Disap 0 2 0 2
Khairkhana Part 4 NO Associations 1 2 3
School kindergarten Mosque Sub-total
Pop_1988
19500
CCs 1988 2 3 4 9
Pop_2004
35519
CCs 2004 2 0 4 6
Diff
Pop_2008
0 -2 0 -2
39295
CCs 2008 2 1 4 7
Diff Pop_2013 0 0 0 0
48969
CCs 2013 3 0 5 8
Diff 1 -1 1 1
Total Disap 0 3 0 3
Khairkhana Part 5 NO Associations 1 2 3 1 2 3
School kindergarten Mosque Sub-total School Kinde rgarten Mosque Total
Pop_1993
CCs 1993
Pop_2004
CCs 2004
Diff
Pop_2008
CCs 2008
Diff Pop_2013
2 1 -1 1 0 4 0 -4 0 0 27078 32044 39933 4 2 -2 3 1 -7 1 10 3 4 21 13 -8 15 2 20 4 -16 4 0 132400 274671 344712 423933 34 33 -1 34 1 75 50 -25 53 3 Pop: population, CCs: Community Centers, Diff: Differences, Disap: Disappearance 19100
CCs 2013
Diff
1 0 4 5 16 4 37 57
0 0 0 0 1 0 3 4
Total Disap 1 4 0 5 5 16 0 21
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential 693 District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
Fig. 5
Availability of community centres in 80s and 90s.
Fig. 6
Availability of community centres in 2004.
694 A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
Fig. 7
Availability of community centres in 2008.
Fig. 8
Availability of community centers in 2013.
Fig. 9
Sample A: Images comparison for defining patterns.
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential 695 District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
According to Fig. 10, there are four CCs (Two schools, one Mosque, and one kindergarten) in 1986. Similarly, Sample B like sample A, CCs have specific boundaries and typical shapes of buildings. If we compare the image 1986 with the other years’ status, we can see that we lost one school and one kindergarten in this area. The school and the kindergarten are changed to houses with informal status. Furthermore, the school building is also visible as stand-alone buildings. Consequently, the area experienced two types of transfigured patterns such as Stand-alone Building and Different Functional.
Fig. 10
Above all, the whole transfigured patterns of CCs achieved by comparing all parts according to Figs. 5-8 in diffident periods. The Table 3 shows the number of each pattern in the Khairkhana parts is according to specific periods. As a conclusion, we found that most of the CCs changed their functional status to houses or other buildings. Meanwhile, some of them converted to the idle lands while a number of them are just a building with no specific boundaries. Therefore, for an urgent need of CCs in the Khairkhana micro-district, the bared-land and the stand-alone buildings patterns are reversible to the previous condition.
Sample B: Images comparison for defining patterns.
Table 3 Transfigured patterns of community centers in target area. No 1
Name
SB
BL
DF
SB
BL
2004
DF
SB
2008
BL
DF
2013
Part 1
2
3
5
1
3
6
1
2
6
2
Part 2
3
3
4
4
3
4
1
2
4
3
Part 3
1
3
1
0
3
2
0
2
2
4
Part 4
0
2
1
0
2
1
1
2
2
Part 5
1
1
7
1
1
7
0
1
6
Sub-total
7
12
18
6
12
20
3
9
20
5
Total
37
38
32
SB: Stand-alone Building, BL: Bared-Land, DF: Different Functional
3.3 Physical Condition of the Study Area The Layout Model of Khairkhana micro-districts directly relies on the existence the CCs and their
elements. According to Russian Layout Model of Khairkhana in the introduction part, these CCs which are aligned with the green strips playing the crucial roles in the concept of Khairkhana Micro-rayon. Their
696 A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
existence, location, and quality are essential to keep the originality of Russian Layout Model in the study area. Actually, these CCs are located in the middle of the residential quarters. These picturesque CCs are connected with Col de sac (a) streets to prevent the intervention of traffic for the safety of the children. All around the CCs is prepared to use as a playground and open green space. Regrettably, the quality of the layout structure has not enhanced. Around and between of the CCs, direct streets are crossed that peril the life of residents especially the children. The green strips are converted to idle lands which are no more usable for the playground or open green space. In order to know the Physical Condition of the current Layout Model, we compare the qualitative changes of the current
Fig. 11
condition based on original Layout. To find these qualitative changes, the CCs from the 90s compared with the current image of the target area. By comparison of these images, we can find the following point in Sample C. The differences in Russian Layout from the 1990 and the current Layout condition in 2017 (Fig. 11) is very clear. Firstly, the CCs are not anymore available in this micro-district as they are replaced by range of houses. For example, the school(s) and the kindergarten (K) are converted to houses which are completely in contradiction of designed Layout of 1990. These CCs are usually used as the separator of micro-districts in order to keep the balance between two sides.
Sample C: The Layout Differences of Different Periods.
Secondly, the col de sac streets (a) that are used to cut the traffic especially from major roads, has been changed to Direct Streets (DS). If we look at the current Layout deeply, we realize that the Col de sac (a)
streets are not available. Direct Streets (DS) are circulated around the residential parcels and the CCs. Unfortunately, we can say that there is no safer environment for the children because they cannot
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential 697 District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
access to CCs without crossing the major roads. Thirdly, the green strips (G) which were designed a suitable place for playgrounds and open green spaces in 1990, have changed its form. In the current condition, the green strips are changed to idle lands in the study area. The streets are crossed between these green strips which divided them into several parts. These parts are very small and are not useable for any purposes. As the conclusion, we comprehend that the deteriorated CCs affected the modality of Khairkhana Layout Model. So, they are very important elements in consistency and stability of original Layout Model. Therefore, reversing the quality and the modality of these CCs is crucial.
4. Sustainability 4.1 Role of Community Centers in the Sustainability of a Community Community centres are public locations where community members are gathering for group activities, public information, social support and other purposes. The main objective of CCs is the ordered development and sustainable progression in a community to beget a strong connection between community members. Actually nowadays “declining in social cohesiveness in urban communities become a serious concern for the development and sustainability of the cities. As a community, the main goal is to generate collective actions from residents whose participation in the community is noticeably declining” [5]. This issue is also a big concern in Khairkhana micro-districts due to concentrated poverty they have been suffered. As a consequence, several CCs have been deteriorated and eradicated dramatically by the passage of time. In this section, we review some Islamic and Western neighbourhood centres in order to realize their roles and functions in the development and sustainable progression of a community. We mainly focus on how they are important in social cohesion in a neighbourhood.
Indeed, since the establishment of Islamic states, Islam came triumphantly around the world and dominated on large lands resulted in social, cultural and political progress. It is arguing that “Islamic city reflects ideas of Religion representing Islam in all aspects especially the correlation between Islam and urban life [6]”. In fact, a Community Centre is characterized by Mosque in Islamic cities. It is usually being placed in the central area that every member from the distant point can access to it easily in the neighbourhood. People usually gather in the mosque for weekly Friday prayers and discussing the main issues which threat the community. Taking part in this specific day, the correlation between residents are being created. In addition, “beside the Masjid there is an attached part which is being called Madrasa” [7]. The Madrasa (school or college) is a centre which provides the religious and scientific teaching for the children. Therefore, Mosque not only uses as a religious centre but also utilizes for the Consultation and Educational purposes. On the other hand, Neighbourhood centres in the Western Neighbourhoods are different, starting from school to library, park, garden, sports centre, university, hall, child care centre, mental clinic church and etc. The purpose of each CC (neighbourhood centre or settlement house) is different with aiming to remove social injustice and bring the community residents close to each other. For example, “Riverdale Neighbourhood House in Bronx — New York was a library for neighbourhood workers that served the community through childhood programs, enrichment of teens, and provided volunteer assistance for elders [8]. While the Toynbee Hall in London was aiming to develop radical and social changes [9]. Greenwich House in New York City was serving in different sections such as art, senior services, education program, and mental health [10]”. As a result, because they bring the community residents close to each other with different activities, we can strongly argue that their existence brings a regularity in development and
698 A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
sustainability of a neighbourhood. 4.2 Activities Situation The number of residents increased enormously since the establishment Khairkhana residential district in 1980s. However, they do not have a specific place to practice their social and cultural activities beside educational and religious obligations. In respect to activities, majority of the community centres provided religious and educational activities but much less active in socio-cultural and recreational activities. This underlines the need for more Islamic socio-cultural centres to the growing needs of the community and tackle the lack in social, cultural and recreational services available in the study area especially for the women and youth. Therefore, we review the types of the activities which are being done in this area. Then we analysis the situation (usual and unusual) of these activities to the needs and requirements of the society in daily life. Generally, residents are attending to mosque and doing religious activities (usual and unusual) in a span of a year. These Spiritual activities include daily collective prayers (five times), weekly Friday prayers (once), festive Eid prayers (twice a year) and Ramadan late night prayers (one-month a year) as well as learning Islamic practices and Quran recitation. These activities are being fulfilled in a good manner with availability of numerous Islamic centres (Mosque) in the study area. On the other hand, children of the community attending regularly to the schools and pre-schools. However, the number of these educational centres decreased and students still suffering from the lack of educations centres. But, the demand for the education is in peak. Therefore, there is a huge need to reinforce these activities in the study area. Although there are some Islamic and educational activities but, yet there is a paralyzed system of social activities between community members. It is crucial to create a balance between Islamic principles,
obligations and the society. Inclusion of social activities (usual and unusual) such as community gathering and networking, marriage and birth celebration, festive celebration, Ramadan dinners Iftaar and Islamic gathering, halal food catering, women, youth and seniors’ activities, family counselling, funeral facilities, is crucial. Mostly these activities are ignored or being done in another places which is a big loss in social cohesive among the community residents. Meanwhile, the cultural activities to enrich the mind and strengthen the knowledge of residents are also so weak and like social and cultural activities are also forgotten in this area. The society still suffers from the lack of cultural activities such as the Islamic library and resource centre, art and cultural exhibitions, weekend and holidays Islamic classes, Arabic classes, interpreting and translation services, sports and recreation services, media representation, seminars and guest speakers. Therefore, the existence of these activities helps the community residents to be active and energetic. Finally, the residents are usually engaged to be a shopkeeper or vendors. They are gathering around the mosque or along the streets due to repetitive commuting of residents in a day to make income [11]. The business around the other community centres (schools and kindergarten) is ignored. Thus we need to think to revitalize and renovate the area around these community centres too. Therefore, we analysed the current activities and found that except the religious activities that somehow being done in a good manner, the other activities are less active or completely ignored. As a conclusion, there are two thoughts. The first one is to reinforce these CCs, and the second is to rehabilitate the replaced community centres and its related elements. 4.3 Community Rehabilitation
Centers
Reinforcement
and
To reinforce the community, inevitably we should think about the alternatives. So, we propose the
A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential 699 District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
comprehensive multi-functional or multi-purpose centres that contain spaces for all these activities. Latterly, we propose a method of rehabilitation for the replaced community centres. For this multi-functional centres, we propose specific architectural zones that
include spaces for all the mentioned activities such as the spiritual, social, cultural, education, recreational and even commercial, and contain a conceptual design scheme for a comprehensive Islamic centre as Fig. 12.
Fig. 12 Multi-purpose centre.
(1) Space for social activities: a large multipurpose hall and its related services such as a storage room and a large kitchen, which could host community gathering and networking, marriage and birth celebrations, festive celebrations, Ramadan dinners Iftar and Islamic gathering, halal food catering, women, youth and seniors’ activities, family counselling, and childcare facilities. (2) Space for educational activities: The buildings for the schools and kindergarten. (3) Space for cultural activities: An Islamic library and resource centre, art and cultural exhibitions, weekend and holidays Islamic classes, interpreting and translation services, seminars and guest speakers, and interfaith dialogues. (4) Space for spiritual and religious activities: a main prayer hall; a funeral room and services such as a storage room; ablutions and toilets facilities. The main prayer hall hosts the five daily prayers, Friday congregation prayers and the festive large scale prayers (twice a year) and Ramadan late night prayers (one month a year), as well as learning Islamic practices and Quran recitation, welfare and funeral events.
(5) Space for recreation and sport activities: a gymnasium; a children playground. (6) space for commercial activities: to generate financial income and self-sufficiency, and to ensure ongoing centre’s operation; they include a cafeteria and shops. In some critical situation, we can also use for the evacuation area in natural disasters. We proposed two specific areas in each part of the study area. 1) The lands that belong to two transfigured patterns of community Centres (stand-alone building and Bared-land). Beside this we can include some spaces from the green strips. 2) The private land owners who are ready to share the ground floor plan in exchange of the incentives such as free gas, water and electricity expenditures and increase of FAR ratio. On the other hand, to have adequate number of Community Centres that can meet the requirements of the study area beside of the multi-purpose centre, we need to concentrate on the individual community centres by proposing rehabilitation projects across the study area. The projects focus on the community
700 A Study on Community Centers Role in Russian Planning Model: Case Study in Khairkhana Residential District, Kabul City, Afghanistan
centres that are replaced by houses fromthe land use change around these community centres. To implement these projects, we propose two ways. 1) The ground floor of the slum area (Different Functional Pattern CCs) is going to be used as community centres with some renovation around it. The topper floors are allocated for the houses with a specific contribution rate from the house holders. The contribution (money) and the remaining houses at the top floors compensate the total cost of the projects. Therefore, the project can make money for the redevelopment projects. 2) Relocation of these residents to another project with the full compensation from government and NGOs. Meanwhile, the modality of these CCs can be returned to its original state through the rehabilitation of the elements (Green Strips and Col de sac) around them. Much efforts and supports is needed from the house owners, society, as well as the government. The local government support is very important, especially with financial support for providing materials and for ongoing maintenance. However, the self-initiative of the house owner is absolutely essential. Therefore, we propose a rehabilitation program as follow: (1) The primary step is to restore the original green strips with some new features in the middle of the residential quarters by connecting the bared-lands segments. And we propose rehabilitation projects to achieve: a) playgrounds with children facilities. b) Interaction environment for the residents. c) Fences around these Green strips to increase the safety of children. d) A proper Maintenance program for the fences and the landscape. (2) The Second step is to rehabilitate the safe Col de sac streets around the CCs to protect the area from the direct traffic invention. And for this process we need:
a) b) c)
a plan with a primary survey to know the converted streets. Removing the hazardous street around the community centres. Connecting the original col de sac streets to the green strips.
5. Conclusion This research has identified the big differences between community members and the community centres numbers, and patterns of transfigured community centres. Then it focused on the physical condition of the study area and clarified the community centres role in a community. The research has found that community can not only rely on mosque as a community centre. Because the other activities such as the social-cultural and recreational are missing considerably. The research then proposed the multi-functional centres with an architectural scheme to reinforce the community within the study area. This purposeful centre with Islamic aspect would fulfil the socio-cultural, recreational and spiritual needs of Khairkhana district. It can also provide social interaction, harmony and understanding between community members. Therefore, the design and development of the centre makes a good response for the community needs. This research also found that introducing of this model made a better understanding of Muslims’ culture and way of life. And finally a rehabilitation project introduced to restore the different functional pattern (community centres) to the previous states. As a conclusion, the balance of the community centres’ shares for all the residential quarters would be achieved.
References [1]
[2]
B. Michael, Fabricant and Robert Fisher, Settlement Houses under Siege: The Struggle to Sustain Community Organizations in New York City, Colombia, 2002, p. 16. Pietro Anders Calogero, Planning Kabul: The Politics of Urbanization in Afghanistan, University of California, Berkeley, 2011, p. 103.
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JICA, Draft Kabul City master plan: Product of technical cooperation project for the promotion of Kabul metropolitan area development: Sub-project for revising the Kabul City master plan, JICA Report, available online at: http://open_jicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/12058566_01.pdf. JICA, Promotion of Kabul Metropolitan Area: Capacity Development Project-Kabul City Current Status Report for Urban Development, JICA Reports, available online at: http://open_jicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/12068151.pdf. P. W. Mattessich and B. R. Monsey, Community Building: What Makes It Work: A Review of Factors In uencing Successful Community Building, Saint Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, 1997. Mohammad Hossein Sattari, Azita Rajabi and Bahman Jahangiri, A study on the concept of district or neighborhood in Islamic cities, Indian J. Sci. Res. 5 (2014) (1) 296.
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Rabah Saoud, Introduction to Islam Cities, Muslim Heritage, 2017, available online at: http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/introduction-isla mic-city. [8] Unhny, Settlement house history, riverdale neighborhood houses, available online at: http://www.unhny.org/ about/history. [9] John Simkin, Spartacus Educational, available online at: http://spartacus-educational.com/EDtoynbeeH.htm. [10] John E. Hansan, Greenwich house, New York City, available online at: http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/ settlement-houses/greenwich-house-new-york-city/. [11] JICA, Promotion of Kabul Metropolitan Area: Capacity Development Project-Kabul City Current Status Report for Urban Development, JICA Reports, available online at: http://open_jicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/12068151.pdf.