UDDP 2016
M.N.Architects Independent Architect Mohamed Naeim Abdelgalil Ibrahim Abstract This is a research paper I wrote to address urbanism issues on the context of Doha city. I tried to cover the literature of urban design and planning generally, and then I drew the headlines of problems globally and locally. The study is supported by some examples with distinction on some of the urbanism issues.
Contents 010203040506-
Introduction Problem description Solution strategy 8-Rules approach Examples References
]The Open City[ Opportunities for better life, Redefining ideas, Returning to origins, challenging the Taboos, And opening doors to solutions , Using the 8-Rules approach
Introduction Cities are the holder of half of the world population, billions of people inhabit cities, and dozens of cities become inhabited with multimillion people. Cities have also an economical importance when it comes to the contribution to the economy, one third of countries GDPs are resulted by its cities. People gathering on urban areas are the most motivator for production, cooperation and trade.
Cities in the latest years become the major issue of nation’s developments and its prosperity is the sign of positive growth and the proof of successful administration. Cities which are on the process of creation and development face many challenges facing its existing, advancement and development. Those include lack in housing, dead and ill-defined land uses, bad managed spaces, pollution and massive energy consumption, in addition to difficulties in mobility and transportation. Connectivity to the places of interest and livability of public spaces. And also many other issues.
Urban planning is vital for the wellbeing and welfare of cities population. People living in masses are vulnerable for many hazards and problems, issues of natural causes such like natural disasters and diseases, or issues of manmade causes such like social problems and congestions and overcrowding and whatever comes as result of crimes, deaths, inequality and lack of services.
Even when we start solving these problems, we confronted with new issues caused by different other causes , such as the low quality of design and planning, the
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wrongly translated masterplans, and inequity on transportation infrastructure planning, in addition to the wrongly an miss-placed developments, and the many unexpected issues and sudden disasters. Without mentioning the natural growth and developments that defeat our mathematical and logical predictions.
Questions should be asked, what are the best practices to develop cities? What are the issues we need to tackle in the world of uncertainty? What are our roles when we find ourselves as designers and planning actors lost between the greediness of large multinational developers and the vanity of stockholders? What are the humanitarian issues that we forget to
address when we commissioned to do the planning, designing or operating and monitoring cities?
This paper is my vision for urban planning and design of urban areas on the age of open cities. I proposed a new system based on my academic background in architecture and planning, and with a desire to used and contribute my graduate studies and personal research in realizing these concepts. Based on that I am introducing the 8-Rules project. Project depends on the interconnection between cities design factors and the interrelation between them.
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The problem description Globally
Some problems phasing the cities of today are global, that means it’s already phasing all cities around the world, and it require similar solutions such as sustainability and natural disasters, in addition to the problems of inequity and many other problems. But some problems are demographic or regional and context specific such as tropical areas with special environmental conditions or places with high density because of massive population inhabiting cities.
In such world of uncertainty we need to choose the important issues that required for the problems we face when fixing cities issues. But what is more important is to redefine the problem on the right way, and to rethink solution strategy on the most appropriate way. And it’s important to test each solution against other issues, in an integral and holistic approach.
Locally
Locally, I believe we are on an early stage of cities developments, stages face Europe on the early years of the 1940s and 50s or maybe even back earlier to the Victorian era, and we should really try to develop our cities according to this criteria, looking to the efforts made by European cities on that period, before trying to reach their current stages. But the problem that we are still behind them years long in many terms of developments such as transportation, infrastructure, mobility, housing … etc. And we are trying to do the same as Europe does in the 21st century which is wrong. And as a result we end up with distorted and disfigured developed-economies-cities appeared on East Asia on the last few decades, with many problems and issues, these cities mainly give importance and care for growth and without giving a damn for human development and communities’ prosperity.
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It’s not possible for us to say a successful neighborhood or scheme is god because it has one factor or all factors, but it’s good only if each one is interlinked and interrelated to each factor in a cohesive way.
Strategically
To be able to see clearly through the problem, we need to divide it into different scales and stages to put each solution strategy into its place. The planning issues vary between the master plan level which address strategies rather than solutions, and then come the urban design level, and the specific design level. And each level requires different acts on different time and stage of the process whether it was the planning, construction, operating or even monitoring. Using mass data and digital technologies `to clearly address each issue properly.
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Solution strategy In my approach, elements of solution are divided into eight main divisions, and that mean a planned portion of the city doesn’t invest equally on each one of these factors is a poor design or invaluable development. These factors are as follows, the Physical development, the infrastructure and city networks, the mobility, the sustainability, the Neighborhoods quality and economic development, Urbaners upgrading, and finally the good governance practice. And they are explained bellows;
For example, when 100 billion dollars set to initiate a city, nothing is allocated for public housing, neither mobility. People and community upgrading are rarely part of the initiative. Nothing is put into the development of neighborhoods or its habitants economic development. All what they do in this initiative is leading into exhaustion of resources in a nonsustainable way, if we ignore the nonsustainable green design which is the only thing they call it sustainability in a wrong terminology. And finally we end up with invaluable urban environment. Or city value with no value.
When cites developed and created, 100 % of the efforts and money spent on one criteria only of the 8-Rules factor, and it’s always the infrastructure, because of the obvious reasons, that it’s what is visible and because it’s what drives economy and profits. However, it’s not the optimum way for giving value to cities. So whatever you spend on infrastructure, the city value doesn’t reach any more than its one over eighth optimum value. That is like adding more ram memory, more than 3gb memory to 32bit windows laptop, and ten wait for more performance.
In another explaining example, you can’t spend money to build cultural venue or structure and say you have a culture, because without investing on rising the
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awareness of culture and without building the skills and the desire on inhabitants to practice it by upgrading communities by small initiatives (large as a whole), teaching them about arts, music and applied crafts, making them the source and the main player of the game.
We propose opportunities of developments, but before that we need to rethink design ideas and concepts, and redefine how things should really be , we will start to challenge the areas used to be untouchable and beyond reach because of many reasons, calling it tumbling down or crumb-able taboos to break.
Additionally, we can’t build multibillion roads and tunnels without strategy on how will we benefit from them. Mobility is about giving important for the commuters’ journey and makes their life easier, and sometimes to think out of the box by bringing in their destination narrower and closer by different strategy, of increasing housing density inner cities, and to make mixed used land uses with local economical spots and productive community businesses ‌ etc.
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Elements of the 8-RULES Approach Housing To have a good city, one of the most important factors is to have a high dense population within the boundaries of the urban territory. It’s the ability to give each inhabitant and his family the possibility and the right to settle in a private, decent and protected place, protected from the harsh exterior environment and from the hostility of the other factors of the nature. Housing in the modern world means a place where you got all the necessary utilities for a healthy life, including clean water, healthy environment, light and power, in addition to the service of sanitation and waste disposal. Don’t mention the civilized world requirements which include all the policies and rules protect inhabitants from each other’s surpasses and from other kinds of social tensions etc.
At the same time each of the other factors require housing to succeed, for example, mobility won’t work if it’s not planned well to serve a high dense housing clusters. Mobility Mobility is the most active factor on urban transformation, it’s the action that drive the qualities of connectivity and accessibility, it’s the urban strategy to take people and inhabitants from and into their homes, work, and entertainment places, and whether it’s personal or collective. Mobility define also who goes where and its used sometimes intentionally to isolate and subdivide people and activities and zones, inclusive design and design for disability is one of these sub-divider or generalizer. Additionally, It’s not only about the transfer of people, Mobility include goods and materials.
Housing success required many characteristics. Adjusting Density vs ultimate privacy two conflicting factors define whether its suburbs housing or inner city. Other factors such as affordability, security, diversity, access to amenities and quality of space. All these characteristics define a good housing.
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Making roads is part of the infrastructure factor, but deciding who use it and whether its bicycles or busses or pedestrians who use it are the factor of mobility. At the same time. Physical development of cities centers, suburbs and public spaces have a major factor on mobility’s navigation and orientation. Placing a wellplanned strategy and best-practiced polices for transportation has the greatest influence of people wellbeing and health in cities, and one of the strongest motivator for cities growth and success.
Physical planning concerns with affording the cities with active waterfronts, and accessible streetscapes. It’s the practice which preserves historical buildings and maintains the quality of buildings styles and the aesthetics of its façades. Physical planning provides the city not only with public buildings and community centers, but also with parks and landscape such as furnished squares and boulevards. Physical planning initiate and optimize land uses, it change city’s dimensions and building ratios. It’s a way to manipulate the city’s urban form, not only physically, but also digitally, especially with the new virtual world of city’s interactions.
Physical development Physical planning, for me doesn’t only represent urban public spaces and cities centers. It’s all the efforts made to make city’s functionalities running smoothly, it made its environment memorable to navigate, and it made its structures meaningful to use, and its streets and squares livable to occupy all the time.
If we chose one item of the above, the public space, and started to reveal it’s importance we wouldn’t finish, it’s a place for leisure and entertainment, the best for make living and doing business, it’s a place for discussing opinions and perform skills and show concerns, dissensions and address controversies. Over all that it’s a place of gathering and being friendly and social. And finally, a place of being connected spiritually and mentally.
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Infrastructure Infrastructure and city networks are the life supporting system of cities. Without infrastructure, there is no different between the urban and the rural territories. The infrastructure include the supply of clean drinking water, a consistent electricity current, mail services, telephone and even internet on recent years. These include buildings to generate and operate, and networks to reach it out to users. Cities require an aggregative and cumulated networks of roads, bridges and tunnels, in addition to other networks use the sub structure of these roads to provide inhabitants with energy, life and communication. Landscape and streetscape are part of the cities infrastructure. Cities require buildings, which serve habitants, such like hospitals, administrative building etc. and also other supporting structures like parking spaces. Engineering solutions are part of the equation, dams, drainage and sewer systems, and land slide protectors and wave breakers as the first lines of urban protection of nature hazards. Transportation systems are also an important part of cities infrastructures, stations and routes. Bus stations and bus stops, whatever the scale.
In the recent years, and with the huge demand for shifting into the future city systems, a new technology of controlling and monitoring the supply, operation, maintenance, consumption and consistency of city infrastructure become vital. New technologies take charge. From traffic congestion control, to intelligent monitoring systems of networks, safety and security systems become a necessary issue, CCTVs and remote sensing appliances become common tools in the urban environment. Complex systems of multi-linking of power and data are part of our daily life, as losing a light become a matter of national disasters
Sustainability In a world started to lose its balance by the huge exploitation of its natural resources, and the great harm to the environment and public health by the manmade waste and pollution. Sustainability became an important and core issue in city planning and urban design, not only
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as a case of morality, but also a matter of legality and survival. Mainly it’s the efforts made to minimize energy consumption and the use of less non-renewable resources, and to produce less harmful waste to the environment.
sustainability, but transportation is another factor, to make it sustainable, well placing of land uses helps, mixed uses as well, bring destinations nearer, adjusting housing density, alternative fuel usage in transportation carriages, altering mood of transportation, shared mobility strategies, all would work fine. A city feeding itself is an important factor of sustainability, urban farming makes productive communities.
Because of the huge number of buildings in cities, usually designers and planners give the building sustainability the maximum attention when it comes to its design and build sustainability. So they provide the design with many solutions, on its design settings (orientation etc.), materials used, energy consumption (natural light, heating etc.), zero carbon foot print, rain water collection, green roof and the list is endless.
Urban governance When we start talking about urban development, we always imagine the graphics and the nice animations, and nice words of urbanism. But reality is different, to make an urban development, we need more than architects drawings and planners master plans. We need what called urban governance, from the word definition; people who make sure the best practice is made to make the urban planning possible, achievable and sustainable, and it makes the urban environment secure and full of social initiatives. Actually it’s the form of institutional activities made by the public, communities or residents to make sure their desired development is done in the best way, and to make their representation and appearance and consent within the legitimate executive administrative bodies. This takes many forms, such like local governments or municipalities. It’s actually the practice of doing
But an architect on a planning mission, take a wider look to the bigger picture, and try to apply the holistic definition to all the planning factors ( the 8-Rules on our case). So you can’t talk about decreasing energy consumption, if your city generates energy with non-renewable approach. Building’s sustainability is great factor, and its similar on infrastructure’s
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the financing of projects, planning developments, drawing or inspecting policies, responding to changes, assuring efficiency by tackling bureaucracies and empowering public participation, and preventing inequities.
places such like districts, suburbs and communities. Neighbourhoods had a special importance for communities, as it exceed the benefits strategy of government into more deep necessities for habitants, in terms of social relations, economical thriving, happiness and accessing services. In the recent years voices are calling for a new vision on regenerating plans which only depend on massive building, with sweeping preliminaries of all old housing and neighborhoods, and to think in a new comprehensive way on integrating the projects on the human scale by regeneration projects of communities.
A good practice of urban governance is indicated by many factors, and its absence, has a huge impact on the success of urban regeneration plans. Those indicators such as the equality of service distribution, transparency on administrative processes, especially with people who directly affected by urban decisions. Accountability is another factor coming from the authority, legitimacy and fairness, and finally keeping the inhabitants engaged and always informed (German cities as an example for discussion).
Neighborhoods are the enemy on new developments fanatics, neglecting its inhabitants rights. but it’s the heart of city life, if it was given the care and treatment it deserve, by tackling the issues of poverty, unemployment, housing maintenance, local crimes, poor health conditions, racial tensions, social polarization and sprawl planning. That is real urban development.
Neighbourhood enhancement Neighbourhoods are the areas and surroundings of urban habituating places,
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People upgrading The upgrading of urban living is the process of transform the Urbanisters (habitants of urban areas trying to become civilized) into higher mood of behavior, characteristics, health, education and mental status to thrive and fit with the new urban living. That is my personal definition for a whole new issue. The issue is that in the understanding of urban planners that urbanization is upgrading, which is not. People moved in to cities and urban areas in massive numbers on the last few decades and become a part of the urban life. But did they become Urbaners? No. people came from rural areas holding its characteristics and life habits. People also migrated from all around the world to new geographies to initiate new kind of demographics, but is that even helping?
Under the terminology of so called: New Urbanism, recently combined efforts on American cities aiming for putting strategies and solutions for creating livable communities and enduring neighborhoods consistency, trying to reach a state of social cohesion and human scale planning and give the sense of place for local communities. These strategies are vibrant, between improving access to public services. Economically developing residents make of living. Physically improving neighbourhoods with community centres, interaction public spaces. Easing walkability and connection by landscaping, re-place transits and develop moods of transportation to enhance their mobility. Improving residents’ participation and civic engagement. Fostering the social inclusion, and enhance health and wellbeing standards. Assuring the implementation of sustainable principles in buildings. Branding, promoting and giving identity to the specific neighbourhood with events and activities, tackling consequences of poor urban development such like sprawls and de-centralized developments.
People from rural areas have been rationed to specific life style, they produce and they live simple, and once they come to urban areas,
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they physically been transformed to urbanity. But did they survived, could they be part of the urban life; jobs, food, behavior, economy. People of other nations come with different habits and styles too, and they face the same issue, in different ways. Should we build spaceships for the planet of apes?
Who would jog on our imitated central park? Who would go to a central library? If he didn’t grow up with a community library right up the corner of his neighborhood. How can we build productive societies in economy of technology with societies and generations who spent the day on the nonsense? And the post urbanization not only for inhabitants, but for societies, organizations, developers, planners, policy makers. Then how can we tackle poverty and urban issues for a politician who doesn’t know what is a social security in modern life, or a planner who doesn’t know what is a human factor and gentrification consequences etc. and remember that demographics is a tool of design and planning.
As we know, cities on its early morphological growing era, suffered with urbanization issues such like, slums and poverty and many other issues. But what about the issues of post urbanization. Can we transform people of city into truly Urbaners, if not, then how can we build cultural centers and museums if we didn’t upgrade our people. People need to be upgraded not only by normal education, but in terms of culture, arts, health, otherwise, who would use the open spaces after making it?
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Examples Some projects where tested against the criteria of fulfilling the 8-rules. Some were better on one or two factors, and some were good by compromising many of the rules together. Local Alkhour community compound, Alkhour It was good project in terms of Housing quality, mobility, governance, liveability of community, people upgrading. It was weak in some other factors like sustainability and physical urban development
International When it comes to public space, physical developments and mobility, it’s hard to choose between the many good examples in Western Europe starting from the Scandinavian countries, UK, Barcelona, and Amsterdam until getting back to the origins in Italy. For sustainability, I will choose BEDZED, London.
Madina Central, the Pearl A good example when it comes to physical urban development; especially on the public space enhancement and the fostering of the importance of engagement, still with minor issues, but a good example against a load of badly or weakly planned areas, even with massive infrastructure investments.
But when talk about housing, won’t find better than the early 80s -90s housing projects in London, and the success of volume home building projects on the suburbia of London. Together with the result of the thatcher-ian governance act of housing and what follows. Until rich-y destroyed it and bring it into a rabbit-hole.
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Infrastructure driven planning was better known in the American cities, but sustainability and environmentally-friendly cities are the handmade of Europeans A good example I was looking for is a successful story of people upgrading communities and neighbourhoods, and I guess Uneven growth: Invisible New York fit my vision the most about developing communities to thrive within their existing neighbourhoods.
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