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openhouseinternational

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T h e m e i s s u e : AN EXPEDITION INTO ARCHITECTURE and URBANISM of the GLOBAL SOUTH

C l i m a t e A d a p t a t i o n

C o n v i v i a l i t y

G l o b a l i z a t i o n H o u s i n g T y p o l o g y M o r p h o l o g i c a l T r a n s f o r m a t i o n

M e g a P r o j e c t s

P u b l i c S p a c e s S m a r t C i t i e s

S u s t a i n a b i l i t y

U r b a n i s m

Authors In this issue: Abdelmonem, Asilsoy, Bele, Bhattarai-Upadhyay, Conteh, Grierson, Horne, Ibrahim, Khan, Malek, Maturana, Oktay, Pinard, Salama, Selim, Sengupta, Ujang, Wiedmann.

open house internationalVol 41 No.2 2016 ISSN 0168-2601

a C I B e n c o u r a g e d j o u r n a l

T h o m s o n I S I A r t s & H u m a n i t i e s

E B S C O p u b l i s h i n g

w w w . o p e n h o u s e - i n t . c o m

w w w . o p e n h o u s e - i n t . c o m E l s e v i e r S c o p u s

BOARD OF EDITORS

The journal of an association of institutes concerned with the quality of built environment.The publishing framework is shaped around the forces which act on built environment,which maintain, change and transform it. The content consists of articles which deal withthese issues and in particular with responsive, self-sustaining and re-usable environ-ments which have the capacity to respond to change, provide user choice and value formoney.

w w w . o p e n h o u s e - i n t . c o m openhouse

openhouse

Dr.Iftekhar Ahmed, RMIT University, Australia.

Dr. Zainab F. Ali, University of Damman, SaudiArabia.

Dr. Robert Brown, University of Westminster,London, Great Britain.

Prof.Marta Calzolaretti, Housing Lab, SapienzaUniversita di Roma, Italy.

Dr. German T. Cruz, Ball State UniversityMuncie, USA.

Carla Corbin, Department of LandscapeArchitecture, Ball State University, USA.

Ype Cuperus, Delft University of TechnologyDelft, The Netherlands.

Dr. Ayona Datta, University of Leeds, UK.

Dr.Md Nasir Daud, University of Malaya,Malaysia.

Forbes Davidson, Institute of Housing & UrbanDevelopment Studies, Rotterdam, TheNetherlands.

Diane Diacon, Building and Social HousingFoundation, Coalville, Great Britain.

Prof. Yurdanur Dulgeroglu-Yuksel,Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Prof. Jin-Ho Park, Inha University, Korea

Prof. Bruce Frankel, Ball State University, USA.

Prof. Avi Friedman, McGill University, Montreal,Canada.

Dr. Ahmed Abu Al Haija, PhiladelphiaUniversity, Eng. & Arch. Dep.t, Jordan.Prof. Keith Hilton, Mansle, France.

Dr. Karim Hadjri, University of Central lan-cashire, UK.

Prof. Nabeel Hamdi, Professor Emeritus,Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Dr. Mahmud Mohd Jusan, Faculty of BuiltEnvironment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia(UTM).

Ripin Kalra, University of Westminster, and .(WSPimc), London.

Dr. Stephen Kendall, Emeritus Prof. ofArchitecture, 220 West Durand StreetPhiladelphia, PA., 19119

Prof. Bob Koester, Ball State University Muncie,USA.

Prof. Roderick J. Lawrence, University ofGeneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Fuad Mallick, BRAC University, Bangladesh.

Prof. Andrea Martin-Chavez, UniversidadAutonoma Metropolitana, Mexico.

Dr. Magda Mostafa, Associate Professor, TheAmerican University in Cairo, Egypt

Babar Mumtaz, DPU, University CollegeLondon, London, UK.

Geoffery Payne, GPA Associates London, UK

Dr. Sule Tasli Pektas, Bilkent University, Turkey.

Prof. Gulsun Saglamer, Istanbul TechnicalUniversity, Istanbul, Turkey.

Prof. Jia Beisi, University of Hong Kong.Dr. Mark Napier, Urban LandMark, Pretoria,South Africa.

Dr. Masa Noguchi, University of Melbourne,Australia

Prof. Ibrahim Numan, Fatih Sultan MehmetUniversity, Turkey.

Dr. Yara Saifi, Al Quds University, Jerusalem,Palestine.

Prof. Paola Somma, University of Venice, Italy.

Dr. Peter Kellett, University of Newcastle uponTyne, Great Britain.

Dr. Omar Khattab, University of Kuwait.

Dr. Levente Mályusz, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Hungary.

Prof. Amos Rapoport, University of Wisconsinat Milwaukee, USA.

Prof. Seiji Sawada, Meiji University, Tokyo,Japan.

Dr. Florian Steinberg, Asian DevelopmentBank, The Philippines.

Dr. Quazi M Mahtab uz Zaman, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK

Prof. H. J Visscher, OTB, Delft Univertsity ofTechnology, Delft, The Netherlands.

Patrick Wakely, Professor Emeritus, UniversityCollege London, UK.

Dr. Christine Wamsler, University ofManchester, UK and University of Lund,Sweden.

: Esra Can, Emre Akbil, Eastern Mediterranean University Mersin 10 - Turkey. [email protected]: C. Punton, P.O Box 74, Gateshead,Tyne & Wear, NE9 5UZ, Great Britain. [email protected]: The Urban International Press, P.O Box 74, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear NE9 5UZ, Great Britain.: Printed by Pikaj Print House, Gazimagusa, Mersin 10, Turkey: Emmanuel Tibung Chenyi, Eastern Mediteranian University, Mersin 10, Turkey. [email protected]

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Aims

Open House International

The Open House International Association (OHIA) aims

to communicate, disseminate and exchange housing and

planning information. The focus of this exchange is on

tools, methods and processes which enable the various

professional disciplines to understand the dynamics of

housing and so contribute more effectively to it.

To achieve its aims, the OHIA organizes and co-ordi-

nates a number of activities which include the publication

of a quarterly journal, and, in the near future, an interna-

tional seminar and an annual competition. The

Association has the more general aim of seeking to

improve the quality of built environment through encour-

aging a greater sharing of decision-making by ordinary

people and to help develop the necessary institutional

frameworks which will support the local initiatives of peo-

ple in the building process.

The journal of an association of institutes and individuals

concerned with housing, design and development in the

built environment. Theories, tools and practice with spe-

cial emphasis on the local scale.

Delft University of Technology

Department of Housing Quality and Process Innovation OTB

Research Institute of Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies

Jaffalaan 9, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands

(Henk Visscher) [email protected] www.otb.tudelft.nl

McGill University

School of Architecture, Macdonald Harrington Building

Centre for Minimum Cost Housing Studies, 815, Sherbrook

Street West. Montreal, PQ. Canada H3A 2K6.

(Avi Friedman)[email protected]

www.homes.mcgill.ca

Ball State University

College of Architecture & Planning, Muncie, Indiana, 47306,

USA. (Stephen Kendall) [email protected]

www.bsu.edu/cap

HousingLab

Dipartimento di Architettura, Ateneo Federato delle Scienze

Umane delle Arti e dell'Ambiente, SAPIENZA Università di

Roma, Roma, Italy. (Marta Calzolaretti)

[email protected] http:w3.uniroma1.it/housinglab

The Glasgow School of Art

Mackintosh School of Archirecture MEARU, 176 Renfrew

Street Glasgow G3 6RQ. Great Britain

(Masa Noguchi) [email protected]

www.gsa.ac.uk

Budapest University of Technology & Econ. (BME)

Faculty of Architecture Budapest, Muegyetem rkp. 3.

1111 Hungary. (Levente Malyusz) [email protected]

www.bme.hu

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

Resource Development Division, Perpustakaan Sultanah

Zanariah, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) 81310 Skudai

Johor, Malaysia. (Anuar Talib) [email protected]

http://portal.psz.utm.my/psz/

Philadelphia University,

Engineering & Architecture Department, Faculty of

Engineering, P.O Box 1, Jordan. (Ahmed Abu Al-Haija)

[email protected]

www.philadelphia.edu.jo/content/view/448/590/

University of Malaya,

Faculty of Built Environment, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(Md Nasir Daud) [email protected]

http://www.fbe.um.edu.my

Ajman University of Science & Technology

Ajman, P. O. Box 346, UAE. United Arab Emirates

(Jihad Awad) [email protected]

www.ajman.ac.ae/austweb/index87ec.html?catid=46&langid=2

Qatar University

Qatar University Library, Aquisitons Department,Bldg# B13 /

Office Room # B154

P.O Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. (Farook Ghori)

[email protected]

BRAC University,

Department of Architecture, Dhaka, Bangladesh,

(Fuad H Mallick) [email protected] www.bracu.ac.bd

Universidad Del Rosario,

Calle 14 No. 6-25, Bogotá, Colombia. (Janneth Espitia)

[email protected] www.urosario.edu.co

Birzeit University Main Library

Ramallah, West Bank, P.O.Box: "14", Birzeit,

Palestine(Taghgreed Shihadeh) [email protected]

www.birzeit.edu

Inha University, Department of Architecture, Inha University,

Incheon, Korea. (Jin-Ho Park) [email protected]

www.d-lab.k

Director & Editor-in-Chief

Nicholas Wilkinson, RIBA,

RIBA,AA,Dipl., Publisher

[email protected]

Collaborating Editor

Dr. Ashraf M. Salama,

PhD. FRSA - FHEA

Head of Architecture

University of Strathclyde

Email: [email protected]

Web Editor

Emmanuel Tibung Chenyi

Eastern Mediterranean Univ.

Dept of Comp. Via mersin 10.

TR

Email:[email protected]

International Technical

Editor

Yonca Hurol,

Eastern Mediterranean University,

Department of Architecture,

Mersin 10 Turkey.

[email protected]

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Contents

EDITORIAL: Ashraf M. Salama and David Grierson

TOWARDS SOCIALLY INTEGRATED HOUSING IN CHILE: ASSESSING CONVIVIALITYTHROUGH TWO KEY HOUSING PROJECTS .

Beatriz C. Maturana, Ralph Horne

FROM COMPOUND HOUSES TO VILLAS:THE INCREMENTAL TRANSFORMATION OF DAKAR’S URBAN LANDSCAPE.

Emilie Pinard

MEASURING LIVEABILITY BY EXPLORING URBAN QUALITIES OF KISSY STREET, FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE.

Fodei M. Conteh, Derya Oktay

WOUNDED SPACES: WHEN PLANNING DEGRADED CAIRO’S URBAN MEMORY.Gehan Selim

THE ABJECT DREAM OF NEO-CAPITAL: CAPITALIST URBANISM, ARCHITECTURE ANDENDANGERED LIVEABILITY OF THE MIDDLE EAST’S MODERN CITIES.

M.Gamal Abdelmonem

MEASURING THE POTENTIAL FOR ECOLOGICAL CITIZENSHIP AMONG RESIDENTS IN FAMAGUSTA, NORTH CYPRUS

Buket Asilsoy, Derya Oktay

THE ROLE OF MEGA PROJECTS IN REDEFINING HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN GULF CITIES.

Florian Wiedmann, Ashraf M. Salama, Hatem G. Ibrahim

A CONTEXTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT METHOD FOR IRAN.

Shahrzad Malek, David Grierson

TRANSFORMING LIFESTYLES AND EVOLVING HOUSING PATTERNS: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY.

Smita Khan, Archana Bele

UNSETTLING MODERNITY: SHIFTING VALUES AND CHANGING HOUSING STYLES IN THE KATHMANDU VALLEY.

Vibha Bhattarai-Upadhyay, Urmi Sengupta

AFFECTIVE PERCEPTION OF PLACE: ATTACHMENT TO KUALA LUMPURHISTORICAL URBAN PLACES.

Norsidah Ujang

Open House International has been selected for coverage by EBSCO Publishing, the ELSEVIER Bibliographic DatabaseScopus and all products of THOMSON ISI index bases, SSCI, A&HCI,CC/S&BS and CC/A&H The journal is also list-ed on the following Architectural index lists: RIBA, ARCLIB, AVERY and EKISTICS. Open House International is onlinefor subscribers and gives limited access for non-subscribers at www.openhouse-int.com

NEXT ISSUE: VOL. 41.NO.3 2016: OPEN ISSUE.

Editor: Nicholas WilkinsonEastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, Gazimagusa, Mersin 10, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]

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open house in te rna t ional j une 2016 vo l .41 no .2THEME ISSUE : An Expedition into Architecture and Urbanism of the Global South.

Guest Editors: Ashraf M. Salama and David Grierson Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, United Kingdom. E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]

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Previous Issues

Edited by Nicholas Wilkinson RIBA, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus.DPU Associate, University College London, [email protected]

Edited by Şebnem Önal Hoşkara, Özgür Dinçyürek,S. Müjdem VuralEastern Mediterranean University, North CyprusFaculty of Architecture, Gazimagusa, Mersin 10,[email protected]

Editorial:Nicholas Wilkinson

Rwanda’s Urbanization Policy. A critical reading Paola Somma

Development of Quality Indicators of Housing Design (QIHD), an Approach to Improve Design Quality of

Affordable Housing Afaq Hyder Chohan, Adi Irfan, Jihad Awad

Identifying Privacy Concerns on the Formation of Courtyards Halleh Nejadriahi, Ozgur Dincyurek

Sense of Community in New Urbanism Neighbourhoods: A Review Nastaran Pour Ebrahim,

Non-Linear Model in Architectural Design for Sustainable Social Housing: Case Study Ovča Housing

Project Belgrade. Dušan Stojanović, Pavle Stamenović,

Toward Historic Urban Landscape approach: Serial properties along the Bosna River Lana Kudumović

Authentic Emergence of Flexibility in Contemporary Architecture. Ghazal Farjami

Redevelopment of rural settlements in Lizhuang Town,Yibin City,China. Yin Pan, Tiejun Zhou

Evaluating Change in Housing for Sustainable Development: Koşuyolu Case in Istanbul. Dilek YILDIZ

Assessment of Changes in Green Space of Nanjing City Using 1998 and 2007 Landsat Satellite Data .

Hao Xu

The Use of Graph Theory to Study the Relationship between the Spatial Organization and Climate in

Traditional Iranian Architecture.. Parastoo Pourvahidi, Mesut B. Ozdeniz *, Polat Hancer

Renewal Strategies for Communities Based on the Traffic Micro-circulation System.

Xu Yuhui, Liang Chengcheng, Wu Yue

Modeling Design Requirements of A Floor Plan. Antoni Montañana, Carmen Llinares, Álvaro f. Page

Post-Occupancy Investigation of Two Open Building Projects.

LI Shanshan

Vol. 40 No. 4 2015

open house international

THEME ISSUE: Unspoken Issues in Architectural Education.

Vol. 40 No. 3 2015


THEME ISSUE: Unspoken Issues in Architectural Education.

Editorial:Nicholas WilkinsonUrban Design Build: The Frederick Douglass Peace Park - Community-BasedLearning Through Making. Anna Grichting, Kyle SturgeonEnclosed Balconies: Complicity Between Builders And Users Of Taipei Walkups.Jin-Ann LinArchitecture is not Technology:- The Space Of Differentiation In ArchitecturalEducation. Michael KarassowitschIntegrating Green Building Approaches to Interior Architecture Education: ACross-Cultural Study. Şule Taşlı Pektaş, N. Şule Aybar, N. Yaprak Savut, HuntMcKinnonStudy On High Comfort and Low Energy Consumption Community Design InChina.WU Jinxiu, Zhang Meiying, Zhao LinA Bibliometric Analysis on Urbanization Research From 1984 To 2013. Bo Pu,Yanjun QiuLow-Rise, High-Density Housing, asa Way of Sustainability in Hungary. Katalin K.TheislerA Contemporary Connection to Historic Buildings Through Transparency andReusability.Meltem Zehra Nevzat, Cemil AtakaraEnergy Efficiency in Residential Buildings. Achim Andreas Haid, Ali ÖztürenMeaningful Sequences of Activities In Qashqai Dwellings.Mohsen Afshari Hematalikeikha, Henny Coolen, Shahram PourdeihimiEthics and Conscience: An Integral Part of Architectural Design Education. IpekYürekliEvaluation of Leed “Innovation In Design Process” And “Location & Linkages”Case Study: Diyarbakir Turkey. Gökçe Tuna Taygun, Polat Darçın,. S. MüjdemVural

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Previous Issues

Vol. 40 No. 2 2015open house international

THEME ISSUE: Unspoken Issues in Architectural Education..

Edited by Şebnem Önal Hoşkara,Özgür Dinçyürek, S. Müjdem Vural

Eastern Mediterranean University,North Cyprus Faculty of Architecture,

Gazimagusa, Mersin 10, [email protected]

Edited by Nicholas Wilkinson RIBA, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus.DPU Associate, University College London, UK.

[email protected]

Vol. 40 No. 1 2015


OPEN ISSUE covering Affordable Housing Schemes,Sustainable Buildings, Gentrification, Vertical Greenery System,Place Identity, Carob Warehouses, Incremental Housing Egypt,

Digital Architecture Education..

Editorial: Nicholas WilkinsonToward 21st-Century Korean Hanoks. Jieheerah Yun

Housing Poverty in Post-Reform Shanghai: Profiles in 2010 and Decompositions.Yina Zhang, Jie Chen

The Emotional Sociability of the Abdoun Circle in Amman Jordan. Leila BustamiBreaking Boundaries as the Clue for Post Ecological Architecture.

María Jesús González Díaz, Justo García NavarroKavaklidere-Ankara: The Formation of a Residential District During the 1950s.

Çılga Resuloğlu, Elvan Altan ErgutInfill Renovation. Kazunobu Minami

Creating Neighbourhood Networks: Why the Alvalade Landscape Matters toHousing. Romana Xerez

Community Participation and Community Evaluation of Heritage RevitalisationProjects in Hong. Binqing Zhai, Albert P.C. Chan

Heuristic Model for Real Estate Development Using Value ManagementTechniques.

Ahmed Fouda*, Ahmed Shalaby, Mootaz FaridAffordance Based Housing Preferences. Henny Coolen

The Pursuit of Sustainability Of Homeownership Schemes For First-Time Buyers.Tan Teck Hong

Editorial: Şebnem Önal Hoşkara, Özgür Dinçyürek, S. Müjdem VuralDiscussion Upon The Constructed Limits of Design Studios. Yiğit Acar

Uncovering Creativity: Structuring Experience in Architectural Design StudioEce Kumkale Açikgöz

Cultivation of a Problem Field. Peter BertramUsing Metaphor and Analogy For Understanding Structural Concepts in

Architectural Education: An Iranian Perspective. Amir Sasan HadianTransparent Assessment Model in Architecture Design Studio: Eastern

Mediterranean University as Case Study. Badiossadat Hassanpour, Adi Irfan CheAni

Architectural Drawing - An Animate Field. Anna Katrine HougaardPreparing Students Towards the Complexity of Today’s Practice: Start-Up in a

Multidisciplinary Assignment.Faas Moonen, Tom VeegerArchitectural Education and Quality Assurance in the European Higher

Education Area: Design Research as a Plea for Academic Freedom. SigridPauwels, Johan De Walsche, Dra. Lies Declerck

Drawing and Conceiving Space: How to Express Spatial Experience ThroughDrawing? Robin Schaeverbeke, Hélene Aarts, Ann Heylighen

The Analysis of A Hybrid Educational Approach in InteriorArchitecture DesignStudio: The Case of Bahçeşehir University.Sezin Tanrıöver, Zeynep Ceylanlı,

Pınar SunarDesign Workshops as a Tool for Informal Arch. Edu. Hülya Turgut, Emel

CantürkIndifferent or Devoted: An Exploration of Student Identity Through the Design

Studio. Rania Abdel Galil, Yasmin Kandi

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An ExpEdition into ArchitEcturEAnd urbAnism of thE GlobAlsouth

the nations of Africa, central and latin America,and most of Asia are collectively known as theGlobal south, which includes practically 157 of atotal of 184 recognized states in the world accord-ing to united nations reports. metaphorically, it canbe argued that most of the efforts in architecturalproduction, city planning, place making, placemanagement, and urban development are takingplace in the Global south and will continue to beso over the next several decades.

While many cities and settlements in theGlobal south have less developed or severely lim-ited resources, others are growing and flourishing.Although they share similarities in terms of social,economic, and environmental challenges, it isincreasingly evident that these challenges offer realopportunities for development and growth. politicalturmoil, social disorder, and economic upheavalare predominant in many of the cities and settle-ments in the Global south. Yet, it is widely acknowl-edged that their societies, emerging markets,transnational practices are viewed as growthprospects which are continuously manifested inmaterial culture, architecture, and urbanism.Within the new world order cities and settlements inthe Global south have experienced dramatic trans-formations that instigated critical questions aboutregenerating and retrofitting cities, internationalconnectivity, international attractiveness, changinghousing dynamics, and the quality of urban life,among other emerging issues resulting from rapidurban development processes.

the preceding milieu calls for the impor-tance of depicting and capturing architectural andplace production of the Global south while por-traying it to the academic and professional com-munity. As part of the activities of the ‘cluster forresearch in Architecture and urbanism of cities inthe Global south (crAucGs) which was estab-lished in 2014 within the department ofArchitecture at the university of strathclyde,Glasgow, this issue of open house internationaladdresses contexts in Africa, south America, southEast Asia, and the mEnA (middle East & northAfrican) region highlighting various developmentalaspects. it includes research contributions on archi-tecture and urbanism as they relate to housing envi-ronments comprising socially integrated housing(chile), housing typological transformations(senegal), mega projects and housing develop-ment (the Gulf region), transformations in housingpatterns (india), and the changing housing styles inKathmandu Valley (nepal). urban qualities, livabil-

ity and capitalist urbanism are addressed in thecontext of freetown in sierra leone, Kuala lumpurin maaysia, and several middle Eastern cities. therole of planning in maintaining or degrading urbanmemory is addressed in the context of cairo(Egypt). other important contributions include vari-ous aspects of sustainability at the building scale(iran) and at the level of user attitudes (northerncyprus).

beatriz maturana and ralph horne exam-ine the issue of social integration as part of the con-temporary urban policy in chile by analysing twosocially integrated housing developments. by intro-ducing the notion of conviviality their work raisescritical questions for the implementation of nation-al policy objectives to combat the segregation ofcities. in the context of dakar, senegal, Emiliepinard examines the transformation of the housingtypology in informal neighbourhoods on theperiphery of the city. by documenting the spatiallogics and factors guiding the construction of newmulti-storey houses, which are significantly trans-forming the landscape of the city, her work offersimplications for housing policies and programmes.

the work of fodei m. conteh and deryaoktay presents an attempt at measuring liveabilityof a vibrant but overcrowded street in freetown,sierra leone, and how its everyday environmentworks. Employing a mixed-method strategy thatinvolves observations and interviews their workreveals that an overcrowded street space has anegative effect on the liveability and quality ofurban life. in the context of the urban evolution ofcairo, Egypt, Gehan selim offers a critical argu-ment on how unresponsive planning practicesadopted by municipalities and governments createwounds and scars in the public realm and therebynegatively influencing the memory of a city. on adifferent level of investigation buket Asilsoy andderya oktay examine ecological citizenship in thecontext of famagusta, northern cyprus by con-ducting an attitude survey of residents. the out-comes offer insights toward understanding the levelof residents’ environmental worldview that maycontribute to the shaping of policies relevant to sus-tainable planning and design. the context of themiddle East is examined in three papers selected todemonstrate different scales and disciplinary per-spectives. At a geographical scale the work of m.Gamal Abdelmonem questions globalization, cap-italism, neoliberal ideology and the resulting urbanvisions and policies manifested both in narrativesand the physical environment of new centres anddistricts in cairo, beirut and emerging cities in theGulf region. Abdelmonem’s work concludes byarguing that the lack of the necessary hierarchy ofsocio-spatial systems of these cities present irrevo-

Editorial

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soncable urban problems. At a regional scale within

the Gulf region, Wiedmann, salama, and ibrahimexamines the emerging housing typologies andtheir role in redefining urban development process-es. utilising cases from the Jumeirah district indubai and based on official planning documentsand preliminary field observation their work identi-fies housing development tendencies and highlightkey urban planning implications. malek andGrierson address the absence of a national frame-work with respect to sustainable development iniran. taking into account the contextual particulari-ties of the context and building on relevant toolsdeveloped in other contexts malek and Griersonoffer a framework that will inform the developmentof a context-based tool while integrating iran’s cur-rent climate change adaptation policies and priori-ties.

the Asian perspective is represented, inpart, in three papers. discussing the transformationin lifestyles, the work of smita Khan and Archanabele is based in nagpur. it adopts a qualitativeapproach that encompasses examining morpho-logical maps, non-participatory observation, andphoto documentation. their work presents a com-parative analysis of three residential neighbour-hoods and concludes with an argument that advo-cates people centricity as an imperative for sustain-ability. Examining the changing housing styles in theKathmandu Valley – nepal, Vibha bhattarai-upadhyay and urmi sengupta engage in a discus-sion that cuts across space, time, and meaning ofarchitecture in order to deconstruct and juxtaposetradition and modernity as represented in cultureand built form. based on qualitative inquiry thework of norsidah ujang delves into examining therelationship between urbanities and historicalurban places in the context of Kuala lumpur,malaysia. offering key insights ujang discusses theway in which such places shape the perception,emotion, and memory of the urbanites, and con-cludes by identifying challenges relevant to inte-grating the preservation of place identity into thecomplexity of the physical environment and theurban life.

it is clearly evident that the discourse andresearch findings on architecture and urbanism inthe Global south that are discussed in this issue ofopen house international, have gone beyond por-traying this part of the world within either post-colo-nial urban struggle or slum challenges. in essence,the Global south offers a rich soil for debating andresearching challenging and pressing issues thatpresent themselves as timely topics on the mapacademic and professional interests and as impor-tant material for further inquiry and examination.the 11 contributions by 19 scholars manifest the

diverse and challenging issues facing buildings, set-tlements, and cities of the Global south while con-ceiving potential solutions for addressing thosechallenges.

Acknowledgement

As guest editors of this special issue, we would liketo acknowledge the resources and support offeredby the department of Architecture at the universityof strathclyde toward developing this volume.thanks are due to the reviewers and contributorsfor their valuable work throughout the peer reviewprocess.

Guest Edi tors

Ashraf m. salama and david Griersondepartment of Architectureuniversity of strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1xJ, uKEmails: [email protected] [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

This paper is concerned with the ongoing problemof residential segregation of communities – in par-ticular along socioeconomic lines. In this respect wetake as our starting point Henry Shaftoe’s principlesfor convivial spaces (Shaftoe, 2008), which com-plement the work of urban theorists from KevinLynch to Jane Jacobs, and from Jan Gehl toRichard Sennett, who argue in various contexts forintegrated communities (Lynch, 1960; Jacobs andAbad, 1973; Sennett, 2003; Gehl, 1987). In suchconceptualisations of the city, it is street level inter-action in convivial spaces that provides the essen-tial urban fabric; it creates and maintains neigh-bourhoods. This interaction may be facilitated (ornot) by the design of the materiality of the city, butit is the interaction itself that provides evidence ofthe urban fabric.

The proliferation of urban ghettos, mostinfamously associated with the modernist ‘verticalstreets’ and mass public housing experiments of thepost-war era, led to ‘sink estates’ where crime,deprivation, and decline became a stark visualexpression of how not to design and provide hous-ing. One policy goal that emerged from this wasthe need to find ways to integrate communitiesacross socioeconomic lines and tenures withinneighbourhoods in ‘salt and pepper’ arrange-ments. Side–by-side living of those in housing needwith those who were on the ‘housing ladder’ intoowner occupation became a policy imperative.

While this imperative was based upon various andsometimes competing logics about class, wealth,access, aspiration, and so on in late capitalist,owner-occupation based economies, it remains akey concern for housing policy across the western-ised world, including in Chile, where the case stud-ies reported here are based.

In this paper, we argue that physical inte-gration by materially interspersing a demographicmix of different socioeconomic groups within hous-ing developments offers an incipient measure thatis insufficient on its own to meet the policy goal ofsocial integration. It does not in itself deliver inclu-sion, equity, or conviviality. By implication, we raisecritical questions for the implementation of nation-al policy objectives to combat the segregation ofcities. The concept of assessing conviviality, under-stood as the “art of living in community” (Esteva,2012), is proposed as a means to further socialintegration.

Henry Shaftoe claims that “conviviality is asubjective feeling, underpinned by, but not to beconfused with, the actual physical state of a place”(Shaftoe, 2008). In Shaftoe’s description, social mixis just one condition among many. He makes a dis-tinction and highlights the need to focus more onplaces (quality of shared spaces) than on buildings,albeit acknowledging that buildings enable theseplaces. Shaftoe asserts that fundamental to theirapproach “is to mix uses together to create moreintegrated neighbourhoods” (Shaftoe, 2008), andnot the other way around. In this regard, Shaftoe’s

Beatriz C. Maturana, Ralph Horne

Abstract

Social integration is an important goal of contemporary urban policy in Chile. Using the concept of conviviality under-

stood as the “art of living in community” (Esteva, 2012), this work analyses two socially integrated housing develop-

ments in Chile. This paper argues that materially interspersing different socioeconomic groups within housing devel-

opments is insufficient on its own to achieve the objectives of social integration espoused in the national urban policy.

In particular, it leaves aside community and cultural processes and therefore neglects considerations of inclusion, equi-

ty, and conviviality. Furthermore, it is insufficient on its own in meeting sustainable cities and quality of life objectives of

the National Urban Development Policy. As a result, we raise critical questions for the implementation of national pol-

icy objectives to combat the segregation of cities. The concept of assessing conviviality is proposed as a means to fur-

ther understand social integration.

Keywords: Conviviality, Social Integration, Housing and Urban Policy, Social Housing, Morphological Transformation.

TOWARDS SOCIALLY INTEGRATED HOUSING INCHILE: ASSESSING CONVIVIALITY THROUGH TWOKEY HOUSING PROJECTS

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neprinciples for convivial spaces are complementarywith those of the aforementioned urban theorists,Jane Jacobs et al. The question for this paper is:How can we assess and recognise convivial spacesas both social and physical expressions of socialintegration in a housing development (neighbour-hood) that is assumed and designed to be sociallyintegrated?

Our approach to address this question is toexamine a case study of purposive attempts todeliver social integration through two new housingdevelopments in Chile. In presenting these casestudies, we first review the recent policy and designcontext (Section 2), before presenting the two hous-ing developments (Casas Viejas and Villa LasAraucarias) and results of observations and inter-views with householders living in these develop-ments (Section 3). The two housing developmentshave been selected because they are some of theoldest housing developments built under theSocially Integrated Housing Program (SIHP). TheSIHP includes a set of design guidelines thatencourages the mix of housing typologies (‘salt andpepper’ arrangements) and relatively uniform aes-thetics through the design guidelines to create

homogeneity across the developments (Figure 1).The two projects offer contrasting locations andsize: Casas Viejas is in the capital city of Santiagowith 2088 houses; Villa Las Araucarias is in region-al Chile with 140 houses.

For the assessment of conviviality we usedin-situ observation, documentation of built form,interviews, and surveys. Of the principles of con-viviality, we focused on mixed use, quality of sharedspaces, and subjective feelings and cohesion.Section 4 presents reflections and conclusions.

POLICY AND DESIGN CONTEXT

The concept of social integration has acquired acentral role in public policy and debate. In Chile,the recognition of the problems generated by thesocial segregation of cities cuts across traditionalpolitical boundaries which has allowed for bi-parti-san support for the need for public policies. Theflagship policy in this space is the National UrbanDevelopment Policy: Sustainable Cities and Qualityof Life NUDP, 2013. The (NUDP) as a policy instru-ment reflects in broad terms the aspirations of theurban theorists cited above, and (at least implicitly)

Figure 1. Top: Casas Viejas, where it is difficult to tell the difference between social and affordable housing types. Bottom Villas

Las Araucarias, where social houses are two-storey and affordable one-storey level and grouped together according to theirtypology (Source: Authors).

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promotes principles of convivial spaces to encour-age social diversity and social integration. Prior tothe development of this policy, the SociallyIntegrated Housing Program (2006) attempted topromote social integration. Officially this programhas produced 12 socioeconomically mixed housingdevelopments throughout the country since 2008.

Internationally, critics assert that whilesocial mix is believed to improve the situation of themost disadvantaged sectors of society, redirectingsubsidies to middle class housing markets actuallycontributes to shortage of housing stock, increasingreal estate values, and making housing less acces-sible for the lowest-income groups (Fincher, et al.,2014, Bricocoli and Cucca, 2014). Furthermore,socially integrated, or mixed housing develop-ments, may carry inherent problems as they couldcreate other forms of inequity and spatial segrega-tion, which could deter innovation in regards to“urban justice” (Bricocoli and Cucca, 2014). Inaddition, a report produced by the AustralianHousing and Urban Research Institute (Pawson, etal., 2012) states that “it cannot be assumed thatneighbourhood ‘re-engineering’ with the intentionof drawing in middle class owner occupiers willnecessarily turn out as such” (Pawson, et al., 2012).

Locally, the financial incentive offered topotential middle class residents to encourage themto live with “the poor” was criticised on ethicalgrounds (Brain, et al., 2007). This incentive ceasedto be available to buyers early in 2015 and wasreplaced with another financial incentive offered todevelopers, as encouragement to build sociallyintegrated housing developments.

In the context of Chile’s segregated cities, ithas been argued that both this financial model andthe physical location of socially integrated housingdevelopments is determined by the neo-liberal mar-ket model and that regulation of the land marketwould better serve the objective of reducing segre-gation (Sabatini and Brain, 2008, Rodriguez andSugranyes, 2005). In a study of current housingpolicies in Chile, Paola Siclari asserts that “placingthe poor with the less poor is a recipe that couldcause greater social gaps instead of integrating”(Siclari Bravo, 2009). In either case, the implemen-tation of this policy lacks the necessary indicatorsthat would allow evaluation (Maturana, 2014,Siclari Bravo, 2009). In a recent positive assess-ment of Casas Viejas, Sabatini et al. acknowledgethat “the market itself, without subsidies or specialincentives, has produced socially mixed develop-ments” (Sabatini, et al., 2014). Their study recom-mends to “compliment the policies that supportpeople with others that support places” (Sabatini, etal., 2014).

Aware of the significance of these argu-

ments, this paper focuses upon the notion of con-viviality as a way to evaluate the achievements ofthe SIHP, with respect to the objectives of the NUDP.Conviviality is formed and reaffirmed by day-to-daypractices, which may include changes initiated byresidents to the morphology of the built environ-ment and social practices that reveal the lived expe-rience of households. We argue that this notionoffers a tool and a measure that is both spatial andsocial in its application and its register.

The NUDP has established the significanceof social integration as a tool in the sustainabledevelopment of the nation and its cities. The NUDPdocument states that,

“[social] segregation not only affects those who livein those segregated zones, it affects the entire pop-ulation; it challenges our values and our very con-cept of society, hence damaging competitivenessand the sustainability of our cities” (MINVU, 2014).

An earlier government publication (MINVU andCEHU, 2009) associates social integration withphysical integration, equity and conviviality. It alsointroduces the notion of social cohesion as a moresophisticated form of social integration (CEPAL,2007) and “a condition for a sustainable urbandevelopment” (MINVU and CEHU, 2009). “Socialcohesion purports the necessity to inscribe socialintegration discussions within the city dimension”(MINVU and CEHU, 2009). Likewise, the NUDPsuggests that social integration ought to be tackledat neighbourhood, municipality, and city scales. Itfurther states that, while social integration plays arole within the policy objectives, the main objectivesare quality of life and sustainable cities, whereby"urban growth and transformations of our citiesshould be subject to the concept of sustainabledevelopment" (MINVU, 2014). Cities should beunderstood as “complex organisms where smallactions affect the entire system” (MINVU, 2014). Itis within this conceptual framework that social inte-gration emerges as a tool to achieve the objectivesof the NUDP and not an aim in itself.

What these policy documents have in com-mon is an acknowledgment of the problems gener-ated by social segregation in cities and an ambitionto articulate the relationship between social inte-gration, segregation, and social cohesion. Whatthese policies do not include is how these objectiveswill be achieved in the neighbourhood, municipal-ity, and the city. This is the missing link identifiedthrough this research into the SIHP program as themain part of the regulatory framework under whichthe first socially integrated housing projects werebuilt.

It is important to note that while the NUDP

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nestresses the need for social integration in new hous-ing developments, this should not only consider thecost of land and buildings, but “the benefits andcosts for the future residents and society in general”(MINVU, 2014). Thus, the NUDP recommendsbuilding these housing developments in integratedways, in central locations, using high quality designand finishes. Furthermore, independently of thetype of government subsidy, dignified living(Salama, 2011) should be provided through designand construction that considers the future aspira-tions of residents and access to infrastructure, ser-vices, and transportation.

FINDINGS: CASAS VIEJAS AND VILLALAS ARAUCARIAS

Taking conviviality as a measure of social integra-tion, the interviews and surveys at the two develop-ments of Casas Viejas and Villa Las Araucarias pro-vide insights into the relationships between neigh-bours and within the neighbourhood. The physicalchanges undertaken to the built form offer an indi-cation of the relationship between the private andthe public, the individual and the collective. Of theindicators of conviviality, we focused on mixed use,quality of shared spaces, and subjective feelingsand cohesion.

Mixed useThe two case studies are designed as single usehousing developments with basic levels of urbaninfrastructure. As with all of the 12 developmentsunder the SIHP, mixed use is neither planned norpresent in any significant extent (Figure 2). Asshown in Figure 3, the design of Casas Viejas

(2088 houses) includes a school, health centre,and variously sized green open spaces (a park andinterior squares for playgrounds). Villa LasAraucarias (140 houses) includes only a large openspace (a park) with a community facility, and asports field (Figure 4).

Both case studies are surrounded by simi-lar single use residential housing developments. Forservices such as health, financial, education, andretail, residents of the case study developmentsmust commute. The nearest urban centre to CasasViejas is a distance of 3.5 km and from Villas LasAraucarias this is 6 km. Both housing developmentsare poorly serviced by public transport. These loca-tions and single use factors within the developmentexacerbate the disadvantage that is inherent in thedemographic mix. As noted by the survey, 57% ofhousehold in Casas Viejas and 41% in Villa LasAraucarias have a car.

Figure 2. Casas Viejas, consisting of 2088 houses within a

single use development (Source: Authors).

Figure 3. Urban infrastructure in Casas Viejas indicating planed services and open spaces and home businesses established

by the residents (Source: Authors).

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It is customary in Chile for residents of lowand lower-middle classes to supplement theirhousehold income through a home business, suchas a milk-bar or workshop. These businesses bringa social dynamic to the street and the neighbour-hood, creating connections between residents.

Seven years since construction, CasasViejas has had home businesses distributedthroughout the development (Figure 3). In thisregard, it looks like any other neighbourhood in thearea. After approximately the same time, Villa LasAraucarias has had virtually no home businessesfunctioning although there have been attempts. Theabsence of these in Villa Las Araucarias indicatessomething of the precarious social conditions in theneighbourhood and surrounding areas.

“…a gang of them came here and we had to closeall doors and windows, they threw stones and brokewindows. They drink silly, sing loudly, and shoot inthe air. It is terrible” (Interviewee No. 3, Villa LasAraucarias).

Quali ty of shared spaces Such social problems may not only deter smallbusinesses, but also affect the use of open spacesand the way people perceive the connectionbetween their house and public space.

In Villa Las Araucarias, the spatial division along thelines of demographic housing types compounds thesocial problems expressed in shared open spaces.In addition, there is a problem of crime and vio-lence associated with drug trafficking throughoutthe local area.

The mandatory design guidelines were notfollowed in Villa Las Araucarias. The urban and

housing design physically separates the two hous-ing typologies (social and affordable or middle-class housing types). The only open space in thedevelopment is situated within the middle-classhousing (Figure 4). Rather than integrating the twosocial groups, the park becomes a point of frictionand dispute among residents and as a result ispoorly used and maintained.

“People are argumentative here. They insist that thepark is theirs …, also the community centre. Thereis a dispute between the ones here and the onesover there … There is only one community centrefor the two groups!” (Interviewee No. 2, Villa LasAraucarias).

In contrast, it is important to note that most resi-dents take care of the street and public spaceimmediately in front of their houses (Figure 4). At asuperficial level, Villas Las Araucarias is sociallyintegrated in terms of the demographic mix withinthis neighbourhood. However, the complexity ofsocial cohesion is not expressed or experienced inthe public spaces of this development. The physicalstate of place in such spaces is, at this point in time,not convivial.

In Casas Viejas, the original design includ-ed a network of small open spaces each surround-ed by approximately 30 houses in a cul-de-sac.Nearly all of the cul-de-sacs have been gated byresidents which changes the social dynamic (Figure5). Residents living on the main streets of the devel-opment complain that they have no access to theopen spaces within the cul-de-sacs. The generalstate of these open spaces is good and they arewell maintained. Outside the cul-de-sacs, openspaces, such as those in main streets and on the

Figure 4. The plan shows that the open space is not effectively accessible to social house residents. The random photographs

at the right show that people tend to look after the front of their homes (Source: Authors).

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periphery of the development, are poorly main-tained.

Residents have modified the fences of theirhomes in Casas Viejas by increasing the size of theoriginal fences and, in the case of Villa LasAraucarias, where the houses did not have fences,the residents have built high fences. Our studyestablished that the permeability of fences was anindicator of the relationship between residents andwithin the neighbourhoods. Low permeability offences indicates a lack of trust and conviviality andhigh permeability demonstrates a regard for socialconnection (Figure 6).

The installation of gates to cul-de-sacs andthe construction and modification of fences is acommon occurrence in non-integrated housingdevelopments in their immediate surroundingareas. As such, this is not an indicator in itself of theunderpinning or undermining of conviviality.Neighbours outside the cul-de-sac describe theseactions and structures as “micro-segregation”(Interviewee FS1.4R, Casas Viejas). Collectively,residents within the cul-de-sacs express a feeling ofsecurity. In Villa Las Araucarias, the houses werebuilt without fences and residents have since con-

structed high fences with similar range of visual per-meability as in Casas Viejas (Figure 7). However,combined with an absence of home businessesoperating at street level and the disuse of the singleshared open space, the physical state of this placeundermines conviviality.

The design of the houses and publicspaces of Casas Viejas complied with the designguidelines of the SIHP and achieved a relativelyhomogeneous streetscape (Figure 1). The residents’home extensions and modifications have beenenacted in a haphazard and often illegal way thataffects the quality and experience of thestreetscape’s shared public spaces. While the com-pliance and enforcement of the design guidelinesin the original design attempted to create socialcohesion between residents, the idiosyncraticstreetscape individually created by each residentexpresses a low level of interaction among andbetween neighbours or with the authorities respon-sible for planning, design, and construction.

Subject ive feel ings and cohesionFrom the design, scale, and resident-initiated mod-ifications in Casas Viejas, we could assume a cer-tain level of social cohesion amongst the twosocioeconomic groups. However, this review of theprogram and in-situ observations of the built formis qualified by interviews and surveys with residentsabout their choices and levels of satisfaction. InCasas Viejas, families living in social housing tendto send their children to the municipal school with-in the housing development and those living inmiddle-class housing send their children furtheraway to private or non-government schools.According to the surveys undertaken, there is littleinteraction among residents particularly in partici-pation in local activities (Figure 8). Here, neighbourinteraction could be described as superficial butgenerally cordial. By way of example, a residentwho lived in La Pintana (one of the poorest munic-

Figure 6. The diagram shows the percentage of different

visual permeability of fences in Casas Viejas. In Villas LasAraucarias, the results are similar (Source: Authors).

Figure 7. New fences built by residents change the

streetscape of the housing development in Villa LasAraucarias (Source: Authors). Figure 5. This shows a standard gate used in Casas Viejas

to close the cul-de-sac to the outside (Source: Authors).

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ipalities in Santiago) before moving to Casas Viejasdescribes their interaction in the following terms:

Q: Any friendships?

A: No. Greeting, yes, of course we say hello, but more than

that no.

Q: And before, when you lived in La Pintana, was it the same?

A: No, there I had my neighbours. My neighbours who I talked

with, and my neighbours that looked after my plants. It was dif-

ferent.

Q: Why there and not here? Perhaps you have not been here

long enough?

A: No, I don’t think that is the reason. I think we are just differ-

ent people. (Interviewee DS40.3R, Casas Viejas)

Despite the problem of the lack of social cohesion,the interviews and surveys generally show that thereare relatively high levels of satisfaction with theneighbourhood (Figure 9). This satisfaction tends tobe slightly higher among social house residents,than among middle-class housing residents.

“I like living here because it is quiet. I don’t know, Ifeel secure here. I always wanted to live in a placelike this, quiet because you see too many things out-side. It was very different where I lived before”(Interviewee DS1.6R, Casas Viejas).

While Casas Viejas could be said to demonstratebetter social cohesion than Villa Las Araucarias, thestigma of subsidised housing remains as a form ofdiscrimination. The level of social cohesion in VillaLas Araucarias is represented by divisive socialinteraction, where neighbours from differentsocioeconomic groups are referred to in pejorativeterms. When asked about social interaction, a res-ident comments:

“No, never. From the beginning they opposed usbecause we were ’vulgar’ and rough; we werepoverty. We were of the houses donated by the gov-

ernment. But we paid something” (IntervieweeNo.4. Villa Las Araucarias).

CONCLUSIONS

Through the design of Casas Viejas, we have anexample of broadly distributed small public spacesthat, within a single use neighbourhood, produce aparadoxical conviviality. In the urban design ofVillas Las Araucarias, this basis of conviviality isundermined by a single, poorly located large openspace. The two case studies offer two completelydifferent opportunities to examine conviviality as ameasure of social integration, better described associal cohesion.

The design of the houses similarly under-pins and undermines the level of conviviality in eachof the developments. In Casas Viejas, the attemptsto create visual homogeneity between housesdesigned for different socioeconomic groups onlyprove to amplify the problems in a single use devel-opment. In Villas Las Araucarias, the blatant distinc-tion between both the form and distribution of thetwo housing typologies introduces a double spatialdivision in the physical state of place for conviviali-ty.

The design guidelines for the SIHP, ifapplied, can partially establish the qualities of pub-lic space needed as a base for conviviality. Withinthe limitations of a market economy and its landdistribution, the capacity of housing and urbandesign in these socially integrated housing devel-opments holds a potential to focus on the quality ofplaces rather than houses. However, the single useand isolated location of these developments setsthe quotidian experience of residents within a chal-lenging context. Casas Viejas, in scale and design,holds prospects for the formation of a social fabricwithin its public spaces. Villas Los Araucarias, incontrasting scale and design, affords no such laten-cy.

The enclosing, opening or grouping ofhouses, respectively through fences, small business-

Figure 8. The diagram shows the percentage of residents

from each housing development who participate in localactivities such as gyms, church, social clubs, activities organ-ised by schools, the municipality, or others. In both cases,the percentage of participation is very low (Source:Authors).

Figure 9. Levels of satisfaction of interviewees with their

neighbourhood among social and affordable housing resi-dents in Casas Viejas (Source: Authors).

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nees to the street, or the gating of street entrances tocul-de-sacs, is a response to the design intent. Thelatter creates a collective privatisation of publicspace in Casas Viejas and presents a contradictoryconviviality for the neighbourhood. The conflict cre-ated by the location of the open public space inVillas Las Araucarias, appears insurmountable andthe response is a two-fold abandonment by onegroup and a domination by the second.

The modifications of the house fences inCasa Viejas represents a social practice thatresponds to the faults in the urban design whilemaintaining a sense of neighbourhood through thepermeability of these mitigating structures. In VillasLas Araucarias, a similar response to the givenurban and housing design produces a similar vari-ation in conviviality. The small businesses opened inCasa Viejas demonstrate how resident activities, ini-tiated though need, manifest aspects of conviviality.In Villas Las Araucarias, the establishment of a baselevel of social cohesion is thwarted by the scale,design, and location of this development and isexpressed in the inability of small home businessesand the associated daily street activity to take root.

These responses reflect the subjective feel-ings of place and the level of social cohesion ineach of the housing developments as a measure ofconviviality. In both case studies, conviviality, under-pinned by the physical state of place, is confirmedand contradicted. The high levels of satisfactionwith the housing and neighbourhood, particularlyexpressed by residents of social housing, mayreflect the relative improvement in the quality of lifeachieved in moving to the new houses within theSIHP. These levels of satisfaction are lower, thoughstill high, among residents of affordable (middle-class) houses for the same reasons, but with theadded spatial aspect of achieving a larger housethan their social housing neighbours.

It is the relationship between the house andpublic space where these subjective feelings areverified by the day-to-day social interaction withneighbours, in the neighbourhood, and the munic-ipality. In addition to the varying degrees of visualdifference between housing types, the social inter-action between residents in the same developmentis divided, socially and spatially, along socioeco-nomic lines.

The research methods of this investigationhave afforded a critique of the Socially IntegratedHousing Program (SIHP) in relation to the NationalUrban Development Policy (NUDP) policy objectiveof social integration.

The two case studies, like all developmentsof the SIHP, are situated on the outskirts of theirrespective cities and impact the segregation of citiesby creating a new typology of segregation through

social integration. The proportional mix of low andpurportedly middle class residents used to assesssocial integration in the SIHP program constitutes afeeble indicator. This concept and measure ofsocial integration does not assist in achieving theobjective of the National Urban DevelopmentPolicy: Sustainable Cities and Quality of Life. In theimplementation of the NUDP objectives to combatthe segregation of cities, assessing conviviality isproposed as a means to further social integration.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper and the research upon which it is basedform part of a current 3-year research project enti-tled “Viviendas de Integración Social ySustentabilidad Medioambiental: una investigaciónde dos proyectos claves en Chile” (FONDECYTNo. 11130636). Special thanks to Hal Pawson,City Futures Research Centre, UNSW, Australia,Scarlet Romano and Anthony McInneny for theircontribution to this work.

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BRICOCOLI, M. & CUCCA, R. 2014. Social mix and housingpolicy: Local effects of a misleading rhetoric. The case ofMilan. Urban Studies.

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Authors

Dr . Beatriz C. MaturanaDirector Academic Development & International RelationsFaculty of Architecture and UrbanismUniversidad de Chile, Santiago, [email protected]

Prof. Ralph HorneDirector, UN Global Compact – Cities ProgrammeCollege of Design and Social ContextRMIT University, Melbourne, [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

Dakar, similar to many other African cities, hasbeen experiencing a large construction boom overthe last few years that is supported by ambitiousprojects of urban infrastructure and importantinvestments at the domestic scale. In olderurbanised areas and increasingly in new neigh-bourhoods on the periphery, the popular com-pound houses (concessions) are gradually beingreplaced by new higher and denser constructionscalled “villas”. Recent studies on urban growth andtransformation have shown that a verticalisationprocess is well underway in the region (Lessault andImbert, 2013). According to the last populationand housing census in Senegal, 41.7% of Dakar’shouseholds now live in multi-storey houses, whichis an increase of 65% since the previous census in2002. The construction of these new villas is stimu-lating popular imagination and raising questionsabout factors and consequences of this remarkableurban landscape transformation.

Authors generally explain this phenomenonby the major investments of international migrantsin the housing sector, which implicitly suggests newways of building and dwelling (Melly, 2010; Sinatti,2009; Tall, 2009). Studies have thus far examined

villas through the lenses of their new functions anddecorative elements and materials, which areinspired by time spent abroad. The proliferation ofspecialised rooms, such as garages, shops, internalkitchens, and bathrooms, and a particular attentionto façade ornamentation with balconies andexpensive materials imported from Europe, are saidto represent globally sourced transformations of thelocal domestic architecture. While these predomi-nantly visual characteristics lead authors to suggestthat a new housing typology that is more represen-tative of migrants’ lifestyles is emerging with verticalconstruction, a deeper examination of its spatialorganisation nuances this interpretation.

In this paper, the new houses that are builtin Dakar’s periphery are closely examined, with afocus on their spatial and material characteristics.This article aims to contribute to the very limitedcorpus of studies dealing with contemporary hous-ing in Senegal by providing new information aboutits architectural dimensions and incrementalprocess of construction. Through a detailed build-ing story and a comparative analysis of successivespatial configurations among houses, the mainprinciples guiding residential construction in Dakarare highlighted. This discussion provides betterinsight into global and local factors that support the

Emilie Pinard

Abstract

This paper examines the transformation of the housing typology in informal neighbourhoods located on the periphery

of Dakar, Senegal. More specifically, it documents the spatial logics and factors guiding the construction of new multi-

storey houses called “villas”, which are significantly transforming the landscape of the city. Studies have thus far exam-

ined villas through the lenses of migrants’ investments and lifestyles, associating these houses with new functions and

decorative elements and materials inspired by time spent abroad, with innovative ways of building and dwelling that

disrupt more popular housing practices. Based upon an architectural survey of seventeen houses and the detailed sto-

ries of their construction, this paper argues that while the Senegalese villa is influenced by global networks and sym-

bols of success, it is also deeply rooted in popular housing forms and building practices. Moreover, because house-

building processes are predominantly incremental, the construction of this new house type is not limited to migrants and

other privileged dwellers. Although at different speeds, most residents are building and transforming their houses

according to spatial and constructive logics characteristic of villas. These results have implications for housing policies

and programmes because they contribute to challenging assumptions about residential production, new housing

typologies and the pivotal actors of these urban transformations.

Keywords: Incremental house construction, housing typology, villa, architecture, Senegal.

FROM COMPOUND HOUSES TO VILLAS: THE INCRE-MENTAL TRANSFORMATION OF DAKAR’S URBANLANDSCAPE.

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housing typology transformation and demonstratesthe often-neglected participation of the low-incomemajority to the development of the city.

THE INCREMENTAL CONSTRUCTION OFA HOUSE IN DAKAR

In many neighbourhoods of Dakar’s periphery, theintensity of construction activities and the accumu-lation of sand, bricks, and other materials providethe impression that each house, inhabited or not, isin a process of transformation. According to recentestimates, at least 80% of the houses in the regionare built progressively, “little by little”, as fundsbecome available (UN-Habitat, 2012). The incre-mental nature of residential construction constitutesan important subject of studies and debates onhousing and urban transformation in the globalSouth. Particularly since the work of Turner in Peru(1976), the literature has frequently underlined thedynamic and resilient qualities of self-built housing,insisting on the capacity of poor residents to grad-ually improve their living environment and socioe-conomic opportunities (e.g., Canel et al., 1990;Jenkins, 2013; Kellett & Napier, 1995). However,as recent studies on migrant and middle-classbuilding practices have shown (Melly, 2010;Mercer, 2014), gradual construction of “not-yethouses” and careful management of resources areoccurring within a wide range of economic and cul-tural circumstances. Authors have demonstratedthat focusing on these processes could be particu-larly useful for understanding the multiple and inter-related motivations and factors underlying the pro-duction of particular living spaces and built forms.

Incremental construction is generallyunderstood as a non-linear process of productionthat involves many stops and starts and that under-goes constant adjustments. In this context, theconstruction of a house is a rather long-term pro-cess of interventions over the built form whereinfinality is never certain (Kellett & Napier, 1995;Nielsen, 2008). Implicit in this approach to pro-duction is the idea of the active participation of theinhabitants. This participation can be physical, butstudies have shown that in West African cities, it iscentred on the supply and the coordination of localbuilders and construction resources (Canel et al.,1990). Thus, for urban dwellers, incrementalconstruction does not simply correspond to a seriesof reconfigurations and changing material condi-tions. It also implies a dynamic involvement withavailable funds and labour, social networks, andrevised aspirations.

In this respect, literature on self-produced housing

and “everyday architecture” offers useful conceptu-al lenses for investigating the co-relation of materi-al experimentation and transformation with socioe-conomic factors and opportunities. Many authorswho have sought to understand the house as adynamic process have focused on dwelling, i.e., the"social processes spatialised in the home"(Osmond, 1980: 98). Authors suggest that kinship,the dynamic composition of the household, and itschanging needs are closely related to the differentstages of production and physical adjustment of thehouse, and as such, that these two dimensions canbe regarded as one dynamic process of living (e.g.,Carsten and Hugh-Jones, 1995). Similarly, studiesof home-based enterprises note the “symbiotic rela-tionship” between housing and home-based eco-nomic activities by examining how inhabitants areable to consolidate their house with earnedincomes and, conversely, how these materialimprovements allow them to gain additional rev-enues (Kellett and Tipple, 2000).

Alongside this corpus of literature, otherstudies suggest that it is not only through dwellingthat housing is significant; houses as “legitimateand prominent urban artifacts that have social sub-stance and consequence” are also considered(Melly, 2010, p. 39). Although conducted in fairlydifferent contexts, the studies of Melly (2010) andNielsen (2008) both show that the many houses inconstruction at the periphery of African cities con-stitute strong testimony of the owners’ aspirations,their ability to prepare for their future, and thus theiravailability to engage with others in reciprocal rela-tionships. Mercer (2014) similarly argues that forthe houses built by middle-class owners in Ghana,the carefully selected construction materials, deco-rative elements, and pieces of furniture contributeto the construction of dwellers’ identities and socialrelations by becoming a key site for class distinc-tion.

Studies on domestic architecture inSenegal are particularly illustrative of these twodivergent ways of knowing and theorising housingconstruction. On the one hand, authors have most-ly examined compound houses in terms of dwelling,stressing the versatility of their rooms and theimportance of the courtyard as a place of socialreproduction (Osmont, 1980; Sinou 1987). On theother hand, the new villas have almost exclusivelybeen analysed through the lenses of material cul-ture, with authors interpreting their multiple stories,specialised rooms, decorative elements, andimported materials as symbols of success anddesire for urban participation (Melly, 2010; Sinatti,2009; Tall, 2009). While these scholarly interven-tions have insightfully questioned the influence ofglobal networks and flows on urban experience

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rdand exclusion, they offer little ground to situatethese new architectural features within the moregeneral, long-term process of urban and builtforms transformation. In fact, although authorsmention that housing in this context is a never-end-ing and constantly revising process, spatial andmaterial characteristics are seldom examined in adynamic perspective and compared to other stagesof construction or “older” housing typologies. As aconsequence, the villa emerges as a new housetypology that strongly transforms, or even disrupts,popular lifestyles and dwelling practices that wereformerly supported by the compound house.

In this paper, it is argued that more atten-tion to the spatial configuration of the house, par-ticularly to its process of incremental construction,can complicate the way we understand emergingbuilt forms such as the Senegalese villa. As Hanson(1998) suggests, by examining the spatial configu-ration of a house – the functions of the rooms, theirlocation within the building, their proximity to otherrooms, as well as connections between them –much can be learned about the sociocultural idealsand practices underlying the organisation and theevolution of built spaces. Rather than looking atspatial and material elements of novelty in isola-tion, this paper analyses particular house transfor-mation stories, compares different processes, andidentifies general patterns of spatial transformation.Such an approach provides a portrait of the deci-sion-making process of inhabitants by exploring alarger field of factors that may influence construc-tion, including the social and spatial consequencesof previous interventions.

UNDERSTANDING BUILT FORMS:METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

The discussion that follows builds on an in-depthstudy of 17 houses that have been built over the last20 years in two different municipalities of Pikine,located on the outskirts of Dakar. Malika and KeurMassar were selected for the predominant “infor-mality” of their urban development. Complex, butsocially structured, land development regulationsand accessible buying and labour arrangementsallow a wide range of urban dwellers to invest in aplot of land and the construction of a house. Caseswere selected for their relative differences in size,density, materiality and living conditions, on thebasis of previous exploratory visits and interviewsconducted with 36 owners. The diversity of thehouses built in the area demonstrates the diversityof the inhabitants’ socioeconomic status andresources within the urban periphery and even with-in the same informal neighbourhood. The two pre-

dominant housing typologies found in the Dakarregion, the compound house and the villa, werepresent on site and included in the analysis.

Architectural surveys were conducted incombination with narrative interviews with ownersand their family members, with the objective ofreconstructing the history of each house and its dif-ferent stages of construction. Each intervention(addition, enlargement, demolition, remodelling orsubdivision of the living space) was described by theresidents, as were the approximate date, rationale,and used resources. Data collected were supportedand validated by schematic floor plans, observa-tions (interruptions in construction materials andfinishing, re-plastering, etc.) and satellite pho-tographs of the area. This dynamic perspective wasexpected to shed new light on the logics and fac-tors supporting the construction and transformationof the houses, regardless of how they could beidentified today.

To understand how residential spaceswere organized and how they were evolving, thesuccessive spatial configurations of the houseswere examined and compared with the help ofjustified graphs. This analytical tool was developedby Hillier and Hanson (1984) to uncover controllevels that are created and maintained by the con-figuration of different spaces. For example, a dis-tributive, well-connected space, such as the court-yard of a compound house, suggests a sharedterritory with strong social life. On the contrary,rooms with single access or that are located on ahigh level of “depth” suggest greater control ofusers’ movement and private territories. Becausethe use of justified graphs poses some limitations,especially when examined rooms have an irregu-lar shape or their boundaries are ambiguous,metric measurements and isovists were employedas support for the interpretation (see Peponis &Wineman, 2002). Finally, the building density, thesize of the rooms, the relation to the street, andthe construction materials were also considered inthe analysis, notably to allow comparisonsbetween collected data and characteristics identi-fied in the literature.

VARIATIONS FROM A COMPOUNDHOUSE: MARIAMA’S HOUSE BUILDINGSTORY

Like many of Dakar’s periphery house owners,Mariama bought her 150 m2 plot of land at arelatively low cost before the neighbourhood wasoccupied and the services had started to beimplemented. As a widow with 10 young childrenliving in her brother’s house, she felt she had to

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begin the construction of a new house to “leave afuture” for her family. She left her plot empty forthree years before starting to transform the moneyshe managed to save to concrete blocks. She nowshares the house with seven of her children, theirspouses and her 14 grandchildren.

At first glance, Mariama’s two-storey housecould be identified with the new villas described inthe literature: its façade is ornate with wooden-frame windows, and concrete balconies and largestairs that encroach slightly on the public spaceprovide access to the entrance door and the com-mercial space located in front of the house.However, the different levels of finish on the façadereveal the owner’s current lack of resources to com-plete initiated construction work and more general-ly, an incremental process of construction (Figure1). Over the years, through various stages of inter-vention, Mariama has progressively transformedher house through doubling its built surface, modi-fying its original layout, and adding an extra floor.

Twelve years ago, the family had moved toa simple compound house composed of two smallbuildings located at the periphery of the plot. Themain building included three bedrooms of similarsize and a fourth room, which was slightly morespacious, that was intended as a living room butwas used as a bedroom for the youngest children.On the opposite side of the plot was a temporarylatrine cubicle. All of the rooms were accessiblefrom a sandy, open-air yard enclosed by a concretewall, thus creating the simple spatial organisationwith little hierarchy (Figure 2). The courtyard actedas the main “living room” of the house, whether forreceiving visitors, performing domestic tasks, orundertaking economic activities. This configuration,typical of compound houses, offers what Brand(1994) calls an “economic grammar of construc-tion”, as rooms of similar size and accessibility caneasily be adapted with limited physical interventionbased on the changing needs of their occupants.

The interventions that followed three yearslater significantly increased the built density of thehouse, but did not modify its spatial distributivelogic. New buildings, including three bedroomsand a small kitchen, were added on the oppositeside of the plot, facing the existing construction andhelping to dissimulate the new concrete latrine andshower cubicle. In compound houses, latrines andkitchens are generally situated at the back of thehouse. This location allows for an efficient occupa-tion of residual space in the plot, but it also accom-modates the privacy norms associated with theactivities taking place in these rooms (Bijl, 1974;Osmont, 1980). The kitchen often serves as a stor-age space for cooking equipment, and the mealsprepared nearby in the courtyard should not be

directly visible from the street or the entrance of thehouse, in order to avoid gossip associated withfood (and implicitly with the income of the family)and the possible evil eye. Similarly, latrine andshower cubicles are considered private spaces andshould ideally be located in an isolated area of thehouse, far from view.

The construction work initiated to replacethe pitched roof of fibre cement panels with anaccessible concrete terrace was a turning point inthe transformation of the spatial organisation of thehouse. Because this intervention was not foreseeninitially, it required considerable adjustments to the

Figure 1. The façade of Mariama’s house, revealing an

incremental construction process. (Source: Author

Figure 2. Synthesis of the principal stages of construction of

Mariama’s house (Source: Author).

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existing buildings. Columns and concrete beamswere added in the courtyard, as were inside existingwalls to strengthen the already ageing structure ofthe house, and the new staircase had to be adapt-ed to the restricted remaining space near theentrance. The justified graph shows that the major-ity of the rooms are still located on the same depthlevel, but the latter is higher since these transfor-mations (Figure 2). The entrance of the house nolonger opens directly to the courtyard, but rather toa small threshold created by the addition of thestaircase. This vestibule efficiently limits visual andphysical access inside the house, particularly to theold courtyard, which although smaller and darker,remains the principal gathering space of the family(Figure 3). This main distributive space is now fullycovered, with the exception of a minimal servicespace of 1.3 m2 near the kitchen, which ineffi-ciently acts as a light and ventilation shaft for theground floor. When possible, domestic activities,such as washing clothes and cooking, are relegat-ed to this unpractical, yet more controlled, area ofthe house. As a result, in this soon-to-be villa, thecourtyard as a gathering and service space is nowdivided in two different rooms, each with their ownfunction.

Three years later, Mariama began the con-struction of rooms on the second floor to more ade-quately accommodate her children. Only the twobedrooms situated in the front, which have bal-conies overlooking the street, are occupied, whilethe unfinished rooms are used to store buildingmaterials and for sheep breeding. Each sub-groupof the family, such as a son, his spouse and theirchildren, now has its own bedroom. These inter-ventions created space for more specialised roomsin the house. The living room is now used exclu-sively as a formal reception space, and the bed-room adjacent to the entrance was subdivided andconverted into a shop and storage room, which iscurrently used to raise chickens. The small shop is

the only room that possesses two distinct accesses,one from the vestibule reserved to inhabitants andthe other directly from the street for clients. This par-ticular configuration, often found in villas (Sinatti,2009; Tall, 2009), supports the presence of eco-nomic activities in the house, while limiting thephysical and visual access to its most private parts.

TOWARD COMMON PRINCIPLES OF TRANS-FORMATION

Mariama’s story is illustrative of the building prac-tices of many Senegalese owners who are progres-sively, albeit at different speeds, transforming theirhomes. A comparison of the justified graphs of the17 studied houses at the time of their first occupa-tion reveals the similarity of their original built con-figurations, despite appearing quite different today(Figure 4). Thirteen of the 17 houses originally hada spatial organisation typical of compound houses.They included a limited number of rooms, i.e., alatrine cubicle, a few bedrooms, and in somecases, a kitchen, that were all accessible from acentral courtyard. The hierarchy level between pub-lic and private spaces was generally very low, asillustrated by justified graphs that only include twoor three depth levels.

Of the 13 compound houses initially iden-tified, 11 have been transformed, while only two (Cand H) have maintained a state identical to theoriginal. When their owners moved in, only twohouses (X and Z) already had spatial characteristicsproper to villas, including a covered distributivespace and a stronger spatial hierarchy caused bythe presence of transitional spaces, such as avestibule or small service courtyards. However, atthe time of data collection, these elements werefound in a much larger number of houses. Some ofthese houses can now be classified as villas, whileothers are still in-between the compound houseand the villa, thus supporting the idea that physicalcharacteristics should be studied in a dynamic per-spective.

These results suggest that houses in Dakarare transformed according to shared principles andthat the spatial variations observed between bothtypologies are principally the result of different lev-els of densification and intervention. Consequently,compound houses and villas can be understood astwo parts of a continuum: an incremental construc-tion process that occurs more or less rapidly,depending on residents’ resources and opportuni-ties. While studies often mention the incrementalmaterial improvement of houses, as in older areasof Dakar (Salem, 1998) or in other African cities(Jenkins, 2013; Kellett and Napier, 1995), the

Figure 3. Isovists from the entrance of the house in 2011

and 2007. The new staircase limits visual access to thecourtyard (Source: Author).

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cases studied in this paper also suggest other formsof consolidation, namely the specialisation andhierarchisation of living spaces. These principlescan be understood as adaptations to the spatial,social, and economic transformations that havetaken place in the Dakar region, especially sincethe economic crisis of the 1990s and its accelerat-ed urbanisation.

In the face of uncertain times, the (oftenincremental) construction of a villa is indicative ofthe various efforts deployed by households toensure their long-term social and economic securi-ty and to recover the investment in their homes.With current practices and norms of land subdivi-

sion, the high demand for plots of land, and theincreasing prices, most buyers invest in small plotswith a standard size of 150 m2 or 225 m2.Because such formats only allow the construction ofapproximately five to seven rooms on the samelevel, the ground floor of the houses tends to quick-ly become saturated. However, in most of the casesstudied, interviewed owners consider that this num-ber of rooms is sufficient to adequately accommo-date all of their household members. Subsequentinterventions and alterations, when they wereobserved, tended to be driven by the objective ofmaking profitable use of the built space. Roomswith specialised functions are thus appearing in the

Figure 4. Synthesis of the justified graphs of studied houses at the time of survey (2013) and at first occupation (Source:

Author).

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rdhouse. Existing bedrooms that have the possibilityof direct access to the street are converted intoshops and other spaces dedicated to economicactivities, while others rooms, such as bedroomsthat have an en-suite bathroom, might be specifi-cally designed and built for rental purposes. At thesame time, increased built density inside the plotseems to encourage the hierarchisation of spaceinside the house. When the main distributive spaceis reduced in size, it becomes much more difficult tomaintain limited visual and physical access to thesanitary cubicle and cooking area. The constructionof transitional spaces then offers the occupants abetter level of control over these service areas.

Notwithstanding the specialisation and thehierarchisation of living spaces, the spatial organi-sation of villas and other houses in transformationis characterised by a marked continuity with the dis-tributive logic of the compound house. Such anarrangement presents significant advantages interms of flexibility of use and modification becausethese rooms can be independently reallocated ortransformed, without requiring additional interven-tions in the rest of the house (Afram and Korboe,2009). Beyond the most visible phenomena ofurban landscape verticalisation, a certain “eco-nomic grammar of construction” thus always findsits relevance in contemporary house building inDakar.

CONCLUSION

The influence of global networks, flows of people,and resources on house construction in Dakar isdifficult to deny: new shops selling imported con-struction materials and furniture are appearing asnew neighbourhoods are developing, and imagesof luxury villas and model neighbourhoods (cités)are displayed in newspapers and on billboardserected across the city. These new decorative andarchitectural elements essentially benefit higher-income dwellers and investors who, in turn, con-tribute to diffuse particular ideals of material com-fort and success. However, paying attention to thesenew visual characteristics might not be sufficient tounderstand the underlying logics and factors of cur-rent urban landscape transformations. In this paper,it is argued that a deeper examination of spatialorganization and its evolution in time is particularlyuseful to highlight the principles guiding residentialconstruction and typology transformation.

The reconstruction of the different stages ofconstruction of the houses demonstrates that themajority first possessed a simple spatial configura-tion typical of compound houses and that, to dif-ferent degrees and at different speeds, houses weretransformed according to common principles of

spatial specialisation and hierarchisation. Theseresults indicate that the villa, which is thus farunderstood as a new typology inspired mainly fromabroad, is also deeply rooted in local popularhousing forms and building practices. Moreover,results show that the construction of these newmulti-story houses is not limited to migrants andother privileged dwellers. Although at differentspeeds, most residents are building and transform-ing their houses according to spatial and construc-tive logics characteristic of villas.

These results have implications for housingpolicies and programmes as they contribute tochallenging assumptions about residential produc-tion, new housing typologies, and the pivotal actorsof these urban transformations. Even if migrants’direct contribution to house construction is stillunclear and has recently been questioned (Lessaultet al., 2011), it raises such fascination and hope fornational development, that the Senegalese govern-ment increasingly relies on foreign investments totransform the city. Over the last few years, variousstate agencies and programmes that facilitate con-struction projects, capital transfers, and investmentshave been created to recognise and stimulatemigrants’ participation (Barro, 2008; Tall, 2009).However, little has been done to understand theconstruction practices of the low-income majorityand to develop targeted approaches that wouldsupport their initiatives, despite the level of invest-ments that this type of urban development actuallyrepresents in the city.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research was supported by the Social Sciencesand Humanities Research Council of Canada(Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS DoctoralScholarship) and the International DevelopmentResearch Centre (Doctoral Research Award). Theauthor gratefully acknowledges the manySenegalese colleagues, friends and informants whohave contributed to this article and the largerresearch of which it is a part.

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Author

Dr. Emil ie PinardSSHRC Postdoctoral FellowSchool of architecture and planningUniversity of the WitwatersrandJohannesburg, South [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

During the last few decades, the civic importance ofpublic spaces and the role they play in the improve-ment of the quality of life of citizens have been twoof the areas of inquiry for researchers in the field ofurbanism and on the agenda of city authorities indeveloped countries. In this context, streets havebeen rediscovered as the prime exterior spaces ofthe city and as intrinsic components of the urbanpattern after a long period of neglect. Modernistpractices saw the automobile as the ‘elixir’ of thecity hence its primacy in the use of the street.Contemporary discourse and praxis, however, seesthe automobile as encroaching upon the rights ofpedestrians and interfering with the use of the streetas a multi-use space. It has also eulogised crowd-ed city centres and street spaces as lively streetsworth emulating elsewhere.

The authors believe that overcrowdedstreets in the city centres of developing countriescall for a rethink. The crowding phenomenondescribed in this study is defined as perceptual den-sity, one of the essential dimensions of density.Churchman (1999) has defined it as “an individ-ual’s perception and estimate of the number ofpeople present in a given area, the space avail-able, and the organisation of that space”(Churchman, 1999, p. 390). Like crowding, whichis a user’s psychological experience of populationdensity, perceptual density is a subjective quality

that needs to be decoupled from its objective phys-ical condition – density (Churchman, 1999; Oktay,2001).

The study is an empirical investigation intopeople’s attitudes and perceptions towards thephysical characteristics, use, and management ofKissy Street (now Sani Abacha Street) in Freetown,Sierra Leone in order to understand the relationshipbetween public and private spaces. The focus is tomeasure the liveability of Kissy Street with respect tohow the social use and management affect thephysical quality of the street and the quality of livingof its residents. The object is to highlight results fromthis study to aid policymaking, planning, anddesign of sustainable street spaces for optimumsocial, economic, and cultural interactions.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Numerous empirical studies on urban space havehierarchised the street as the most ubiquitous pub-lic space in a city. These studies have highlightedthe social, political, cultural, and economic impor-tance of the street. Some have even decried thedangers of the street in its modern role as a spacefor the automobile. In an article whose title paintedyet the grimmest picture of the street as a space forthe automobile, “Streets Can Kill Cities: ThirdWorld Beware,” Appleyard (1983) warns develop-ing countries about the dangers of copying ‘west-ern’ models of street design that have been solely

Fodei M. Conteh, Derya Oktay

AbstractWith increasing urbanisation in developing countries and the concomitant overcrowding on streets, serious questionsremain about the liveability of inner-city residential-commercial streets. This paper contends that lively streets are notnecessarily liveable streets. Liveability is defined by other criteria that take cognizance of human comfort and capabil-ities within living environments. Observations suggest an uneasy relationship between a crowded public space and theprivate residential spaces that sit next to them. The paper’s focus is to measure the liveability of a lively but overcrowdedstreet and how its everyday use affects the physical characteristics of buildings, the activities, and the wellbeing of res-idents. Employing a mixed-method strategy, the study draws on observations, semi-structured interviews, and question-naire survey of residents, shopkeepers, and street traders. The findings suggest that an overcrowded street space hasa negative effect on the liveability and quality of living of residents and other users but that this is tempered by intra-dependency amongst the users and the negotiation of the rights accruing to all as individuals and as groups.

Keywords: : Public Space, liveability, major streets, Freetown (Sierra Leone).

MEASURING LIVEABILITY BY EXPLORING URBANQUALITIES OF KISSY STREET, FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE.

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built, in his words, for the automobile (Appleyard,1983).

These studies provide valuable insights intothe socio-cultural and socio-economic significanceof the street and its use. However, they have notpaid enough attention to densely populated streetsspaces in developing nations where the street doesnot only act as a public space but also as an exten-sion of the private spaces along it; it is a space forcommerce, movement, play and, sometimes, a set-ting for uses that are otherwise restricted to the pri-vate backyard.

Understanding the Meaning and Aspectsof the Street as Public Space

Generally speaking, public space is a term used todescribe a compendium of spaces that include“streets, squares, public footpaths, parks and openspaces... riversides and seafronts” (Tibbalds, 1992,p. 10). But, as discussed above, the street is themost readily available of all public spaces in a city.It particularly stands out in its function as a channelfor movement – vehicular and human – and asconnector between different parts of a city.However, like other public spaces, it is also a spacethat hosts social activities for leisure and recreation.Public spaces act as “the stage upon which thedrama of communal life unfolds”, can “also [be]used for private purposes”, and “can also be thesetting for activities that threaten communities, suchas crime and protest” (Carr et al, 1992, p. xi-3).

These conceptions of public space emphasise theintertwining of both the physical and social and/ orpolitical aspects of public space as one bounded bybuildings and one which, at the same time, neces-sitates human interaction and activities. Goodsell(2003) weaves this understanding of public spaceas “a space-time continuum for connected andinteractive political discourse” (Goodsell, 2003, p.370). Henaff et al. (2001) have identified ‘con-testability’ as essential for a space to be truly pub-lic in conjunction with three further criteria, namelyopenness, ‘human product, and theatricality(Henaff and Strong, 2001, pp. 4-5). Therefore, astreet is a public space whose functions are not lim-ited to movement of people and cars but space forsocial, cultural, economic, and political interac-tions, whether those interactions are calm andpeaceful or chaotic and conflictual.

The Street as a Place for Social, Recreational andCommercial Activities

In his paper “The Culture of the IndianStreet,” Edensor (1998) has shown how a street can

represent a “spatial complex”, an urban room in acontinuous state of flux with diverse activities. Hedescribes the Indian street as comprising a medleyof social, recreational, political, commercial, aswell as religious functions (Edensor, 1998). Thissuggests that street spaces are people places interms of the way they are organised, regulated, andput to use as a direct reflection of people’s social,cultural, economic, and political manifestationsand identities. This conception of space echoes‘placeness’, which Norberg-Schulz (1980) hasdescribed as the human dimension to space(Norberg-Schulz, 1980).

To this end, as argued by Neal (2010), aterminological shift from “space”, which denotes alocation defined by abstract geometries of distanceand direction, to “place”, which denotes a locationby the meanings attributed to it by its users, is need-ed. In this context, research adopting such a socio-spatial perspective may be considered as examin-ing the street not as public space, but as place forthe public.

Interrogating the Meaning of Liveabil i tyin Places

The overarching question in this study is whether alively city is always a liveable city. In the literature,great attention has been placed on how publicspaces can encourage physical activity and there isincreasing emphasis on mixed-uses believed tomake a city more vibrant and lively (see Jacobs,1961). However, when Mehta (2007) measuredliveliness, he defined it in terms of the number ofpeople engaged in several activities, social or oth-erwise, in a particular setting. He went on to devel-op a liveliness index from three main characteris-tics: i) “the number of people engaged in some sta-tionary and sustained activity…”; ii) “the number ofpeople in groups of two or more engaged in somesocial activity”; and, iii) “their duration of stay”(Mehta, 2007, p. 174). Yet, liveability is generallyseen as the measure of comfort and human func-tioning in the places they live.

There, however, seems to be no agreementas to what liveability really means; it is a com-pendium of value statements about the needs,desires, and aspirations of people cutting across avast area, be they social, political, or economic. Itbrings together issues about the physical environ-mental characteristics of a place, socioeconomicconcerns, and how the place is managed and gov-erned in the interest of its users (Frey, 1999). In theirseminal and most acclaimed research on “LivableStreets”, Appleyard and Lintell (1972, 1981) mea-sured the effects of traffic on five major parameters:traffic hazard; noise, stress and pollution; environ-

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aymental awareness; and, neighbourly relations andthe perception of home territory. The findings sug-gested an inverse correlation between high trafficand the liveability of residential streets (Appleyard,1981, pp. 15-28).

Drawing on the methods of the Appleyardand Lintell study, Bosselmann and Macdonald(1999) evaluated the liveability of three high trafficresidential boulevards. Like the Appleyard andLintell study, they measured the effects of traffic onusers’ comfort on the streets, their social interac-tions, and their perceptions of their home territories.The findings suggested that with regards to resi-dential boulevards, mitigating factors like land-scaping and the distance of buildings from trafficnoise source reduced the negative impacts of hightraffic (Bosselmann and Macdonald, 1999, p.168). Moreover, objective criteria form the basis ofliveable cities’ rankings by certain economic inter-est groups (for example, Mercer’s rankings andSavageau’s “Places Rated Almanac”). Nonetheless,concerns about the quality of urban life in cities hasled to an increasing interest in surveys measuringthe quality of life in particular places on both objec-tive and subjective criteria. A major research projectthat utilizes a model from both a conceptual andempirical perspective has been launched in metroDetroit (Marans, 2005). This project has formed thecore of the “International Programme of Researchon Quality of Urban Life” coordinated at theUniversity of Michigan, USA. Parallel studies werelaunched in several world cities includingFamagusta (Gazimagusa), North Cyprus (seeFamagusta Area Study – FAS by Oktay, 2010;Oktay and Rustemli, 2011).

Theoretical Framework

The above discussion suggests that liveability is arelative term contingent upon both purpose andcontext-specific criteria varying in emphasis with thescale of the built environment. It also suggests thatpeople always have to do trade-offs between thebag of things they need or want and those they canactually acquire. As Amartya Sen (1993) remindsus, people’s well-being or quality of life is a mea-sure of their capabilities and those capabilities arecontingent on their freedom to choose how theywant to live their lives in choosing among a num-ber of life processes. This study builds on the afore-mentioned Appleyard (1981, pp. 243-244) studywhich identified seven indicators of street liveability,amongst them: the street as a sanctuary safe andsecure; a healthy environment - clean, less noisyand pollution free; a community where communallife strives; a sense of community and belonging; aplace to play and learn for children; and, a historic

place with a ‘special identity’ for residents or the cityat large.

RESEARCH CONTEXTThe Case - Kissy Street

The population of Freetown rose sharply during thedecade-long civil war (1991-2001) due to urbanin-migration of the internally displaced and othereconomic migrants from other parts of the country.As a direct corollary of this, the city centre has seenthe most debilitating congestion ever in the historyof the city. The spectre of traffic jams at peak hours,the noise pollution from car horns, screaminghawkers, the intermingling of automobiles, pedes-trians, and street traders seem to be actually killingthe city centre (see Figure 2a, b and c); this is onlyexpected to get worse as urban growth and urban-isation gain momentum.

The mise en scene sketched above isindeed a spectacle of many streets in the city centrethat connect seamlessly as street markets. However,Kissy Street (now Sani Abacha Street) is the mostprominent of these street markets and an emblemof the congestion in the city centre and all the prob-lems that come with it. This is perhaps due partly toits position as the main artery that links the twoimportant squares: Eastern Police square to the eastand PZ (Patterson and Zochonis) square to the west(Figure 1). Moreover, historical accounts suggestthat this approximately 550 meters long street hasalways been the great centre of native trade inFreetown (Alldridge 1910, p. 55), an observationcuriously true even today.

METHODOLOGY

The study employs the Sequential Mixed-MethodStrategy that draws on both quantitative and quali-tative procedures with emphasis placed on thequantitative data (in uppercase letters). The twodata sets are analysed separately but mixed at theinterpretation stage. The data include physicalmeasurements, photographs, semi-structured inter-views, and a questionnaire survey.

Data Collection and SamplingProcedures

The data for the study were collected in two phas-es: (a) between 10 and 30 September 2010 (thephysical data, observations, photographs, andsemi-structured interviews); (b) from the 11-29January 2013 (the questionnaire survey). Two sam-pling methods were used: a) purposive or oppor-tunistic sampling for the semi-structured interview inwhich eleven people (three residents, seven shop-

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keepers, and one security guard) were interviewedand b) random sampling for the questionnaire sur-vey.

For the questionnaire, random sampleswere selected from three user groups or strata:these are:residents, shopkeepers, and street traders respec-

tively. The units of measurements were the numberof occupied apartments for residents, the numberof occupied shops for shopkeepers, and one trad-er sitting in front of every shop for the stationarystreet traders.

Population and Sample SizeStratum 1- Residents. Population/ sampling frame(N) = 66 (out of 83 residential units observed, only66 were occupied). Determined Sample size (n) =40 respondents. Response rate = 30 (75%).

Stratum 2 – Shopkeepers. Population/ samplingframe (N) = 154 (one each from every shop).Determined Sample size (n) = 92 respondents.Response rate = 30 (32%).

Stratum 3 – Stationary Street Traders.Population/sampling frame (N) = 154 and

Figure 1. Location Map Showing Kissy Street. (Source: DACO/SLIS - Sierra Leone Information System).

Figure 2. Fig. 2a. Crowd at Kissy Street (Source: F.Conteh). Fig. 2b and Fig. 2c. Main facades with storage spaces overlook-ing the street (Source: F.Conteh).

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ayDetermined Sample size (n) = 92 respondents.Response rate = 70 (76%). In total, 224 question-naires were distributed and only 130 (58%) respon-dents returned the questionnaires.

RESULTS AND FINDINGS

Quali tat ive Data

The qualitative data was analysed using the five-stage guidelines of Srnka & Koeszegi (2007). Thefollowing 11 themes from the recurring ideas in thedata set were identified: disrespect for elders; dis-satisfaction with noise; dirty street; difficulty ofmovement; petty crimes; no outdoor play space forchildren and movement hazards for children, theold, and the handicapped; no community cooper-ation and participation in decision-making; hightaxes, low sales; availability of amenities like elec-tricity and water supply; satisfaction with street man-agement especially garbage collection; little senseof neighbouring and territoriality. Added to theseare several lone ideas expressed by some intervie-wees: the street as a civic pride; lack of parkingspace; sense of civic responsibility but lack of reci-procity by city government; drug use and addiction;child abuse; and, rape.

Quanti tative Data

Here the results of the quantitative data analysis arepresented. The study put more emphasis on thequantitative data derived from the questionnairesurvey.

Overal l Satis faction with K issy Street

This measure applies across all the three strata.Respondents were asked to rate their level of satis-faction on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the most nega-tive and 5 being the most positive). The findingssuggest that 61% (79 out of 130) are satisfied; 17%(22 out of 130) are dissatisfied and 13% (17 out of130) are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.A one-way analysis of variance showed a signifi-cant difference in satisfaction:f(2,127) = 21.1, p < 0.01 among residents(2.8/0.9), shopkeepers (3.6/1.0) and street traders(3.9/0.6) (see table 1 below). A Post Hoc (Tukey)analysis revealed no significant difference in satis-faction at p < 0.01 between residents and streettraders and between residents and shopkeepers.There was a significant difference, however,between shopkeepers and street traders at p <0.05.

Sense of Belonging to a Community

Perception of Street as HomeSense of belonging is an emotional and psycho-logical need of being part of a community andbeing able to fit in. Residents were asked to assesswhether they take the street as home or just a placeto live. Only 23% (7 out of 30) find it a home while73% (22 out of 30) see it as just a place to leave.

Crime and Safety

Degree of CrimeRespondents at all three strata were asked to telltheir opinion about the degree of crime on thestreet. 38% of all respondents think there is a greatdeal of crime while 59% think there is some crimeand 3% thinking there’s little crime. To determinethe degree of perception of crime between gendergroups a Mann-Whitney U test showed no signifi-cance difference between them (male and female)at p<0.05.

Overall Perception of Safety on the StreetRespondents were asked about their overall per-ception of safety on the street on an aggregatescore. A one-way analysis of variance showed lesssignificant difference f(2,127) = 4.2, p < 0.05among residents (14.2/2.9), shopkeepers(15.5/2.3) and street traders (13.3/4.1) (see table3 above). A Post Hoc (Tukey) analysis revealed thedifference in significance at p < 0.05 is between

Table 1. Overall Satisfaction with Kissy Street as a Place toLive (Percentage Distribution).

Table 3. Overall Perception of Safety on Kissy Street.(Percentage Distribution).

Table 2. Kissy Street as Home or just a Place to Live(Frequency Distribution).

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shopkeepers and street traders.

Healthy EnvironmentHere, respondents across all three strata wereasked about how their street appears to them interms of dirty or clean air, lots of vehicular traffic,very noisy or very quiet street, poorly or well-keptoutside areas, crowded or not crowded and safe orunsafe. A one-way analysis of variance showed nosignificant difference at p < 0.05 among all groups(as shown in Table 4).

Community Participat ion in Governance

Satisfaction with Local Government ServicesConsidering the important role local governmentplays in providing services, respondents across allstrata were asked (on a scale of 5 from very dissat-isfied to very satisfied) to give an overall assessmentof their degrees of satisfaction with the job beingdone by local government officials on the street.Overall, 63% of residents say they are dissatisfiedwhile 10% are satisfied. 37% of shopkeepers aredissatisfied and 33% are satisfied. And an equalnumber of street traders are dissatisfied and satis-fied respectively (34% each).

Participation in GovernanceAsked if they have contacted any city officials in thepast one year, 97 % of residents said no while 93%said they have not attended any meetings or work-shops with city officials in the said year (Tables 5and 6).

DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS

As the findings above show, there is a significant dif-ference among residents, shopkeepers and streettraders in general satisfaction with Kissy Street. Thestreet traders and shopkeepers are more satisfiedwith the street as a place to live than the residents.This is also reflected in the fact that an overwhelm-ing number (73%) do not take the street and itsneighbourhood as home; meaning they do not feelthey belong. This was very much expected in thecontext of the overall perception of the negativequalities of the street which is high among all thegroups. However, during the semi-structured inter-views there were varied levels of satisfaction with theconditions on the street. One older respondent hadthis to say when asked about noise on the street:

“for those of us living in these buildings, we arebeing disturbed by the noise. Yes, we do sleepabout 10 – 11 pm when the street traders havepacked and left. That is when I even give lessons tomy children but, when they are selling there is nochance to sleep....”

Other residents, however, sympathise with the situ-ation even though they agree the street is noisy. Forinstance, in the words of one interviewee:

“…too much activity… so one expects noise levelsto be high. Yes, the noise is too much but there isnothing I can do about it because the people sell-ing here are trying to earn a living because thingsare not easy here.”

`Although it was expected that perceptionof crime and safety is an important human concernin overcrowded spaces, the findings suggest thatrespondents across all strata and even gendergroups felt relatively safe. This is likely because pettycrimes like shoplifting bag snatching and pickpock-eting are not taken as serious crimes like armedrobbery, murder, rape, etc.

On the question of governance and userparticipation in decision-making, the findings pointto a high dissatisfaction with local government ser-vices provision and lack of citizen participation ingovernance of the street. The overwhelming major-ity of users have never being contacted or consult-ed on matters of their street or neighbourhood.Nonetheless, views on service provision by localgovernment are suspiciously nuanced. Political affil-iations may account for this as glimpses of this weremanifested in the in-depth interviews. For instance,one shopkeeper fumed about high taxation:

“They do nothing; all they are interested in is to col-lect taxes every year without giving anything back. Ifone defaults on payment, they threaten one with

Table 6. Meetings or Workshops with government board/commission.a

Table 5. Residents’ Contacts with City Officials.Table 4. One-way Analysis of Variance between Groups.

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ayclosure of one’s shop violently. They even come tocollect taxes without notice.”Another was more positive since in his view thestreet is cleaned daily: “Yes they are ok. Because[every day] they clean the street at night.”

CONCLUSION

The dearth of prior urban studies and readily avail-able data on Sierra Leonean cities, availability oftime, inadequate finance, and cultural constraintspresented the main limitations of this study. This isreflected in the sample size, low response rates inthe resident and shopkeeper strata, and the hugenumber of missing values. Moreover, the study haslaid more emphasis on the questionnaire surveyleaving very little room to report the full findings ofthe in-depth interviews that would have anchoredthe study fully into its theoretical context and there-fore a wider perspective on the measures.Nonetheless, the study has raised some importantquestions about liveability and urban qualities ofovercrowded city centres. Further investigation ofthe main indicators of street liveability and probablya liveability index in a comparative study of streetsand a bigger sample will show a complete pictureof the effects of overcrowding on mixed-use streets.

These limitations notwithstanding, thispaper has highlighted the importance of the multi-dimensional role played by the street as the primepublic space in a city, arguing that this multi-dimen-sional role is even more pronounced in the city cen-tres of developing countries where the streetaccommodates a welter of activities that cut acrossthe public-private domains. This study has ques-tioned the liveability of such streets even thoughtheir characteristic liveliness has been admired andrecommended profusely. It has postulated thatwhile such public spaces may be lively, they mayconflict with the aspirations and quality of living ofresidents and other users who might find themchaotic, insecure and uninteresting. Such environ-ments are hardly responsive to the needs of chil-dren, old and ‘handicapped’ people.

Based on Appleyard’s (1981) study andusing a mixed methodology, the study has identifiedfive main indicators of liveability and some of theproblems that affect the liveability of Kissy Street (ade facto street market). Because the street is pre-dominantly a crowded street market, noise pollu-tion, spatial congestion, and the untidiness that arecharacteristics of crowded spaces have created anegative spatial experience for resident users whoare highly unsatisfied with their environment; satis-faction with one’s environment is an indication ofwhether it enables one to enhance one’s capabili-

ties for a better life or not. But the experience ofspace is highly subjective and liveability is a mixedbag of items to choose from. For this reason, andother sociocultural dynamics which dictate depen-dency among groups and individuals, there seemto be lots of compromises and negotiations of therights that accrue to all. Therefore to make a placeconducive, responsive and truly inclusive for itsusers, design strategies that provide opportunitiesfor all user groups and ensure that some uses donot encroach upon other uses thereby creating dis-cord should be employed.

Although overcrowding does not forestallan all-inclusive public space, reducing the phe-nomena through the following strategies will go along way to reduce noise and crime, ease move-ment, and improve the sanitary conditions on thestreet: a) the provision of market spaces in the citycentre to allow street traders full access to cus-tomers and not pushed to peripheral areas as hasbeen the norm. This can be done by providingpedestrian only precincts and city wide prome-nades; b) the city can take advantage of its coastalwaters as a highway or main street providing alter-native transportation thereby reducing car trafficfrom the inner city areas; c) proper waste manage-ment mechanisms should be instituted to ensure acleaner city. Freetown can learn from Curitiba’s cre-ative example of attaching monetary value to dirt;d) user participation in decision-making and man-agement of the street should be encouraged for amore equitable and liveable street and tax collect-ed from the street and its neighbourhood should beploughed back into the community to provide bet-ter facilities and a cleaner quality environment. Thiswill empower people, give them control over theirenvironment and engender in them a sense ofbelonging.

REFERENCES

ALLDRIDGE, T. J. 1910. A Transformed Colony: Sierra Leoneas it was, and as it is, its Progress, Peoples, Native Customs andUndeveloped Wealth, Negro University Press, West Port,London.

APPLEYARD, D. 1983. Streets can kill cities: Third worldbeware, Habitat International, 7 (3/4), 111-122.

APPLEYARD, D. 1981. Livable Streets, University of CaliforniaPress, Berkeley.

APPLEYARD, D and LINTEL, M, The Environmental Quality ofCity Streets: The Residents View Point. Journal of The AmericanInstidute of Planners. 38(2) PP:84-101

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EDENSOR, T. 1998. The Culture of the Indian street. In: N. R.Fyfe (ed.), Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Controlin Public Space. Routledge, London, 201-216.

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JACOBS, J. 1961. The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety. In: M.Carmona and S. Tiesdell (eds.), Urban Design Reader. Oxford:Architectural Press, 147-152.

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MEHTA, V. 2007. Lively streets: Determining environmentalcharacteristics to support social behaviour, Journal of PlanningEducation and Research, 27, 165-187.

NEAL, Z. 2010. Seeking common ground: Three perspectiveson public space, Urban Design and Planning, 163 (DP2), pp.59-66.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, C. 1980. Genius Loci: Towards aPhenomenology of Architecture, Rizzoli, New York.

OKTAY, D. 2010, Gazimağusa’da Kentsel Yaşam Kalitesi:Araştırma, Planlama ve Yönetim İçin Göstergeler (Quality ofUrban Life in Famagusta: Implications for Research, Policy andManagement), EMU Press, Famagusta.

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OKTAY, D. and RÜSTEMLI, A. 2011. The quality of urban lifeand neighbourhood satisfaction in Famagusta. In: R. W.Marans and R. J. Stimson (eds.), Investigating Quality of Urban

Life: Theory, Methods, and Empirical Research. Springer, NewYork, 233-249.

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Author(s):

Fodei M. ContehFaculty of ArchitectureDepartment of ArchitectureEastern Mediterranean UniversityGazimagusa - North [email protected] ; [email protected]

Derya OktayDepartment of Architecture,Faculty of ArchitectureOndokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, [email protected], [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

‘A scene in Ishash al Tourguman, Bulaq Abul Ela,central Cairo, 2015’

Arrival at the old area of al Tourguman holdsimages of a gritty past that is still remembered by itsresidents. Centrally located is a busy traditional cof-fee shop ‘Kahwa baladi’, situated in al SahafaStreet, where one normally spots elderly men intheir late sixties or seventies, dressed in threadbareoutfits and smoking Shisha. They rarely chat orsocialise but rather continue to gulp short sips oftea with a mental tape of memories of what used tobe their neighbourhood during golden childhoodtimes. Another scene occurs in a tight alleyway: alady dressed in a black gown sitting selling match-books and paper tissues, hoping for nominal rev-enue to head back home happy. Next to her, agroup of kids playing football, vociferously pointingout where they live and work. A majority of theseresidents are living amidst the remains of their for-mer houses and historical ruins and memories.

The inland of Bulaq slums, the so-called‘ishash’, are, and have been, places where preju-diced and imbalanced assessments of land haveled to consistent disputes. During the 1970s, undereconomic reform and high flows of migration to thecity, Ishash al Tourguman had become a dangerousplace, known for its informal housing, degraded

infrastructure, and drug businesses. The ishash wasdescribed as the centre of anarchy and chaos fol-lowing a series of riots in Cairo on 18-19 January,1977 against the termination of state subsidies forbasic commodities which had led to immediate andrapid price increases. The incident occurred afterEgypt’s former president, Anwar Sadat, embarkedon a series of economic reforms in 1974, pursuingan open-door economic policy to encourage for-eign and domestic investment in the private sector.However, Egypt’s large debt burden soon pushedSadat to take a series of loans from the WorldBank, under the condition that state subsidies forfoodstuffs would be severely limited. FuriousCairene residents attacked many symbols ofSadat’s luxury lifestyle like hotels, departmentstores, and even police stations. The ishash wasthen denounced as the hub of a Communist-leduprising of thieves, after groups of activists stashedthemselves away in the swarming slums, makingthe mission of tracking them impossible since thetight streets prevented entry to police vehicles.

It is claimed that the cleansing of popularlife in Cairo had started during Sadat’s regime withthe violent clearance of ishash al Tourguman anddisplacement of its population. Hundreds of fami-lies were evicted in May 1977 without compensa-tion. Replacing the ishash with high-rise structuresreinforced Sadat’s claim to be eliminating signs ofpoverty and decline in Cairo by creating ‘a youth-

Gehan Selim

Abstract

This paper examines the position of planning practices operated under precise guidelines for displaying modernity.

Cultivating the spatial qualities of Cairo since the 1970s has unveiled centralised ideologies and systems of governance

and economic incentives. I present a discussion of the wounds that result from the inadequate upgrading ventures in

Cairo, which I argue, created scars as enduring evidence of unattainable planning methods and processes that under-

mined its locales. In this process, the paper focuses on the consequences of eviction rather than the planning methods

in one of the city’s traditional districts. Empirical work is based on interdisciplinary research, public media reports and

archival maps that document actions and procedures put in place to alter the visual, urban, and demographic charac-

teristics of Cairo’s older neighbourhoods against a backdrop of decay to shift towards a global spectacular. The paper

builds a conversation about the power and fate these spaces were subject to during hostile transformations that ended

with their being disused. Their existence became associated with sores on the souls of its ex-inhabitants, as outward

signs of inward scars showcasing a lack of equality and social justice in a context where it was much needed.

Keywords: Wounded Spaces, Scars, Cairo, Bulaq, Slums, Urban Renewal, Memory.

WOUNDED SPACES: WHEN PLANNING DEGRADEDCAIRO’S URBAN MEMORY.

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ful face of Egypt’, and indeed low-income groupsoccupying lands, which potentially carried high val-ues, were not central to the beautification of thecapital (Ghannam, 2002, p. 31). On the nationallevel, city authorities explained that demolitionwould support the revamping and modernising ofthe Cairene life. Relocating a portion of its popula-tion from brutal living conditions to suitable modernhousing units was crucial to improving their livingstandards. For over two decades, while renewalplans remained firmly on paper, a huge gapinghole marked the grounds of Bulaq where the ishashresidents had once lived. In 2001, Cairo’sInternational Bus Terminal, a gigantic project, wasconstructed on the spot. But for years when travel-ling to Cairo, and despite many other things hap-pening in Bulaq, one kept bumping in this anec-dote: close to the terminal doors, one could stillenvisage the memory and footage of the clearanceand displacement incident, police sirens and weep-ing toddlers. The ishash formed a narrative of aplace of unyielding power cursed by its historicalfacts that its residents still track and enumerate.Their wounds bled from the heart of one of theworld’s most fascinating cities, where the state’sinauguration of one of its grand architectural pro-jects stopped at nothing in having its vision fulfilled(Figure 1).

The paper discusses how wounded spaces,marked by past deficits of power, violence, andexclusion in Cairo, are represented and how thespatiality of places remarkably articulates scars thatare never cured by time but are still rememberedand lived. Do relocation practices require care andattention that limit the violence and difficulty ofabandoning a place? My argument is that suchwounded spaces in Egypt insinuate the capacitythat places should not remain the same physicallyand socially because they have been profoundlythreatening postcolonial imperial processes. This

capitalises that whatever is deemed ‘traditional’ –living in urban slums, uneducated and, mostly,engaged in political instability – is somewhat lesslegitimate; therefore, traditionalism is often scruti-nised in terms of its authenticity and degree ofexposure. Nevertheless, restructuring this reality tooverlay new depictions on to a place, excluding itsindividuals and groups, often becomes the norma-tive power of how we reshape our built environ-ments (Davies, 2014). These processes have takenseveral forms of forcible action, such as compulso-ry relocation of people from their districts as oneform of control over politicised spaces, with wide-spread destructive implications for the physical,metaphorical, and imaginative spheres.

THE URBAN MEMORY AND ITS POLITI-CAL INSCRIPTIONS

Postcolonial research examining urban settlementsin the global south has shifted towards radicalisingour understanding of cities and how to transmutetheir physical structures of inconsistencies, conflict,and inequality in celebrating residents’ livedrealisms (Simone, 2010; Harvey, 2003). In the con-text of contesting the inherited values of modernurban development influenced by governance andgovernmentality, there still remains the quest toboost urban transformation in the desire for orderand sweeping away sore histories. However, thisapproach is not without its costs. The reason whyWestern models of urban development, for exam-ple, tend to idealise the outcomes that predomi-nantly impact the everyday encounters, practices,and social networks of the people. Urban renewalventures drawing red battle lines around entire dis-tricts, for instance, signalled a new urban reality, notonly to challenge physical conditions but also towipe away individual memories of these places(Blunt and McEwan, 2002; Ellin, 1999). ManuelCastells’ account of Parisian urban gentrification inthe nineteenth century, aimed equally at elaborat-ing the state’s control of public spaces, is pertinentto what motivates governments today: ‘A Parisoccupied by the higher social strata, a showcase ofcomfort and modernity, is a Paris cut off frompotential outbursts of protest’ (Castells ,1972, p.106).

Various examples show how a city is tacitlyprivileged by simulating its districts as parcels ofland connected by networks of economy; but onthe contrary, populated districts appear as blankentities discounted from potential development,leaving residents depicted as victims. We find urbansociologists and geographers retrieving conceptu-alisations of places, which vary from so-calledslums to luxury theme parks and CBDs, as an inte-

Figure 1. Cairo’s International Bus Terminal constructed on

the site of Ishash al-Tourguman slums in Bulaq in 2001(Source: Author).

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elimgration within the city but not, peculiarly, as an add-

on (Simone, 2010). Michel Foucault’s theories onpower and control of space in the urban sphereshow that modern governance similarly capitaliseson various forms of this supremacy. It also revealsthe position of the state in operating different secu-rity apparatuses to safeguard citizens and theirsense of safety by preventing crime and handingover perpetrators to judicial authorities for prosecu-tion. We therefore find that existential insecurity canbe politically manipulated to increase the control ofspace. Violence, for instance, is presented to thepublic as a case of national security rather thansafety in order to curtail the public sphere and influ-ence the community perception of fear (Zukin,1995).

From a postcolonial perspective, imaginingthe city consequently tolerates our understandingtowards systems of urban political life, everydayexistence, agitation, and disorientated mobilisationof people who are the absolute victims. Thesesocially constructed spaces, according to HenriLefebvre (1991, p. 220), offer individuals theirmembership links with the place. Its buildings andstreets are grasped as a sign of the legendarynature of the place, one that is as important as thecondition of those that lived there. These bondsremain memorised across time largely throughmaterial objects that presumably last much longerthan we do. Yet, this idea remains unchallenged.But when subject to massive processes of destruc-tion, mobilisation, and relocation, dense urbanspaces occupied by inherent localities become

impaired by spatial relations and social traumaimposed by state violence. Similar to several post-colonial localities, the sweeping away of entire dis-tricts has printed its own scars on these places andhaunted remaining residents with wounds of pastglories, whether they accepted it or not. Thewounds reflect a condition of self-remembranceand individual memory embedded in the physicali-ty structure of spatial order away from any externalforces of colonial practices and their aftermath(Kearney, 2012). These spaces represent instanceswhere local identity was an incipient political pro-ject against social and collective memory thatdemonstrates problematic or disturbing conditions.They are the territories where ‘geographicalspace... has been torn and fractured by violenceand exile’, shaping a state of newness of physicaland social realities that reproduces altered visualimages integrated with modern cultural expressionsand secured environments (Rose, 1996, p.191)(Figure 2).

PLACE REMINISCENCE AND ‘ROOTSHOCK’

“We still remember that day when the police sud-denly surrounded the area and forced the people toleave their houses; the men bravely fought thepolice officers, the women were screaming, butthey forced them to leave in the end” (interview).

Al-Tourguman is a poor area that expanded ran-domly in Bulaq during the 20th century. The place

Figure 2. Ishash al-Tourguman images published in the planning scheme brief. (Source: The re-planning scheme Report

1979, GOPP, Cairo).

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was originally established by a Turkish merchantnamed Ali Bek al Tourgoman, whose name itgained, who customised its infrastructure and man-aged its tenet system until his death. The Ministry ofPublic Works privately sold wealthy stockholders,including Ali Bek, huge swathes of vacant land out-side Bulaq’s east-west border to construct newdevelopments that would aid with the absorption ofCairo’s migrant workers. Following Egypt’s defeatin the 1967 war, nationwide concerns were raisedfollowing the suspension of special governmenthousing projects, particularly when daily newspa-pers published images of entire communities livingin emergency shelters after several evacuation inci-dents. The government built these settlements astransitional housing systems to shelter homelesspeople whose houses had collapsed or becomeseriously damaged as they awaited allocation ofhousing in new residential settlements. By this time,al-Tourguman and other areas had graduallybecome dominated by shanty constructs built withlight materials and leftover wood, which lackedwater, electricity, and primary hygiene resources.Thousands of people were crammed into homesthat were ‘only corners of single rooms that accom-modate all the functions of the household mem-bers’ (Rugh, 1979, p. 47). The narrow alleywaysrapidly turned into hives of illegal activities, whichlater became popularly known as ishash alTourguman. People living in Bulaq describe theirneighbours as tragic and doubtful (Figure 2).

“The government has neglected them. They nolonger have any rights in this country.

They have depressing lives, their homes appear likesquats of stacked and glue-like compartmentsstretching in narrow alleyways overwhelmed bypoverty and hunger.

Men and women are jobless with no breadwinner,the elders are homeless and the children surround-ed by slums, diseases, and hunger” (Interview).

But do memories of places relate to the past orarticulate narratives of present human experiences?Or how do locals still living in al Tourguman distin-guish between their present lives and the strongconnections with the past that historical eventsevoke? Indeed, the furious escape of the youngprotestors in the 1977 riots emerged as a seriouschallenge to the state. People still recall how policevehicles failed to seize the vulnerable ‘boys’ andfeel proud of helping them to escape this raid.Notwithstanding, residents of popular areas inCairo, like Bulaq, are legendary for their generosi-ty, bravery, and care. But since that time, state dis-

course has homogenised them, under actions ofsymbolic violence, as troublemakers and criminals,with the district portrayed as a centre for drug traf-ficking and illegal activities (Ghannam, 2002).Official action, under the auspices of the CentralSecurity Force, culminated in 1979 with the outra-geous displacement of thousands more to the cityoutskirts, producing what Fullilove (2004) calls the‘root shock’.

Plans to develop al-Tourguman in 1979subdivided the site into 25 plots under governoratejurisdiction. Local and foreign investors were theninvited to submit proposals to inaugurate projects inaccordance with the planning scheme, but no plotswere actually sold. A respondent from the gover-norate planning department attributed this failure tofinancial constraints and professional shortcomingsin the project’s feasibility study which had estimatedthat evacuation and relocation would cost the gov-ernorate approximately 36 million EgyptianPounds. After clearing the site, however, costs soredto 100 million Egyptian Pounds. On the otherhand, plot sizes were huge because it was thoughtthat this would promote their saleability and tocover the cost of building new houses for displacedresidents. In the event, the plots were unaffordablebecause the site was still surrounded by poor build-ings, warehouses, and unplanned streets. A fewplanners, who were against demolishing the ishash,explained that the entire gesture would be inconve-

Figure 3. The upgrading Planning scheme. (Source: Ishash

al-Tourguman re-planning scheme Report 1979, GOPP,Cairo).

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elimnient and infeasible. They claimed that the process

was one of in-filling the site with high-rise projectsthat were competing with a surrounding contextand that failure could have been predicted. Someadded that it was a naive solution to representCairo in a modern image and apply order to whatwas thought to be a different reality in Bulaq – thereality of the poor versus that of the wealthy. Thiscorresponds more closely to Timothy Mitchell’s(1988) world as an exhibition (Figure 3).

The outcome of futile initiatives of thisnature was that new housing targets were not met,leaving streetscapes with many empty lots andabsentee residents. A kind of political resistancethat forms a different landscape to that for which itwas planned, remained for at least 25 years afterthe evacuation. It was a milestone of failure to setunrealistic plans for change, especially when busi-nessmen and investors later noted that the site wasunsuitable for investment. The residents explainedhow people no longer communicated their previ-ous healthy social networks and everyday encoun-ters. Despite al Tourguman’s vibrant and ideal loca-tion for CDD investment, it developed into an out-cast ghetto and even fostered greater isolation fromthe city’s urban life than ever before (Marcuse,1997). The reliability and transparency of the statehave always been problematic, especially in termsof communicating political messages through localschemes like this. Equally, it may be that forcibleeviction was a tool used by the state to expel theresidents with no underlying plans to rehouse them(interview).

REMEBERING THE SCARS: OLD MEMO-RIES, NEW SPACES

Literature on collective memory shows how con-stantly incidents of the past are tied in fundamen-tally with social networks and landscapes (Boyer,1994; Halbwachs, 1980; Heynen, 1999;Abdelmonem and Selim, 2012). Memory occurs inthe present to inform our habitual associations andway of life, not distinct from its archaeological pres-ence. It is not surprising to observe controversialperceptions among social groups when they recallstories of the past and their living spaces. They usu-ally tend to link their stories with places and physi-cal objects to establish a thread of memory thatmay or may not be sites that witnessed suffering ordisturbance. Yet, the place and its object dimen-sions and attributes become the most durable partof this fabric, through objects of remembrance(Bevan, 2006). Buildings and urban spaces aresymbolic evidence of certain social networks andpractices. There are indeed some memorised pro-jects, like urban renewal or changing landscapes,

which attempt to obstruct public dialogue and areappreciated as signs of forgetting the past, with anentire community disappearing and leaving behindits physical manifestations: buildings and spaces.Yet, spaces cannot mysteriously embody memoriesby the quality of their existence, just as the city can-not disclose history without supporting narratives(ibid.). In fact, societies retain their memory throughcontinuous and sustainable performance of acts,rituals, and normative social behaviour.

On the other hand, places have meaningsthat exceed their forms as authored illustrations ofthe past and methods by which social groups expe-rience them. In fact, the wounds of al Tourgumanemerged through conflicting pasts as zones of tran-sition and social change to materialise transforma-tion. Wounds also thrived through its residents, notonly the groups that suffered the consequences ofeviction but also those that had witnessed the razedfor prospect development encountering andopposing state violence and the trauma of dis-placement. Under the increasing spread of differ-ences in postmodern societies, class and socialsegregation follow distinct pathways and occupydifferent zones of the city, so that the wealthy hard-ly encounter the ‘unwanted’ others (Mitchell,2003). Indeed, this idea will never arise withoutvisions of a strong country protecting its citizensfrom the ‘unwanted’ beyond its boundaries,‘changing in this sense our rooted sympathies ofwhat constitutes the public to legitimate new formsof urban structures through environmental change,behaviour modification and stringent policing’(ibid., p. 4).

Fullilove (2004) argues that a ‘root shock’threatens the ability of any person to function just asmuch as when they lose vast amounts of blood,simply because we all have strong social and emo-tional links with the places we inhabit. Thus, for us,place always develops as a protective shelter forour social and ecosystem associations. These qual-ities are not about local forms of owning or claim-ing the place but rather about the connections andstructures of sentimental networks that give thickmeaning to a citizen's experience, one that associ-ates more widely with place than human subjectsthemselves (Bennett, 2005, p. 10). This under-standing opens for us different channels to expressand communicate sensory emotions about places,rendering their distinct histories.

After the relocation incident, the ishashbecame an anchor for its former residents’ sense ofbelonging and took precedence over other associ-ations. But the remaining groups became vitalraconteurs of the incident and its aftermath. Manystill form the elderly population living in Bulaq whoeither memorise or witnessed the confrontation with

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the armed police. They explained how state actionsdisrupted their inveterate relations to the geogra-phies of the place and that the inconsistencies pro-duced in this process created odd grounds for peo-ple and places that, for many years, did not under-stand why their neighbours had been banished.Despite living in slums, their rooted habits, prac-tices, and cultures signified a sustainable process ofcollective settlement, communicating a robustsocial message that they were connected groupsthat felt highly safe and secure (Selim, 2015).

People's reminiscences on the hardships ofliving in the ishash are closely related to the hous-ing conditions described as ‘ruins’. However, theyalways cite their easy access to other parts of Cairo,marketplaces, and cheap goods. One informantexplained that ‘when our past neighbours bakedsomething, the good smell would reach us from adistance and we would share the food. People tendto eat together and support each other during diffi-cult times’ (interview). Local vendors also utilised alTourguman lands to sell cooked foods, sugarcane,and fresh vegetables. Others occupied the space todisseminate some of their home-based goods orset up bakery ovens for simple pastries. The areawas a hub for young teenagers to gather and inter-act with others. While these activities graduallyencouraged the presence of people, the areabecame empty, dark, and potentially unsafe forwomen and young children, especially at nightwhen its original occupants vanished in no time.However, the continuous presence of peopleensured assistance when needed. People werealways ready to help prevent a fight or protect achild. Being seen by others provided social controlthat allowed more freedom of movement forwomen and legitimised their interaction with men.

Activities of unknown neighbours and themixing of people from different parts of Cairo influ-enced the view of the empty lands and surroundingspaces. The new spatial settings supported restruc-turing the interaction between the residents and, inparticular, others, and the way they observed pub-lic space. This shift was epitomised by growingrestrictions on access and use of spaces followingthe evacuation, which was mostly driven by fear.Feelings of belonging to al Tourguman were sym-bolised in a way that connects its residents with thepast and appears to show a collective referencethat articulates its support for state policing actions.Indeed, insecurity and an unknown future made forstress among the remaining population. They weremostly conscious that they would be subject to sim-ilar traumatic situations at any time and, somehow,were prepared for it. They were also aware thatarmed evacuation was also going ahead in otherneighbourhoods in the city, like in the Ayn Hilwan

dwellings of old Cairo and the al-Marg area. Theseand other unexpected incidents were aired in themedia, showing armed police surrounding thesehouses to evacuate families by force.

CONCLUSION

Al-Tourguman and other similar sites in Cairo rep-resent places where the status of local people hasremained a significant social and political issue,and, over time, has become central to local con-flict. The conflict also emerged as a struggle overlandscapes for personal, group and national iden-tity, and meaning and belonging. In fact, relocationis not only about moving people from one place toanother, but about how it affects life and socio-spa-tial relationships within the local community. Sitesdefined by scars and wounds not only exist as imag-inary and/ or physical locales but endure as‘behaviours and occasions for memory and inter-vention’ (Roach, 1996, p. xi). While everyday exem-plified knowledge of inhabited places is taken forgranted, eviction enables its spectators to possessfirmer bonds with their former living place based onattachments that disengaged them from their child-hood connections. In all ways, some residentsremained in the ishash gave rise to another level ofloss. They collectively formed a sound, chronic, andinveterate narrative that was slowly constructedafter the immediate relocation losses. Indeed, theindigenous stabilisation of communities is frag-mented once places are demolished.

The ishash residents, through their stories,raised moral inquiries about the politics of placemaking driven by urban upgrading. They calledattention to their association with place, its mentalmemory and inspiration in making a just andunique life. They also challenged the invisible statusthe city authorities bestowed on them and have nocapacity for state building. Yet, their commendablesurvival over almost four decades since the trau-matic incident documents their existence througheveryday encounters and use of space, therebyclaiming individual and collective rights to their city.They also enact their habitual engagements withvibrant places like Bulaq evidencing their cognitiveand emotional attachments, spatial and socialmemories, and fragile social systems. Still, theirinterpretations always reveal a bounded self-ten-sion between the recognition of state violence andanxieties about the unknown future they face whenhoping to survive.

In fact, new forms of public memory couldbe structured and transferred to the inhabitantsthrough their intergenerational social outreach thatoffers social stability and security, despite the ongo-ing ruptures of geographical segregation and

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elimexclusion. However, it is suggested that place mem-

ory is usually a complicated case to resolve.Communities usually tend to define themselvesthrough their physical and social environments butwill not always accept a place’s depressing history.Indeed, when individuals return to places that havewitnessed violence and pain, they find themselvestrapped in horrific images of the past, with livingmemories and emotional attachments. Similarly,displaced groups tend to revisit their friends and rel-atives back in the ishash, and some will even shopand buy goods from traders they used to know.That is why social change must be counted as bothloss and opportunity, particularly when chunks ofthe city become detached from other spaces.

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Author

Gehan Selim School of Planning, Architecture, and CivilEngineering, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION: “NEO-CAPITAL”URBANISM IN THE GLOBAL CITY

Capital cities play a vital role in a nation’s life andpsyche as they serve as a central repository of polit-ical, geographic, and economic balance and asthe seat of government. They reflect the nation’sidentity and play a crucial role in legitimising thestate through the concentration of formal institu-tions and sustained networks of power, economy,and politics (Rawat, 2005; Dascher, 2000).Changing the seat of government prompts ques-tions on the very identity of the nation, socio-geo-graphic implications, and images that capture envi-sioned change. Over the past century, new capitalcities were entirely designed such as Brasilia,Ankara, and Astana while other smaller cities weredeveloped to serve a nation-building project or actas a home for International Organizations such asChandigarh, Bonn, Brussels-EU, and Geneva-UN.Such facet of identity is often accomplished throughcultural and architectural means, where nationalinstitutions, educational establishments, galleries,museums, and memorials are all geared up toencapsulate a meaningful image of the city sym-bolism (Jones, 2008). Such displacement of institu-tions of power and reshaping national identitieswere ever so explicit as was the case in the recon-figuration of new power hubs in the EuropeanUnion (Risse, 2001).

Middle Eastern cities have operated in ahierarchy, in which each one has a role to play asa provincial capital, port, religious, or trade centerand where the livelihood of city inhabitants areembedded in everyday mobility, connectivity, andinterdependency. Over the past three decades,neoliberal policies and the flow of wealth prompt-ed regional rivalries over the credibility of each cityas a regional power broker (economic, political,and cultural). Emerging cities such as Dubai, Abu-Dhabi, and Doha have started to challenge oldmetropolis such as Baghdad, Beirut, and Cairoover their capacity for attractiveness, accumulationof wealth, cultural events, and international corpo-rations (Salama and Weidman, 2013). Throughchallenging normative spatial structures of interde-pendent cities, the financial power of urban elitesintroduced new perception of the city’s liveability‘behind closed doors’. Compounded with planningnaivety and ignorance of the middle class, neolib-eral planning and policies succeeded in speedingup urban disharmony, social segregation, andgrowing unemployment (Goodman et al., 2010).New Cairo in Egypt, Beirut’s Downtown, Dubai’sNakheel have largely reshaped new “micro” sys-tems of urban structure, spatial order, and livingculture that are removed from everyday realities oftheir “host” cities, creating alien territories withinold fabric. Recognising the failure of privatised lux-urious urban life in old metropolis, proposals for

M.Gamal Abdelmonem

AbstractThis paper interrogates the notion of “New Capital” in the context of the hegemony of neoliberal urbanism in the Arabcities in the Middle East from historical, socioeconomic, and spatial perspectives. It reviews the historical narratives ofnew centres and districts in Cairo, Beirut, and evolving capitalist urbanism and architecture in the Arabian Peninsula insearch of the elitist dream of neoliberal urbanism. It offers a comprehensive analysis to the notions of neoliberal ide-ology and urban policies, neo-Capital city as catalyst for nation-building, and neo-Capitalist architecture as the repro-duction of clone structures of western models. The paper focuses its critical analysis on the aspects of liveability in thecontemporary Arab City and its socio-spatial structures and everyday urban reality. It reports on urban narratives basedon archival records, urban projects, and investigations of governmental accounts to determine aspects of success andfailure in projects of new capital cities and districts. It argues that cities are essentially social-spatial systems in whichhierarchy is a fundamental element, the lack of which determines abject failure of their anticipated vision.

Keywords: Capitalism, Globalization, Middle East, Urbanism, Contemporary Architecture.

THE ABJECT DREAM OF NEO-CAPITAL: CAPITALISTURBANISM, ARCHITECTURE AND ENDANGERED LIVE-ABILITY OF THE MIDDLE EAST’S MODERN CITIES.

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monem“new ‘private’ capitals” have resurfaced by neolib-

eral economic alliances such as EMAAR, Solidere,and ELDAR, aiming to displace economic andpolitical centres towards new privately developedand owned capital cities/ quarters.

Urban historians, however, argue that newcapital cities are by no means a new proposition inregional urban history or sociopolitical discourse.Current metropolises have, in fact, been foundedas new towns, quarters, or cities that were designedaway from congested settlements. In spatial terms,urban bourgeoisie tend to develop living havens inenclaves that are distant from the populace’s every-day life (Abdelmonem, 2016). The logic of humansettlements as sets of spatial relationships and inter-dependent infrastructure have always defied mod-els of distinctive and manufactured lifestyle. In thispaper, I interrogate the model of “New Capital” cityas a neoliberal strategy of exclusive urban environ-ments, where power and capital are separatedfrom the ordinary citizens. Hence, the ‘Neo-Capitalcity’, as this paper calls such model, is set to exam-ine the notion of NeoLiberal urbanism in the ArabMiddle East by looking at the implications of clonesof capitalist architecture and urban developmentson the liveability of everyday spaces. It offers a con-ceptual analysis and theoretical framework on threelevels of inquiry: first, ‘Neo-Capital city as a politi-cal strategy for rebuilding national identity’;‘Neoliberalism as ideology to reshape socio-spatialstructure of the city through creative destruction ofnormative reality’; and ‘Neo-Capitalist architectureas abject clones of global imagery’. I will not exclu-sively discuss brand-new cities, but also new quar-ters or private developments in existing cities thatrepresent the agenda of new-liberal and capitalistarchitecture.

NEOLIBERAL IDEALS RESHAPING DISIN-GENUOUS URBAN REALITY

“The growth of high-profit corporate service firmsand of a high-income professional class becomeslegible in urban space through the growing demandfor state-of-the-art office buildings, luxury resi-dences, and luxury consumption spaces. The grow-ing demand for both leads to often massive and vis-ible displacements of the more modest-incomehouseholds and modest profit-making firms... In thisprocess, urban space itself becomes an object forcontestation: the gentrifiers versus the displaced”(Saskia Sassen, 2009).

In the discourse of neoliberal ideology,national institutions of authority use their monopolyof power and violence to negotiate policies anddecision making with the oversized international

corporations. Neoliberalism is broadly defined asan approach to economics and social studies inwhich control of economy is shifted from the publicsector to the private sector. It has been used differ-ently amongst scholars and theorists who under-lined its meaning through practice and policy-mak-ing (Saad-Filho and Johnston, 2005). Neoliberalideology rests on the principal belief that competi-tive and unregulated markets, liberated from stateinterventions and actions of social collectivities, arethe cornerstones for the optimal mechanism forsocioeconomic development. (Peck, Theodore, andBrenner, 2009) Neoliberals have deep antipathy toforms of social and institutional solidarity and whatthey call the ‘tragedy of the commons’ and the irre-sponsible exploitation of common and naturalresources such as land and water. (Harvey, 2005,p. 65). ‘Privatisation’, ‘deregulations’, and ‘com-petitiveness’ are utopian notions to eliminatebureaucracy, increase efficiency, improve quality,and reduce cost. In this sense, private and multina-tional organisations and self-regulating marketsreplace the authority of the state and associatedwelfare policies. In neoliberal literature, a success-ful city means a competitive and attractive one par-ticularly to foreign investment.

Driven by neoclassical economics, neolib-eralism suggests that governments reduce deficitspending, limit subsidies, broaden the tax base,eliminate fixed exchange rates, open up markets tocompetition, privatise state-run businesses, allowprivate property, and back deregulation (Touraine,2001). Neoliberalism relies chiefly on delegatinggovernance to the expert elites that is commonlytranslated as the ‘elitist rule’ under the jurisdictionof ‘the court of law’, to which the state is treated asequal an entity to individuals and companies(Chomsky, 1999; Plehwe, Walpen, andNeunhoffer, 2006). Under the pretext of neoliberal-ism, policies were deployed to justify the deregula-tion of state control over industry, assaults onorganised labor, the reduction of corporate taxes,privatisation of public services and assets, the dis-mantling of welfare programs, and the enhance-ment of international capital mobility. For neoliber-al politics, creative destruction to existing socioeco-nomic structures and hierarchical order andresponsibility becomes necessary (Brenner andTheodore, 2002). The Financial Crisis of 2008 andthe EU-Greek bailout crisis in early 2015 exposedearly failure signs of neoliberal strategies and irre-sponsibility of multinational profit-seeking banksand corporations, whose private interest shaped thedevelopment plans and projects in many cities,such as Dubai, London, and Barcelona.

Neoliberal Urbanism, in this sense, is moreabout new investments, new developments, and

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reshaping the ineffective projects based on value,market, and demand. Especially for the developingworld, such as the Middle East, neoliberalism wasa promising proposition for governments seekingforeign investments to support underachievingeconomies – a reverse to the socialist and nation-alist governance of 1960s-1980s. However, thisdebate poses a principal question: How could theliveabiliy of the city be maintained if the governmenthas no control over its markets and types of pro-jects, investments, and services provided? It alsosets off alarm bills on accountability, and the extentto which power is given to unelected corporationsand foreign organisations to decide the fate of poli-cies and urban strategies such as privatisation ofnational services, transportation, and infrastructurein a given country (Bauman, 2000). The spatialpolitics of neoliberal urbanism could be palpablyexamined in relocating capitals or through themanner with which political identity and economicpower have influenced new forms of architectureand urban fabric.

Despite its utopian ideals and propositions,neoliberal practice and weakened state power havegenerated ubiquitous market failures, social polari-sation, a dramatic intensification of uneven spatialand urban developments and a crisis in city gover-nance (Peck, Theodore, and Brenner, 2009).Furthermore, political theorists insist that authorita-tive state power was required to force free-marketpolicies and destruction of the social-welfare stateamidst wide societal rejection: the state had to inter-vene to disable itself. The dysfunctional effects of

neoliberal urbanism include deterioration of ser-vices to modest-income societies, deprivation ofresources to low class population, and the rise inservice privileges in wealthy business neighbor-hoods and compounds (Amin, 1997). Crucially, themanifold disjuncture between ideology and prac-tice, doctrine and reality, vision and consequencehave exposed the notion of a freestanding, self-reg-ulating market as a dangerously productive myth.

“NEO-CAPITAL” URBANISM IN THEGLOBAL CITY

The term ‘new’ immediately instigates conceptionsthat connote to the future, modernity, and ambition,which attract a favorable comparison with the ‘old’that is explained as remnants of the unfashionableand unworkable past. Peter Hall defined severaltypes of “new Capitals”, whose definitions and

Figure 1. Solidere’s Beirut Central Business District master plan. (Source: solidere.com).

Figure 2. The Palm-Dubai Development (Source: Author).

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had to define them in comparison with each other:multi-function, global, political, former, ex-imperial,and provincial. From imperial capitals to the homeof international organisations, the influence ofglobal power has shifted from seats of governmentsto the seats of multi-national systems (Sassen,2009). Throughout the 20th century, many newcapitals were built with the assistance of modernistarchitects such as Le Corbusier, Doxiadis, andNiemeyer to embody a hope for a better future aswas captured by the Indian Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru’s speech in 1952 aboutChandigarh as “symbolic of the freedom of India,unfettered by the traditions of the past, an expres-sion of the nation's faith in the future.” KemalAtaturk swapped the Ottomans’ imperial capitalwith the newly built military camp of Ankara in theAsian side of Turkey in 1923 while in 1960, Brasiliabecame Brazil’s new capital following the country’sconstitutions as federal nation in 1891.

The prerequisite of new order demands avisual image to illustrated the new vision. Brazil’sNational Congress building designed by OscarNiemeyer was the first image to capture Brasilia’spromising future. Similarly, ideals of utopia havealso served as the inspiration for the new city inboth Brasilia and Chandigarh. Interestinglyenough, both were symbols of modernist hope aswell as grand utopian projects that can both inspireand disappoint in 1950-60s (Baan, 2010). Therigid street grid and anti-pedestrian layout was a fitfor formal urbanism of bureaucracy but less of avibrant and social-friendly city. Le Corbusier’sChandigarh was supposed to be an emblem forpost-colonial independence. Rather, it ended updesigned by Western architects who were alienimplants into foreign culture, a symbol of dysfunc-tion for foreign architecture (Marshall, 2004).Shanghai, New York, or Barcelona, on the otherhand, are cities of power that surpass their capitalcities in playing more influential roles in nation-building image and identity, driven by internationalcorporations and the flow of private capital. Theyexert power on foreign territories and internationalmarkets through managing airports, sea terminals,and banks. Moreover, Qatar’s need for foreignlabor for its 2022 FIFA World Cup infrastructureprojects and Dubai’s skilled migrant labour haveshaped the character of not only their host city, butalso the living standards back home in Pakistan,India, Philippines, and Indonesia (Kanna, 2011).Those masses of labour, in return forced the devel-opment of liveable spaces that relate to their homecountries with the largest markets and many restau-rants in both cities serve and offer Pakistani orIndian products (El-Sheshtawy, 2010). The same

goes to China Towns in London, New York, andSan Francisco.

With multinational boundary-less neoliber-alism increasingly prevalent in world spatial sys-tems, its economic power and influential financialestablishments have effectively created new struc-tures, spatial order, and reshape the culture of liv-ing in many cosmopolitan cities since the start ofthe 21st century. To this effect, The nation-state’scontrol over the quality of life in their capital citiesis negotiated with the interest of the global marketand its competitive environment. These changingemphases of control had been heavily debated bysociologists such as Doreen Massey and ZygmountBauman who questioned the actual liberal values ifthe state’s investment in welfare and social projectsor infrastructures is being questioned and negotiat-ed by foreign investors (Bauman, 2000; Massey,2005; Hall, Massey, and Rustin, 2015). The exis-tence of such parallel institutions has exerted force-ful decisions that are not necessarily in the public’sinterest.

CAPITALIST URBANISM OF THE MIDDLEEAST: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The notion of the new capital city involves a seriesof decisions that involve a fundamental displace-ment of power: the dichotomy of ‘establishingauthority’ and ‘expressing fear’. Much of the urbanhistory of the Arab cities owe much to the rise andfall of great capitals: imperial, provisional, andnational. For much of their history, ancient citiessuch as Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo haveswapped their seats as provisional and imperialcapitals. Their urbanism had developed as succes-sive layers of evolution of power and urban strate-gies that were driven by individual interest andinvestments than of the state’s vision or plan.Architecture, structures, and urban projects andfacilities (mosques, madrassas (schools) and hospi-tals) were largely developed and funded throughindividual endowments of rich merchants(Abdelmonem, 2015).

To get a deep understanding of the evolu-tion of capitalist urban form, frequency of change,and the emergence of new Capitals, the narrativesof Egypt’s successive capital cities culminate into agigantic urbanism of metropolitan Cairo. The city’stotal area of 453 km2 and a history that stretchesback to 30th century BC have grown on the backof four other different capital cities, each of whichwas a fortress for ruling elites and distant fromnative settlements: Memphis (31-7th Century BC);Al-Fustat; Al-Qata’I, and Al-Askar (6-10th

Centuries AD), with Cairo as the uninterrupted cap-ital city since 969 AD (Creswell, 1952). Despite the

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existence of the rich and powerful Alexandria, Al-Fustat, was primarily constructed as a camp-townto exclusively host the Arab warriors (Abaza , 2006,Abu-Loghud,1971, Kubiak, 1987). Al-Qahira(Cairo, in Arabic) was no different in being aFatimid’s royal fortress with an area of about 1100m X 1150m that was built in 969 AD behind high-walled fortifications, distant from all its previous andnative settlements; access was exclusive to gar-risons, high officials, and royal elites. Over timeand continuous power, Cairo attracted a flow ofwealth and trade, investments in rich architecture,religious complexes and markets, all built by privatewealth. The city’s architecture was shaped by aseries of iconic buildings, such as Bayt Al-Suhaimy,Bay Al-Razaz, Bayt Al-Qadi and many other homesof rich and noble residents (Abdelmonem, 2015).Khedive Ismail (1830 to 1895), obsessed by west-ern classic cultural and architecture, on the otherhand, ordered the city to be preplanned to match19th century’s European glamour. The city becamea small clone of Paris based on Haussmann’s styleddistricts with wide boulevards and classic apartmentbuildings outside the medieval city.

Real estate developers invited Europeanarchitects to develop neoclassical buildings anddesigned in the newly planned districts such asGarden City, Heliopolis, and Maadi. Downtownhad a Parisian flavor with English and Frenchlibraries, Swiss pastries, tea salons, social clubs,banks, and a stock market, facilitated by the pres-ence of 6000 foreigners in 1840 AD, 68,000 in1870 AD and reaching 111,000 by 1897 AD.Following the rise of Nasser’s socialist policies by1950s and 1960s, the erasure of privileged societyand its capitalist architecture was a priority facilitat-ed by the nationalisation of foreign assets (Castle,1977). The rise of neoliberal urbanism in Egypt,meanwhile, was envisioned at the turn of the 21st

century with unprecedented rise in private develop-ments inside the city and its peripheries, with high-class business and commercial towers, verticallydominating the Nile Cornish such as FirstDevelopment in Giza, Four Seasons Hotels inGarden City, and Nile Towers in Bulaq. On thecity’s suburb, the New Cairo districts, with its com-mercial centres such as Cairo Festival City, PortoCairo, and the adjoining gated residential com-pounds sets the full-cycled siege of neoliberalurbanism in city. These narratives of emergence ofnew Capital cities, transformation and declinecould be mirrored in Baghdad, Damascus andBeirut to a greater accuracy. However, the predom-inance of neoliberal urbanism over urban scenes inthe Middle East does not stop at developing newquarters or encircle old cities. The ambition plans ofneoliberalism went far beyond recognised patterns

to lead on new plans for the first purposely-designed and privately- owned ‘Capital City’ pro-ject in Egypt to the east of Greater Cairo.

The discourse on neoliberal urbanism mustsit on such equally convincing arguments and forcea balanced critical analysis to each situation. Forexample, in the Middle East, neoliberal institutionsof power in the Gulf countries, such as the UAE,Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, are in effectowned by members of the royal elites and operateaccording to the state guidance; i.e. corporationsoperate through strategic partnership with the state.In more populous and less rich states, such asEgypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia, large businesses usesimilar alliances with ruling elites and officials tosecure expansive lands central to the nation’s econ-omy, viability, and economic future. Earliest modelsincluded El Gouna and Sharm ElSheikh, the RedSea resorts in Egypt, Jumeirah Palm Island(Nakheel) in Dubai, and Sa’adiyyat Island in Abu-Dhabi, all of which have been exclusively devel-oped and are managed by private-sector investors.Through land appropriation laws, foreign corpora-tions and international investment firms such as El-Dar, EMAAR, Orascom, Mubadala, and Solidereare granted expansive lands in prime sites in Cairo,the red sea cost, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Beirut,prompting evacuation of local residents andchanging the demographic structure of the city.

Two particular examples are the Solideredevelopments of Downtown Beirut (Beirut’s CentralDistrict; BCD), and EMAAR’s Uptown Cairo inEgypt. Both projects are designed in a manner toexclude average-income citizens and pride them-selves in their emphasis on glamorous lifestyle.Solidere’s BCD project forced new patterns ofmovement, activities, commercialisation and high-class environments that look alien to the city’s exist-ing fabric. Solidere is a unique form of private-pub-lic partnership company that runs with special reg-ulations and enjoys special powers with the agree-ment of the government to regulate, build, andlead projects in the city following its devastatingCivil War. They have become mediators of thestate’s power when it comes to urban developmentand execution plans. Similar to modernist projectsof the mid-20th century, neoliberal developmentsare blueprint copies of their western counterpartssuch as the highly debated of London’s CanaryWharf and its impact on the city’s urban develop-ment. EMAAR’s Uptown Cairo is, on the otherhand, a prime site on the hilly mountain ofMoqattam in the heart of Cairo and opposite to theCitadel. The site had developed restrictions andwas owned by the Egyptian Military and nationalinstitutions. However, through special agreementswith the government, it was sanctioned as private

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monemand high-end residential development as a self-suf-

ficient compound, with all restrictions lifted.Moreover, the government took an exceptionalmeasure and allowed the foreign developers tobuilt a private-access bridge to connect with thearterial thoroughfare 6th October Bridge, making itthe first privately-owned and exclusively-accessedinfrastructure in the city.

In the Middle East, there are two models ofnew capital cities in which the ideals of neoliberal-ism are intact to reconfigure the urban structure,order, and architecture of the Arab cities: new pur-posely-built capital cities, and the expansive urbanexpansions either on the peripheries or in the cen-tres. Dubai and Abu-Dhabi’s massive private devel-opments reach a magnitude of whole districts, orislands like Palm Jumeirah and Saddiyyat Island.Dubai’s urban growth has evolved on the back ofsuccessful neoliberal model of corporate leader-ship, whereby the economy is primarily led by pri-vately-owned corporations such as Emirates Airlineand Dubai Holdings and their franchises such asEMAAR and Nakheel. To overcome the restrictionsof employment and immigration laws, Jebel Ali Portand Free Zone was created to manipulate thestate’s law and allow foreign companies to initiateand undertake business operations and importmaterial and labor on a temporary basis. AbuDhabi, by contrast, was cautious of liberal econo-my and relied on its vast resources of oil revenuesuntil recently when several high profile develop-ments such as Saadiyyat Island, GuggenheimMuseums, and Le Sorbonne Abu Dhabi campuswere initially developed by state agencies, thenacquired by private development companies. Inboth cases, the social structure of the city and itsquality of life were largely designed for the hybridmultiethnic majority of the society of higher incomeexpat communities. The liveablility of the city wasexperienced in the textbook neoliberal models ofshopping malls, private beaches, hotels, andleisure centres.

CAIRO’S CAPITAL CITY PROJECT: THE ABJECTILLUSION OF NEOLIBERAL CITIES

On the 13th March 2015, Mostafa Madbouly,Egypt’s Minister of Housing, unveiled the govern-ment’s plan for an unnamed New Capital City dur-ing the Egypt Economic Development Conferencein Sharm ElSkeikh. At 28 miles to the east ofGreater Metropolitan Cairo, an area of 270square miles and prospected population of 5 mil-lion, the new city would be the nation’s financialand administrative capital that houses a newParliament complex, the Government’s depart-ments and ministries, the financial center, and for-

eign embassies. Out of 46 districts, 21 aredesigned for residential purposes and 25 are ded-icated to the administrative and financial zones witha large number of high-rise business towers andlandmark structures (Figure 3). The project is set toinclude large recreational spaces, a central park,artificial lakes, a technology and innovations park,more than 2000 educational institutions, 600 hos-pitals and 1000 mosques. A smart and green city,it will rely on environment-friendly electric railways,solar energy farms, and a new international airport.According to the then Investment Minister, AshrafSalaman, the New Capital was destined to be builtentirely by private developer, Capital City Partners,to be fully functional by 2022 and with no cost tothe Egyptian Treasury. The Capital City Partners ledby the Emirati businessman, Mohamed El-Abbar,subsequently withdrew from the project due to dis-agreement on the project’s financial policies andthe refusal of national banks to grant cash withoutback-up guarantees.

The Capital City ( http:// thecapital cairo.com) lan has been a highly controversial and con-tentious issue within Egyptian financial, political,and urban development circles due to its suddenemergence and the huge resources it demands.Tipped by some scholars and rival politicians as apolitical ploy to serve President El-Sisi’s global pro-file, it was also claimed to inject confidence in asuffering economy, emphasise political stability, anddeal with the “Cairo Problem” of congestion andoverpopulation. Government officials, however,insisted that the total budge of over US $45billionis justified as to offer double benefit: relieve thecongestion and pressure of government institutionson Cairo and allow new business corporations andinternational firms modern facilities close to thenewly-widened Suez Canal. Whatever version wemay believe, the new project means a fundamentalshift of national priorities with financial resourcesand political support directed towards an enhancedimage of the new city (Figure 4). More importantly,it demarcated a new level of capitalist urbanism inwhich private sector developers can for the first timebuild a ‘Capital City’; as an unmistakable gestureof the new wave of neoliberal urban, political, andfinancial power that sweeps aside the state, thestate will be its tenant. This highlighted the funda-mental paradigm shift that is heading in the oppo-site direction of the mid-20th century’s nation-statesovereignty. National identity in that sense cannotescape corporate commercialisation and profit-making strategies (Harvey, 2005; Sassen 2009).Released photographs were selected carefully tounleash hope of a promising future for the city withnothing in common with its old sister.

Furthermore, Egypt’s record in developing

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fast-track satellite cities around Cairo has beenunimpressive over the past five decades. DavidSims (2010) and Gehan Selim (2012 and 2015)highlight the inherited and largely ignorant top-down planning policies and practices in Egypt thatcaused more accumulated problems than offeredsolutions. The cities of Sixth of October, Al-Obour,Madinat al-Sadat, the Tenth of Ramadan were builtin an attempt to ‘reconstruct the demographic mapof Egypt’, attract a growing population, and dis-perse industrial and commercial activities outside ofCairo (Tarbush, 2012 Feiler, 1992).

Planned in 1960s and built during the 1970s and1980s, it took them until the 2000s to stand a seri-ous chance of success. Based on historic evidence,it is safe to assert that it takes up to 40-50 years ofcontinuous investments and substantial shift insociopolitical demography for a new Capital City tostand any chance of success and to realize basiclevels of liveability. According to neoliberal ideolo-gies, this is not a profit-generating project and suchlong-term gains are no good reward for corporateinvestments. The withdrawal of the foreign investorwas inevitable and befitting with neoliberal urban-

Figure 3. The Capital City Project. (Source: Author).

Figure 4. Emphasis on the links with Cairo and the High-rise central district. (Source: http://thecapitalcairo.com).

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CONCLUSION

Similar to the released images of the proposedCapital City, European Quarters of Ismaili Cairo in1870s-1890s were portrayed as elegant, progres-sive, and advanced (Lare-Pool, 1902). Garden Citywas the Egyptian equivalent of European aristo-crats’ residences in the French and English country-side (Volait, 2009; Mynitti, 1999, AlSayyad, 2011;Abdelmonem, 2015). However, only decades later,they were flooded by an influx of internal migrationof middle-class officers and state employees asoccupants. Egypt’s current project of the CapitalCity resembles a new territory in sociopoliticalapplications of neoliberal urbanism that movedbeyond the exclusive living culture to the one thatdeals with the state as a sub-structure, a tenant,and a shared partner. The project would most prob-ably go down in history as an over-ambitious plan-ning experiment that offered intriguing encountersof the hegemony of neoliberal urbanism and itspeculiar capitalist architecture. In case of theunlikely success of the experiment, the new city willeither evolve as a resort-like extravagant politicaland business hub where elitist culture and exclusivelifestyle is predominant, a forbidden city of sorts, orit will follow the normative course of its predeces-sors and attract a flow of middle-class residents,traders, labourers and disappear in the ever grow-ing landscape. Both scenarios are no good newsfor those who look for neoliberal urbanism as asource of hope for better urban environment, mar-ket driven equality, and social coherence.

But these concerns about neoliberal urban-ism are not new. In fact, much of urban develop-ments in the region owe much to the capitalistinvestments into high architecture, public services,and commercial markets over centuries. The limita-tion of neoliberal ideology could never been clear-er than its visible forms of gated communities andwealthy urban quarters that cause not only divisionin the urban landscape and social structure, butincrease the vulnerability of the city to sustain itsfunctions. In general, cities must suffer a full cycleof flourish; struggle, desperation, and the neoliber-al city is no different. If we are to understand theurban phenomenon of new capital cities, we mustrealise the full cycle of its inherent integration in itscontext and its needs to hierarchical levels of ser-vices, labour, and flow of people and goods. Citiesevolve around needs and an interconnected supplyof capital, opportunities, and social coherence. TheNeo-Capital of NeoLiberal urbanism is simply anunachievable dream and hardly lasts few decades,

before the necessary flow of capital balances itselfacross the city and its supply chain. Capital is likewater that must move through the sieves of urbanfabric to feed into hotspots of needs and demands;interruption of this flow demands high levels ofunsustainable security, costly infrastructure, and anetwork of supply that make the city more vulnera-ble to self-sustain its needs to flourish at difficulttimes.

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Author

M. Gamal AbdelmonemSchool of Architecture & Built EnvironmentUniversity of WolverhamptonWolverhampton WV1 1LY, United [email protected]

Buket Asilsoy, Derya Oktay

AbstractThe significance of ecological citizenship for the sustainable urbanism discourse has been highly recognised in recentyears. Targeting to adopt ecological citizenship as a lifestyle among urban residents appears potentially significant andurgent for the city of Famagusta, North Cyprus. As a result of unsustainable urban development, Famagusta dictates anew way of living to its inhabitants that is not familiar to them in terms of local sociocultural characteristics and envi-ronmental values. Therefore, a user survey was carried out among local people, within a random sample of 165 resi-dents, in order to obtain scientific data that may be used for the needed planning policies. Within the survey, environ-mental attitudes of the residents were measured with the help of Dunlop and Van Liere’s New Environmental Paradigm(NEP) scale. The aim was to understand the level of their existing environmental worldview, one of the basic aspects ofecological citizenship. The results of the survey reveal that Famagusta residents’ existing environmental attitudes can-not achieve an adequate level in order to be one of the dynamics shaping their lifestyles. However, residents have slight-ly more than a medium level of environmental worldview.

Keywords: Sustainable Urbanism, Ecological Citizenship, Nep Scale, User Survey, Famagusta.

MEASURING THE POTENTIAL FOR ECOLOGICAL CITI-ZENSHIP AMONG RESIDENTS IN FAMAGUSTA,NORTH CYPRUS.

INTRODUCTION

With the help of the knowledge and wisdomderived from the concept of sustainable urbanism,existing physical environments of many cities havebeen enhanced and new developments have beenplanned in order to be sustainable and ecological-ly responsive. When we evaluate cities that can becharacterised as green, ecologically based on dif-ferent dimensions, it can easily be grasped that theecologically concerned inhabitants as citizens areone of the primary dynamics of their sustainabilityefforts. These citizens adopting ecologically con-cerned lifestyles with their values, attitudes, andbehavior, have become significant catalysts of thewhole process. It can be suggested that both thereason for and the result of sustainability efforts arethese ecologically responsive citizens. On the onehand, they can be the civil power exerting pressureon their local and/ or governmental institutionsabout environmental issues; on the contrary, theyare the ones using, promoting, and enhancingrelated implementations of cities’ ecologicaldimensions such as recycling, green consuming,sustainable transportation, etc.

Therefore, focusing, examining, and evalu-ating everyday practices, attitudes, and behaviourwith an aim of achieving more sustainable andecological urban communities in cities have

increased within sustainable urbanism discourse. Inthis context, ecological citizenship has been intro-duced as a new dimension of ecologically respon-sive cities. Both academics, policy makers, andenvironmentalists seek to find strategies and toolsthat make the behavioural changes for modernurban societies.

In line with these, this paper looks at thecity of Famagusta, a city that has faced a rapid,unsustainable urban growth and decreased allthese dynamics and environmental values it used tohave in the older times. It seems that developingstrategies towards environmentally concernedlifestyles appears as a significant need for the city ofFamagusta in North Cyprus. Once having a richdiversity of cultural, natural, and local characteris-tics and values, Famagusta recently has facedrapid, unsustainable urban growth. The city dictatesa new way of living to its inhabitants that is notfamiliar to them in terms of local sociocultural char-acteristics and sensitivity to environmental values.Neither the urban form and layout nor the policiesand institutions are adequate to positively influencethe environment and environmental attitudes.

In this study, existing environmental (eco-centric and anthropocentric) attitudes ofFamagusta’s residents are examined. It is believedthat scientific evidence of the study may be used forpossible environmentally based policy strategies as op

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such strategies appear as a significant need.Additionally, the study helps achieve scientific dataabout environmentalism in a non-Western context,which is rare compared to that in the Western con-text.

The limitations of the study are related topossible misunderstandings regarding the nature ofthe study. In this context, we should emphasise thepoint that, although there is a remarkable amountof research indicating the significance of environ-mental attitude as a variable, the existence of envi-ronmental attitudes is not the certain indicator ofmaking the individual an ecological citizen. On thecontrary, environmental action is a complexresearch area with multi-determinants. In otherwords, there is no absolute proof that an individualwith a high level of ecological worldview wouldhave environmental behaviour as a lifestyle.However, the evidence can provide an opportunityto understand if there is any potential for adoptingecological citizenship as a lifestyle via environmen-tal behavior.

Within this perspective, the paper first pro-vides a critical review of the relevant literature. Itthen introduces the case with its demographic andgeographic characteristics. Next, the method ofuser survey, including the sample, interview sched-ule, and measures are presented, and the surveyfindings are displayed and discussed. Finally, thefindings are interpreted on the basis of the scholar-ship reviewed and recommendations are made forresponsive and eco-friendly policy strategies, alongwith opportunities for further analysis of the data.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Ecological ci tizenshipEcological citizenship as a term is still a developingconcept. The content, meaning, and definition ofthis term differ within the context of ‘greening’ thecitizenship. Accordingly, different suggestions aremade to define the term.

Several theoretical works mostly prefer to define theconcept of ecological citizenship within the politicalsciences (Barry, 2006; Dobson, 2003; Gustavssonand Elander, 2013; Spaargaren and Oosterveer,2010). On the other hand, there are academicsemphasising the role of daily activities as a signifi-cant aspect of the term (Carter and Huby, 2005;Horton, 2005; Jagers and Matti, 2010; Kennedy,2011; Seyfang, 2006). According to such studies,it is crucial to conceptualise the connection of eco-logical citizenship to environmental behaviour.

Based on related literature, focusing on personal

duties as obligations firstly in and around homewithin the private sphere seems to be more eligibleand effective. Within this scope, environmentalbehaviour performed in everyday life of the individ-uals is the key element that makes the differencebetween the traditional and ecological citizen.These daily practices constructing ecological citi-zenship can be grouped into the following sixbehavioural categories.

1) Energy saving2) Water conservation3) Waste management4) Sustainable transportation5) Green consumption6) Public participation.

Environmental at ti tudesQuestions emerged about investigating the nature,structure, and constructs of environmental actionfor the greening of communities, since the late1970’s. There are many researches focusing on thedeterminants of environmental behaviour (Ajzen,1991; Carrus, Passafarro and Bonnes, 2008;Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Perugini and Bagozzi,2004).

Mostly starting from the 1980’s, there areresearches considering the values that affect thebehaviour. Within this spectrum of research focus-ing on values, environmental attitudes as value ori-entations has been evaluated as a significant focusarea (Casey and Scott, 2006; Fielding et al., 2008;Kaiser et al., 1999; Ogunbode, 2013; Rauwaldand Moore, 2002; Schultz et al. 2000).

In order to make a clarification, there is anecessity to define the meaning of ‘value’, ‘belief’,and ‘value orientation’. According to Rokeach(1973), values are conceptualised as important lifegoals or standards which serve as guiding princi-ples in a person’s life. They are culturally ingrainedmodes of conduct that tend to remain constantthroughout an individual’s lifetime. Broad valuesprovide the foundation upon which beliefs areformed through observation, inference, or first-hand experience. Beliefs represent an individual’sassessment of themselves, environment, events,objects, and other people (Fishbein and Ajzen,2010). Sets of salient beliefs give rise to overarch-ing value orientations, which regulate the directionand intensity of an individual’s stance on a particu-lar object or issue (Fulton, et al., 1996; Vaske,2008, cited in Waight and Bath, 2014).

In the context of environmental behaviourresearch, three types of value orientations havebeen identified: egoistic, social altruistic and bio-centric environmental attitudes. Egoistic environ-mental attitudes are based on beliefs about the

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effect that environmental destruction may have onthe individual. Social altruistic environmental atti-tudes are based on human benefits or humangoals. Biocentric attitudes centre on the inherentvalue of the natural environment

Additionally there are researchers who pro-pose two motives instead of three, in relation toenvironmental issues. Within this perspective, ego-istic and social altruistic dimensions merge into asingle dimension in which the human being wouldbe the centre of the relation. Thus, anthropocentricindividuals would value the environment becauseof its contribution to the quality of human life.Another motive is the ecocentric environmental atti-tude. It can be added that the ecocentric attitude issimilar to the biocentric attitude. According to theecocentric view, the individual and the environmentwould be on equal terms, forming a unit.

New environmental paradigm There have been different measures seeking toinvestigate environmental attitudes. Among theseinstruments, Dunlop and Van Liere’s NewEnvironmental Paradigm (NEP) scale has becomeone of the most prominent scientific tools measur-ing the environmental attitudes, beliefs, values andworldview. The theoretical background for thedevelopment of the NEP scale was the authors’recognition that it was possible to identify anemerging ecocentric system of beliefs that chal-lenged the dominant anthropocentric system ofbeliefs current in Western societies (Hawcroft andMilfront, 2010). Current anthropocentric systemwas named the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP)and the emerging ecocentric system was named theNew Environmental Paradigm (NEP). According tothe DSP, humans are separate from nature, howev-er, NEP views humans as an integral part of nature.Therefore, the NEP scale proposes two types ofenvironmental attitudes in relation to environmentalissues: anthropocentric and ecocentric.

Another significant point about the scale isthat NEP and DSP were theoretically related toSchwartz’s (1999) harmony-mastery cultural valuedimension. Additionally, both the original andrevised versions of the NEP scale are designed totap into three and five related facets of environ-mental attitudes respectively (Dunlop and Van Liere,1978; Dunlop, et al., 2000).

The NEP scale was originally based on ascale of 12 items (Dunlop and Van Liere, 1978). Itwas revised and a scale with 15 items was devel-oped (Dunlop, et al., 2000). The authors arguethat besides achieving a better balance betweenpro- and anti- statements, to broaden the contentof the scale beyond the original three facets of bal-ance of nature, limits to growth, and antianthro-

pocentrism, were the goals to revise the theory.Within this perspective, the revised NEP

scale, achieving five facets, consists of 15 itemsincluding one ecocentric statement (1, 3, 5, 7, 9,11, 13, 15) and one anthropocentric (2, 4, 6, 8,10, 12, 14) statement. Table 1 shows these 15items; three items were designed to tap each of thefive hypothesised facets of an ecological worldview.

THE RESEARCH CONTEXT

The CaseFamagusta situated on the eastern coast of theisland of Cyprus, is the second largest city ofNorthern Cyprus with a population of 47,538inhabitants (TRNC 2011 Population and DwellingCensus).

Fig. 1. Location of the city of Famagusta in theregional and country scale (Source: Authors).

Famagusta has developed throughout seven partic-ular periods including the early periods (648-1192), the Lusignan (1192-1489), the Venetian(1489-1571), the Ottoman (1571-1878), theBritish (1878-1960), the Greek-Turkish (1960-1974) and the Turkish period after the division in1974. The city was a significant regional centre oftrade and tourism before 1974 and thereafter, itexperienced a significant recession period followedby severe decline in tourism and commerce func-tions until the early 1980’s. Eastern MediterraneanUniversity (EMU) which was founded in 1979, has

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Table 1. Revised New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) items.(Source: Dunlop et al., 2000).

created a new dynamism and a new momentumwithin the city. With nearly 14,000 students from 67different countries, EMU has been a significant fac-tor in the overall economic and social structure ofthe city over the last three decades. Today,Famagusta accommodates a full diversity of resi-dents, including the local Turkish Cypriots, immi-grants who have come from the southern part ofthe island and different parts of Turkey since 1974and university staff and students from many coun-tries (Oktay, 2005). EMU plays a significant role inthe socioeconomic life of the city.

While increasing the commercial functions,EMU has been one of the main reasons for rapidand unsustainable urban development. The univer-sity has perpetuated uncontrollable and hastyurban development in the form of multi-storeyhousing, inappropriate additions to existing houses,and incompatible land uses scattered throughout

the city (Oktay, et al., 2012). Additionally, theuncertain status of the Varosha region (an areaevacuated after 1974 by United Nations demarca-tion decision) has caused a cease in terms of devel-opment and construction functions in nearby quar-ters of the city. As a result, the city as a whole has alinear urban development with a scattered urbanpattern lacking the effective use of urban open andgreen spaces and a town centre. However, asOktay and Pontikis (2008) argue, streets, court-yards, squares, fruit gardens, and well-defined gar-dens with local vegetation and landscaping weresignificant characteristics of older settlements in theCypriot towns (Figure 2). Furthermore, due to thelack of legislations, implementations, and any mas-ter plan, urban infrastructure facilities such as apublic transportation system, waste managementsystems, urban ecology, and biodiversity are alsoinefficient or absent.

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Figure 1. Location of the city of Famagusta in the regional and country scale (Source: Authors).

Figure 2. A typical image of a traditional Cypriot settlement (Source: T. N. Toufexis, in Lazarides, 2004).

These development tendencies have also affectedthe social structure of Famagusta’s residents.Although the concept of local community with closerelationship to each other, high sense of place, andsensitivity to environmental values was a significantaspect in traditional Cypriot towns, in the new set-tlements, it is observed that the perception of localcommunity and environmentally based living is notsupported. This new unsustainable lifestyle isrevealed with situations like highly numbers of carsin each household (mean = 2.04) and relativelyhigh preferences of newly developed peri-urbanquarters with low density and single function, in ascattered urban layout (Oktay, 2010).

METHODOLOGY

The SampleA random sample of 165 residents between 16and 75 years old within the territory of Famagustamunicipality including all 16 quarters were chosenfor the user survey. The number of participants fromeach of the 16 quarters was decided according tothe ratio of the quarter’s population to the city’swhole population. The respondents were selectedrandomly in each sample area for filling out aquestionnaire form.

Gender: 37.6 percent of the 165 participants werefemale and 62.4 percent were male.

Age: 30.9 percent of the participants in the studywere between the ages of 26 and 40. 28.5 percentwere between 16 and 25 and 24.8 percent werebetween 41 and 55 years old. The remaining 9.7percent were between 56 and 65 years old and 6.1percent were between 66 and 75.

Educat ion: The largest portion (48.5 percent)among the participants had a high-school degree.16.4 percent had a university degree. 13.3 percenthad a secondary school degree. 12.7 percent hada primary school degree, and 7.9 percent had amaster or PhD degree. A non-significant portion(1.2 percent) was without a degree.

The administration and application of thefield study were carried out with the help of the sur-vey firm ‘The Management Centre of theMediterranean’, a fully resourced survey supportcentre. The field study was undertaken starting fromthe second week of April 2013 until the first weekof June 2013, in a time period of 7 weeks.

The Interv iew scheduleThe research was part of a questionnaire includinga set of questions that fall under four importanttitles. Those titles were as follows: ‘Environmental

awareness and concern’, ‘Environmental attitudes’,‘Environmental behavior’, and ‘Socio-demograph-ic data’.

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Table 5. User survey’s characteristics.

Table 4. Participants’ education profile (%).

Table 2. Participants’ gender profile (%).

Table 3. Participants’ age profile (%).

Measure

Environmental worldview: The environmentalattitudes were measured with the help of NewEnvironmental Paradigm (NEP) scale including 15items (Dunlop, et al., 2000) in the second sectionof the questionnaire. Likert type five-point scale(strongly disagree to strongly agree) was used torecord the participants’ responses for each item.The answers for the eight odd numbered ecocentricitems were coded as 5= STRONGLY AGREE, 4=AGREE, 3= UNSURE, 2= DISAGREE, or 1=STRONGLY DISAGREE and the answers for theseven even numbered anthropocentric items werereverse coded. According to the NEP scale, it isexpected to have agreement with the ecocentricitems and disagreement with anthropocentric itemsfor achieving an ecological worldview.

RESULTS

The NEP Scale, the measure used in the study, wasanalysed in order to test reliability and the alpha-reliability result of the fifteen-item scale. The resultsrevealed that the scale had Cronbach’s alpha valueof .77, which showed that the scale had good reli-ability.

In total, the mean score of the participantsis calculated as 3.52. As it is accepted that a NEPmean score of 3 is the boundary between ananthropocentric and ecocentric worldview (Rideout,et al., 2005; Van Petegam and Blieck, 2006), theresult showed that the respondents had a mediumlevel of ecological worldview. In other words, thefindings suggest that environmental attitudesamong the sample are slightly close to be charac-terised by the NEP, rather than the DSP.

Ecocentr ic att i tudesThe participants’ agreement (strongly agree oragree) was more than disagreement (strongly dis-agree or disagree) about all of the ecocentric state-ments. Moreover they replied ‘strongly agree’ or‘agree’ to almost all of the eight statements withhigh percentages.

The percentage of the ecocentric item “11.The earth is like a spaceship with very limited roomand resources”, that has the least agreement(strongly agree or agree) is 43.1 percent. Anothersmall level of agreement is for the item “9. Despiteour special abilities, humans are still subject to thelaws of nature’; 57.6 percent replied ‘stronglyagree’ or ‘agree’. The percentages of the agree-ment (strongly agree or agree) with the rest of thesix ecocentric items are more than 70 percent. Thehighest agreement (strongly agree or agree) among

the participants is for the item “7. Plants and ani-mals have as much right as humans to exist”. 34.5percent agree and 61.2 percent strongly agree withthis ecocentric item.

Anthropocentr ic at t i tudesThe participants’ agreement was slightly below theaverage but again the agreement (‘strongly agree’or ‘agree’) is more than the disagreement (stronglydisagree or disagree) about most of these anthro-pocentric statements.

Their disagreement is more than agree-ment for merely two anthropocentric statements.77.6 percent replied ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly dis-agree’ to the item “6. The earth has plenty of nat-ural resources if we just learn how to develop them”and 50.3 percent replied ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly dis-agree’ to another item “14. Humans will eventuallylearn enough about how nature works to be able tocontrol it”. For the rest of the five anthropocentricitems, the participants replied ‘agree’ or ‘stronglyagree’ with percentages of at least 45 percent.

Additionally, when the findings are evaluat-ed in terms of NEP facets, participants’ mean scoreson the NEP subscales exhibited that ‘the possibilityof an ecological crisis’ NEP facet had the highestendorsement (mean= 3.87) and ‘rejection ofexemptionalism’ and ‘the reality of limits to growth’NEP facets had the weakest level of endorsement(mean= 3.1).

In other words, they exhibited strong beliefin detrimental harm to the physical environmentcaused by humans (the possibility of an ecologicalcrisis). On the contrary, they achieved strong beliefin human beings’ right to modify and control thenatural environment (antianthropocentrisim).

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Table 6. The respondents’ suggestions to NEP Items (%).

CONCLUSION

Ecological citizenship is the emerging dimension ofsustainable urbanism and environmental behaviourconceptualised within six categories is the nucleusof this term. Environmental attitudes are significantdeterminants of environmental behaviour. In thisstudy, environmental attitudes of Famagusta’s resi-dents were examined. As a theory based instru-ment, a revised (NEP) scale was used as the mea-sure.

The findings suggest that environmentalattitudes among the sample are slightly close to becharacterized by the NEP, rather than the DSP. AsNEP views humans as an integral part of nature, itcan be argued that Famagusta’s residents some-how intend to live in harmony with nature.

Obviously, these findings seem to beremarkable. As a non-industrialised community, theevidence would be expected to reveal higher NEPscore. In other words, it seems that, as there is alack of appropriate circumstances to positivelyinfluence environmental attitudes and behavior,Famagusta’s residents’ existing environmental atti-tudes cannot achieve an adequate level in order tobe one of the dynamics shaping their lifestyles.Contradictious evidence of NEP facets is anothersign that residents have the lack of a strong envi-ronmental worldview.

However, it should be acknowledged thatthe ecological basis of residents is not totallydestroyed; they still like to believe that they are part

of the nature. It seems that values hidden in theirunique traditions and sociocultural dynamics helppeople acquire this ecological background. As anon-industrialised community, Cypriots once hadmany advantages of adopting environmentallyresponsive lifestyles. Traditional Cypriot cuisine andvernacular Cypriot architecture and settlements aresignificant indicators of that consequence.

In line with these, possible strategies maydirectly focus on strengthening the existing ecocen-tric attitudes of the residents. Residents’ unique tra-ditions, sociocultural background, and aspects oftraditional Cypriot settlements may be a guidingframework for this purpose. In this respect, sustain-able environments may be an efficient, direct solu-tion to increase environmentally based living.Based on the evidence, the residents have thepotential to use the facilities of sustainable urbanenvironments (waste management systems, publictransportation services, parks, sport fields, pedestri-an and bicycle lanes, and so forth). Additionally, asthe residents are slightly close to be characterisedby the NEP, environmentally based education maybe another efficient tool to increase the existingenvironmental attitudes.

The authors are confident that the surveymaterials used in this study could be used in othercontexts, and environmental attitudes may be mea-sured in other cities of North Cyprus in order toobtain more comprehensive evidence. At this point,for future research, it should be remembered thatthere are several other determinants that need to besurveyed to understand the dynamics of environ-mental behaviour as the nucleus of ecologicallybased living. For instance, environmental aware-ness, behavioural intentions, psychological vari-ables, and situational variables are all disparatedeterminants that need to be surveyed in relation toenvironmental action. Additionally, general valueswhere environmental attitudes are rooted is anoth-er significant predictor that deserves to be investi-gated. The relationship between general valuesand environmental attitudes might also be the focusof further research. These further studies can enableus to answer the complex question appropriately:‘How can the environmentally responsive living beconstituted?’

Finally, it should be added that thestrengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threatsmay differ in each case from one country to anoth-er or from one nation to another, such that in eachcase, the role of each determinant needs to beevaluated individually. With the help of culturalbackground, existing traditions and values maysupport the individuals to adopt environmentallyresponsive lifestyles via performing environmentalbehavior in and around home daily, more than

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Table 7. Respondents’ mean scores on NEP facets.

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other determinants. In another case, environmentalawareness achieved by various methods such asthrough lifelong education can be the opportunityof a country or the promotion of sustainable urbanenvironments with mixed land uses, walkable andbikable streets, household recycling facilities or sus-tainable modes of transportation, as situationalvariables, can positively and directly influence thebehavioral intension. Therefore, the questions suchas ‘which determinant is strengthening the achieve-ment of environmental behavior?’ or oppositely ‘inthis case, which component is becoming a threat toadopting environmentally responsive lifestyles?’should be asked openly in policy studies aiming tounderstand and adopt environmental behaviour.

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Author

Buket Asi lsoyDepartment of Landscape ArchitectureFaculty of ArchitectureNear East University, Northern [email protected],[email protected]

Derya OktayDepartment of ArchitectureFaculty of ArchitectureOndokuz Mayis University, Samsun, [email protected]; [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION: THE EVOLUTION OF HOUS-ING IN GULF CITIES

Until the oil production introduced modern urbani-sation, housing typologies had been the result ofself-built processes within tribal societies and thus adirect expression of local culture, climate, andavailable building materials. Furthermore, themigration of merchant families from Iran and Indiaduring the pearl trade era in the 19th century hasled to a certain knowledge-transfer of buildingtechniques, such as the introduction of wind towers(Hawker, Hull, and Rouhani, 2005). Each neigh-bourhood, known as fereej, was inhabited byhomogeneous social groups, often related to each

other (Pallathucheril, 2015, p. 99). The typical fam-ily dwelling was the introverted courtyard house,usually attached to surrounding buildings(Wiedmann, Salama, and Thierstein, 2012, p. 36).

The first phase of rapid urbanisation com-menced in the middle of the 20th century and wasenabled by the quick reinvestment of first oil rev-enues in infrastructure projects including basic roadnetworks and utilities. The subsequent migrationfrom rural areas in addition to the vast migration ofmillions of guest workers led to the first urbanagglomerations, whose structure was mainlydefined by the first infrastructural networks. In gen-eral, two major phases of new housing develop-ments have led to a completely new morphology ofsettlements in the Gulf region during the oil urban-isation:

Firstly, the arrival of the rural native popu-lation in combination with the general objective toimprove living conditions caused the developmentof low-rise residential areas in the periphery of pre-vious historic settlement cores. And second, thewidespread move of a large part of the native pop-ulation from central areas to these new suburbanareas led to an extensive demolition process of tra-ditional neighbourhoods, which were replaced bymodern multi-story developments (AL Hathloul andMughal, 2004). This second phase of developmenthad two major characteristics: the old central mar-ket areas were developed by the new road grid andsubsequently expanded to become the main com-mercial districts. The first apartment buildings werebuilt within and in proximity to these areas, where

Florian Wiedmann, Ashraf M. Salama, Hatem G. Ibrahim

AbstractSince the end of the 1990s, large-scale mega projects have been initiated in Gulf cities to enable an unprecedentedurban growth and the expansion of new economic sectors. In this respect, mega projects have played a key role inredefining housing developments in Gulf cities. This paper explores the newly emerging housing typologies and theirdistinctive roles in defining new urban environments. The selected case studies are located in the Jumeirah District inDubai, which can be seen as the first prototype of a large cohesive development area that has been built of nine ratherdiffering mega projects including the iconic Palm project and one of the largest residential high-rise agglomerations inthe Middle East. The paper is based on the evaluation of official planning data from each project as well as field obser-vations. Conclusions are drawn to highlight key implications while identifying housing development tendencies.

Keywords: Mega Projects, Housing, Urbanism, Dubai, Gulf.

THE ROLE OF MEGA PROJECTS IN REDEFININGHOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN GULF CITIES.

Figure 1. Suburban villas of native inhabitants in the UnitedArab Emirates. (Source: Authors).

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rahimthey replaced the traditional neighbourhoods. The

result of this transformation was an increasinglydense mixed-use downtown area surrounded by asprawling residential urban periphery relying on thecar as the main mode of transportation (Figure 1)(Wiedmann, 2012, p. 26).

This rather basic urban structure and devel-opment pattern was followed during the subse-quent decades and the emergence of the first mas-ter plans during the 1970s (Scholz, 1999, p. 77).Thus, downtown areas became more and moredensely built leading to first agglomerations ofdense blocks and first towers, as it can be observedin the case of Abu Dhabi City, while suburban areasexpanded due to the continuous distribution of res-idential land and subsequent infrastructural devel-opment, including the integration of shoppingmalls. The new shopping mall complexes enabledthe urban periphery to increasingly detach from theold historic market areas, which have gradually losttheir previous significance as main retail centresand leisure spaces for all inhabitants, while mostworking places hardly moved from central areasand commercial growth corridors (Salama andWiedmann, 2013, p. 33).

At the end of the 20th century, a new devel-opment vision was introduced to establish Gulfcities as international hubs in order to diversify localeconomies. This new development phase was firstinitiated in cities, such as Dubai and Manama,where the local oil production receded. But due tothe rapid impact on urban and thus economicgrowth, the new development strategies wereadopted in various cities, including Doha and AbuDhabi, where the production of oil and gas hasenabled the public sector to reinvest revenues innew economic development strategies (Schmid,2008 and 2009). This new phase of economictransformation is mainly rooted in the vision toestablish oil-independent service economies bybenefiting from the fortunate geopolitical locationbetween regional and global markets. This visionwas followed by distinctive public investment strate-gies in infrastructure, services, and certain land-mark developments in combination with the liberal-isation of markets by introducing free economiczones and by permitting regional and foreigninvestors to participate in local real-estate markets(Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah, and Al-Mutawa, 2006).

Consequently, the resulting constructionboom has led to a second major urban transfor-mation process in Gulf cities. Large scale develop-ers and their mega projects have begun to play keyroles in developing large areas of desert land in avery short period of time. Housing markets them-selves have furthermore diversified due to the moveof higher income migrant groups engaged in the

new service economies. This paper thereforeexplores the new housing typologies, which havebeen the result of recent development dynamicsand which have redefined urban environments inGulf cities in most recent years.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

This paper is based on an analysis and evaluationof all key mega projects, which have been devel-oped in Dubai’s Western Jumeirah district, which isalso known as New Dubai, since 1999. In com-parison to other Gulf cities, mega projects in Dubaiare the product of an intense development periodof more than 16 years and are thus more diversi-fied and can look back on various planning modi-fications. Dubai can furthermore be seen as a rolemodel and thus testing ground of various newhousing typologies in terms of market dynamics.

Research for this paper includes the collec-tion of all key data for each mega project, such asthe projected population, the number of housingunits, the basic land uses and the built typologies.This data was collected from developers and theirofficial documentation and websites. Furthermore,site visits were used to explore the current state ofdevelopment. The new master planning efforts fromthe Dubai Municipality were furthermore evaluatedregarding the general role of the Jumeirah districtsand the multitude of mega projects.

THE CASE OF NEW DUBAI

The New Dubai district in Western Jumeirahbecame the first address for residential freeholdproperty developments after the Emirates Golf Clubwas founded in 1988 and several hotels includingthe Burj Al Arab were built during the 1990s alongJumeirah's coast. The new district extension is locat-ed at the Western coastline in a distance of around20 kilometers from the old center at the DubaiCreek. The district is part of the main growth corri-dor along Sheikh Zayed Road towards Jebel Aliand the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (Figure 2). The con-venient location and already existing infrastructuralsupply due to the main highways prompted thedeveloper Emaar to build its very first freeholdproperty project, called Emirates Hills, in NewDubai in 1999.

Over the course of the following years theEmirates Hills project was expanded through sever-al developments including the Springs, theMeadows, the Lakes, the Views, and the Greensinto one large development area called EmiratesLiving, which is home to approximately 40,000

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people. The whole area is about 12.3 square kilo-meters and is predominantly occupied by two-storyvillas (Emirates Living, 2015). Apartment buildingswere built within the projects the Views and theGreens as well as within several smaller projects inthe north of the development. In the case ofEmirates Hills, the master developer Emaar hasbuilt the basic infrastructure and provided freeholdproperties in the form of undeveloped large-scaleplots of about 40 x 100 square meters, which havebeen designed and constructed individually by eachindividual investor. Most areas of the neighboringprojects however were developed by the masterdeveloper itself by constructing a reduced set of dif-ferent types of villa. The special feature of EmiratesLiving is the vast area of unbuilt land in the form ofmore than 20 artificial lakes and a golf courseoccupying more than 35% of the whole develop-ment. Furthermore, instead of an orthogonal roadnetwork, an ornamental layout was chosen for thedevelopments, creating an individual structure withwinding streets.

Apart from these suburban housing areas,which have been set up as semi-gated communi-ties, several new ‘free economic zones’ have beendeveloped in order to create business areas closeto the new suburbs. In 2000, Dubai Internet City(DIC) was established as the first free zone inJumeirah providing optimised business opportuni-ties for international technology, software, and

internet companies such as HP, Microsoft, IBM, andSiemens. In 2009, more than 1,200 companieswere already settled in DIC, creating more than10,000 jobs (Dubai Internet City, 2015). In addi-tion to DIC, the company TECOM, which wasestablished as a subsidiary of Dubai in order toinvest in the knowledge-based economy, launchedDubai Media City (DMC) in 2001. In 2003,TECOM initiated the development of DubaiKnowledge Village (DKV) as part of the overall freezone conglomerate represented by the DubaiCreative Clusters Authority (DCCA). Various resi-dential projects, such as large compounds with vil-las and low-rise apartment buildings in addition to

Figure 3. The various compound developments within theDubai Internet City and Dubai Media City. (Source: GoogleEarth).

Figure 2. The New Dubai district and its nine main mega projects. (Source: Authors and Google Earth).

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rahimfew residential towers have been integrated (Figure

3). The free zone is situated between Sheikh ZayedRoad and the coast with an area in the south-eastcovering about 350 hectare to allow for futureexpansion. In the center of the conglomerate, theconstruction of the project Dubai Pearl has beenstarted on a circular area to form a commercialcentre and a residential complex of connectedhigh-rise buildings to house approximately 29,000residents and visitors (Dubai Pearl, 2015).

A bypass leading from TECOM’s DubaiInternet City and Media City forms the starting pointof one of Dubai’s biggest landmarks – the PalmJumeirah. A 300-metre long bridge leads to thebeginning of the artificial islands, which are shapedin the form of a palm with a 2 km long trunk and16 fronds protected by an 11 km long crescentfunctioning as a breakwater. In addition to a mono-rail, which runs from the crescent over a bridge anddown the trunk to the coast, an 800 metre long tun-nel at the top of the palm connects the crescent tothe palm. Since 2001, more than 92 million cubicmeters of sand have been needed to create thewhole landmass on an area of about 550 hectare,which has added about 78 km of new coast line.Since 2009, 1,400 villas and 20 multi-story apart-ment buildings provide about 2,500 housing units(Figure 4). The whole project covers an area of 5 x5 km and mainly consists of luxury freehold prop-erties and 32 hotels and resorts (Nakheel (1),2015).

In addition to the growing number of resi-dence units on the Palm project itself, it has attract-ed new housing projects along the coast offeringviews on the artificial islands. One of these devel-opments is Emaar’s Dubai Marina, a conglomerateof residential high-rise buildings along one of thelargest man-made marinas in the world. Since2003, the project has been developed in differentstages on an area of around 400 hectare for more

than 100,000 future residents (Emaar, 2015). Inthe year 2014, Dubai Marina housed 28,361inhabitants, which is an indicator of a rather highvacancy rate in spite of several tower projects stillunder development (Dubai Statistics Authority,2014). After a 3.6 kilometer long artificial channelwas dug, the first residential towers were built in theeast of the project as well as the promenade alongthe marina (Figure 5). Most of the towers have anaverage height of between 130 and 200 metersand are generally designed as freehold propertiesoffering various sizes of apartments for the upperreal estate market. About nine high-rise buildingsare currently being developed with a height of over300 meters, including the 516 metre tallPentominium, which is still under construction.

Between the coast and Emaar’s DubaiMarina, a second residential high-rise developmentfor about 30,000 residents was completed byDubai Properties in 2007 – the Jumeirah BeachResidence, which includes 36 residential towersand four hotel towers spreading along the 1.7 kmlong shoreline (Figure 6) (Dubai Properties, 2015).The third and second largest development of ahigh-rise conglomerate in Jumeirah is Nakheel’sJumeirah Lake Towers stretching over an area of180 hectare on the opposite side of Sheikh ZayedRoad along the Dubai Marina. The whole develop-ment is known as the first mixed-use free economiczone of Dubai, including 79 towers, which pre-dominantly are residential towers for more than60,000 people and office towers for more than120,000 working visitors. The towers with 35 to 45floors are clustered in groups of three, surroundedby four artificial lakes covering an area of about 18hectares. In the south of the project, Nakheel hasdeveloped a smaller high-rise project calledJumeirah Heights offering about 2,300 residenceswithin four high-rise buildings and six multi-storyapartment blocks (Nakheel (2), 2015).

Figure 5. The Dubai Marina project and its residential tow-ers. (Source. Authors).

Figure 4. The apartment buildings at the trunk of the PalmJumeirah under construction in 2008. (Source: Authors).

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The project Jumeirah Heights marks not only theend of what is currently Dubai’s biggest high-riseagglomeration, it is also designed to be part ofanother signature project of Nakheel in Jumeirah –the Jumeirah Islands. The 300 hectare develop-ment consists of 46 clusters of man-made islandssurrounded by artificial lakes. The 736 villas havebeen developed in different sizes in order to attractvarious investors. Along the borders of this devel-opment Nakheel has launched the projectJumeirah Park, which includes 2,000 villas andabout 10 apartment buildings in the centre on anarea of more than 350 hectares. Around three dif-ferent architectural designs and nine different sizesof villa have been developed for the entire project(Nakheel (2), 2015).

Most development sites of the nine megaprojects in New Dubai have been developed sincethe beginning of the new millennium. All projects inNew Dubai aim for the upper real-estate marketwith rents exceeding AED 100,000 per annum.Today, it is estimated that there is an oversupply of40% in this segment leading to high vacancy ratesin many developments in New Dubai (WorldProperty Journal, 2015). All projects combinedhave been designed for an expected total popula-tion of around 275,000 inhabitants in future. Thewhole built area, excluding the main high-wayinfrastructure, is covering almost 29 square kilome-ters, which is leading to a rather moderate futureaverage urban density of less than 95 inhabitantsper hectare (Table 1). In comparison, New Dubai isabout half the size of Manhattan Island, wherearound 277 inhabitants reside per hectare.

HOUSING DEVELOPMENT TENDENCIES INGULF CITIES

Based on the case studies in New Dubai, four dis-tinctive new housing typologies can be distin-

guished: (1) The waterfront villa, (2) the waterfronttower, (3) the free-zone housing and (4) the subur-ban mega compound (Figure 7).

While waterfront villas and their privatebeach access are mainly the result of particularland reclamation patterns and restrained infrastruc-tural opportunities to build higher densities, thetower developments along the coast are the resultof rapidly increasing land prices, fueled by specu-lations regarding sea view properties. The largequantity of towers has however led to very limitedaccess to sea views in the case of most properties.The residential tower clusters are often suppliedwith a variety of leisure spaces, such as integratedmarinas, beaches, malls and promenades. Thishigh-level of diversity regarding consumption andleisure spaces is based on both the average incomeof residents and the attraction of tourists due to inte-grated hotel complexes. The supply of social infra-structure is however often very limited. Thus, it canbe observed that there is a big lack of schools with-in and in proximity to waterfront tower clusters dueto missing regulations and high land prices in areasreserved for exclusive projects.

The development of mixed-use and

Figure 6. The Jumeirah Beach Residence. (Source:Authors).

Figure 7. The four new typologies in the case of NewDubai. (Source: Authors).

Table 1. The key facts of the nine mega projects in NewDubai. (Source: Authors & official developers’ websites).

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rahimthemed free economic zones has led to the estab-

lishment of various integrated compound develop-ments, which are differing from the usual com-pound sites due to their particular surroundings.The compounds are built between the various officecomplexes and usually house employees and theirfamilies engaged in the free zones. The residentialprojects often include various typologies fromattached and detached villas to apartment blocks.In some cases compounds will be replaced by com-mercial developments depending on futuredemand, which is creating an environment of tem-porary rather than long-term neighborhoods. Thewalls of each compound are furthermore contribut-ing to the fragmented appearance and the generallack of accessible public spaces within free zones.

The last new housing phenomena arelarge-scale themed suburban gated communities.Their development sites can occupy large areas ofmany square kilometers and their monotonoustypologies of attached and detached dwellings aswell as low-rise apartment blocks mainly differ fromeach other due to ornamental road grids, whichare used to create individual spatial patterns. Thishas however led to rather detached and introvertedresidential areas with hardly any links than majorhighways. Subsequently, neighbourhood centresand social infrastructure have been developed indisperse locations depending on land availabilityrather than on a clear strategy to create integratedand accessible sub-centers for services and facili-ties. In some large-scale projects, certain leisurespaces, such as golf courses, water features, andsmall malls have been integrated to enhance thegeneral attractiveness.

In summary, it can be stated that the recentmega projects have led to new urban landscapes,which are defined by new housing typologies andtheir spatial distribution (Figure 8). The emergingisland projects have led to a variety of suburbansettlements on reclaimed land with limited accessand a high level of exclusivity. In parallel, largescale themed suburban mega projects have beenlaunched inland along the urban periphery of for-mer urban centres. The coastal transition zones areusually occupied by extending agglomerations ofresidential tower developments, which are thedirect consequence of high land prices and alreadyexisting infrastructural supply. And last but not least,new themed mixed-use developments, which areoften initiated as free economic zones along strate-gic growth corridors, integrate various residentialtypologies as either short-term housing supplydepending on the demand on commercial projectsor as exclusive but often rather isolated freeholdproperty projects benefiting from the overall brand-ing of developments as new cities within the city.

All these development types have mainlybeen a result of public investment strategies as wellas investment pressure of the private sector. Todaythey are housing a growing migrant communitywith medium to high income. The ground floorplans have been designed following internationalstandards rather than accommodating local orother distinctive cultural lifestyles. While, in the past,urban densities and land use distributions werecentrally administered by one planning department,the mega projects are usually the result of a certaindecentralisation process permitting large scaledevelopers, who are usually semi-public entities, acertain level of authority regarding master plansand hardly any regulation regarding the integrationof social infrastructure or affordable housing.

The result has been an island-developmentapproach following the general attitude of devel-oping stand-alone “mega” compounds rather thanintegrated and cohesive new urban areas formingdistricts and neighbourhoods. Thus, while housingtypologies have been diversified by the variousmega projects, there has hardly been any spatialreinvention of a new form of communities. A high-rise tower thus functions like a vertical compoundrather than an opportunity to develop a new levelof integrated public spaces and services. Thus, theonly true social meeting points are provided byindoor malls and a small number of promenadesalong the coast as well as scattered green areas.

CONCLUSION

Earlier research emphasises that housing hasbecome one of the most favoured commodities inGulf cities. While trading pearls led to first portcities in the 19th century, trading oil and gas led toexpanding cities with some of the lowest averageurban densities worldwide (Salama, 2011). The

Figure 8. The typical structure of contemporary Gulf cities.(Source: Authors)..

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recent trading with real estate has led to a diversityof themed worlds inviting for leisure and consump-tion (Figure 9), but hardly integrating any sense ofcommunity and neighbourhood. The exponentiallyrising real-estate prices have furthermore led to acontinuous increase of rental rates leading to anenhanced social segregation and the phenomenonof high vacancy rates and over-occupied proper-ties, particularly in the case of more dated projects.Both the under-occupation due to high rental pricesand the over-occupation due to single migrantssharing apartments or villas have led to disparitiesfrom area to area and thus insufficient infrastructur-al supply.

The new role of housing as an investmentopportunity in Gulf cities has attracted both region-al and global attention and has thus undoubtedlyled to a large-scale diversification of housing types.While the big variety of differing typologies can beobserved by analysing the entire spectrum of recentreal-estate projects, the mass development of hous-ing has led to rather monotonous urban spacesfrom the perspective of single projects and theirimmediate surroundings. The repeated architectur-al design and modular construction of hundreds ofnew dwellings have contributed to a highly disori-enting housing environment. The missing neigh-bourhood centres, social services and accessiblepublic spaces have furthermore contributed to alack of identity and the remaining dependency oncommuting by car, which documents the suburbanrole of most mega projects rather than the estab-lishment of self-contained settlements.

Consequently, it can be stated that megaprojects have introduced new housing opportunitiesfor upper income groups, particularly variousapartment types, which have become suitable rep-resentations of social status in Gulf cities. The need-ed diversification of housing, which was previouslymainly dominated by suburban villas, has however

not led to an enhanced urban identity and efficien-cy in the case of single districts and urban spaces.In most cases developers have labelled housingprojects as new communities rather than integratingneeded infrastructure and public spaces to actuallycreate future communities. The lack of affordablehousing schemes has furthermore contributed tosocial segregation and a rather fragile environmentof repetitive exclusive projects relying on future eco-nomic growth in order to avoid a complete chal-lenging of their existence as displayed in the recentfinancial crisis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is developed as part of a comprehensivefunded research project of the National PrioritiesResearch Program, QNRF-Qatar NationalResearch Fund (NPRP 7 - 960 - 5 - 135), entitled:Investigating Housing Typologies in MulticulturalSocieties of the Gulf Region.

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Author(s):

Florian WiedmannCluster for Research in Architecture and Urbanismof Cities in the Global South (CRAUCGS)Department of Architecture, University of StrathclydeGlasgow G1 1XJ, United Kingdom [email protected]

Ashraf M. SalamaCluster for Research in Architecture and Urbanismof Cities in the Global South (CRAUCGS)Department of ArchitectureUniversity of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, United Kingdom [email protected]

Hatem G. IbrahimDepartment of Architecture and Urban PlanningCollege of EngineeringQatar University, Doha, [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

Following the publication of the BrundtlandCommission report in 1987 (WCED, 1987), theconcept of sustainable development has evolvedsignificantly from a set of initially loosely relatedenvironmental concerns (Rodwell, 2007) to signifythe practice of protecting the natural environmentthrough the inclusion of social, economic, and cul-tural dimensions of human activities. As a result ofmajor international action plans and agreements,such as Agenda 21 and the Kyoto Protocol, sus-tainable development (SD) has now become a pol-icy priority for governments across the world. Today,issues of climate change adaptation and the pro-motion of SD principles are acknowledged throughthe development of international and national pol-icy decision-making. Most countries across theworld have begun to implement required actions toachieve concrete measures in mitigating climatechange through imposing new requirements andconditions on their industrial and economic activi-ties. The construction and property sector occupiesa central position in the SD process particularlybecause of its material throughput, its scale ofresource and energy use, and its faster rate ofincrease in energy use compared to other sectors(Schropfer, 2012). In response to this, many initia-tives are being implemented at the scale of built

environment, involving, for example, the introduc-tion of new building codes, energy regulations,technical guides, and assessment tools. Many ofthese responses have tended to focus on aspects ofenergy efficiency and performance in buildings.However, more recently the transition from energyperformance to sustainable performance, involvesa shift from technical-based building codes and sin-gle criteria evaluations (e.g. energy performance),to a more holistic performance-based approach -an evaluation of buildings that considers a broaderrange of sustainability factors (Cooper, 1999; Kaatz, et al., 2006). Within the context of this broaderframework of considerations, Building SustainabilityAssessment Methods (BSAMs) can contribute effec-tive and practical tools for the built environment to“provide a structured means of incorporating per-formance targets and criteria into the designprocess” (Crawley and Aho, 1999).

In recent years, the important role ofBSAMs in addressing climate change adaptationmeasures within the design and construction sectorshas led to the development of several buildingassessment schemes around the word. Influencedby the most widely known schemes – BREEAM andLEED – many countries have now adopted one ormore of the existing schemes or have developedtheir own national assessment methods. Althoughthe application of most BSAMs are voluntary, their

Shahrzad Malek, David Grierson

Abstract

As one of the fastest growing countries in the Middle East, and the one most vulnerable to climate change, the main

challenge now facing Iran today is how to house its growing population in a socially, economically, and environmen-

tally sustainable way. However, in the absence of a national framework to guide the sustainable development of the

built environment, responding to this challenge is problematic. The articulation of a comprehensive assessment method

that would enable issues of sustainability to be addressed and incorporated within building construction projects is

urgently required. The research that underpins this paper takes account of current tools in aiming to support the devel-

opment of a national building sustainability assessment method (BSAM) for use in Iran that involves the identification

of sources of impact, specific benchmarks, and priorities for a weighting system for assessment criteria. This paper pro-

files the basis of a contextual framework that will inform the development of such a regional-based tool, taking account

of Iran’s current climate change adaptation policies and priorities, its environmental conditions and socio-economic

challenges, building typologies, standards and benchmarks.

Keywords: Iran, Sustainability, Building Assessment Method, Climate Change Adaptation, Building Codes.

A CONTEXTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOP-MENT OF A BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENTMETHOD FOR IRAN.

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sonrole in effecting market transformation (Cole,

2005), enforcing building codes and regulations,and serving as design guidelines have now seenthem emerge as an essential tool for supporting asustainable construction process. Indeed, somecountries have now introduced them as mandatorybuilding codes and some others have acceptedthem as an alternative route to complying withbuilding regulations (Crawley and Aho, 1999).Despite an increasing demand stimulated by theintroduction of national and international sustain-ability policies, building codes, and assessmenttools around the world, Iran has yet to introduce acohesive framework to address sustainability issuesin the built environment, particularly within its con-struction sector. Under broader sustainable devel-opment policies, the country requires to developobjective frameworks for different sectors andorganisations in order to tackle climate change andachieve its own SD targets. Considering the impor-tant role of construction, and specifically the hous-ing sector, in Iran’s economic well-being, and as amajor consumer of energy and resources, this sec-tor urgently requires a set of policies and tools,comprehensive building codes, and guidelines andframeworks to promote ecologically-based SD thatare aligned with overall national policies. Thisresearch aims to support this alignment through thedevelopment of a national building sustainabilityassessment method (BSAM) for use in Iran involvingthe identification of sources of impact, specificbenchmarks, and priorities for a weighting systemfor assessment criteria. The paper profiles the basisof a contextual framework that will inform thedevelopment of such a regional tool, takingaccount of Iran’s current climate change adapta-tion policies and priorities, its environmental condi-tions and socio-economic challenges, buildingtypologies, standards, and benchmarks.

CURRENT BU ILD ING SUSTAINABIL ITYASSESSMENT TOOLS

Currently, there are two main ways to address sus-tainability concerns within the built environment:through policy and regulatory instrument andthrough assessment tools (Du Plessisa and Cole,2011). While traditionally, national legislation, pri-marily concerned with the energy performanceissues of buildings, was considered as the main dri-ver to deal with environmental concerns within theconstruction industry (Du Plessisa and Cole, 2011),building assessment tools are increasingly address-ing a broader range of sustainability issues (Cole,1999). Although the first generation of these toolswere striving solely to address environmental per-formance of individual buildings, most recent ver-

sions have started to consider sociocultural andeconomic dimensions and a wider range of appli-cations for different projects based on their scaleand function. Worldwide, there are now more than40 assessment tools/ certification schemes avail-able for evaluating sustainability issues of the builtenvironment. Most of the tools developed in recentyears embrace similarities in terms of theirapproach, methodologies, rating systems, scope ofassessments, and list of criteria. All introduce abroad range of sources of impacts structured underdifferent categories such as energy, site, water,waste, indoor environment quality, and constructionprocess, leading to a specified rating scale whichdetermines the overall sustainability performance ofthe building. In some cases the tools link to othergovernment policies and regulations, while manyadopt criteria and standards that go beyond thepolicy standards set in the countries in which theyare used (Reed, et al., 2009).

The success of assessment tools in creatingpositive change by furthering the promotion ofhigher environmental expectations and serving as apotent mechanism for affecting change in thebuilding sector (Cole, 2005), has resulted in arapid increase in the number of methods beingdeveloped worldwide. However, increased interna-tional interest in developing new market-based (orresearch-based) tools has highlighted problemsassociated with the use of existing generic systemsfor different contexts. The demand for significantorganisational and financial resources, training,technical support (Cole, 2010; Crawley and Aho,1999), and the need to comply with strict brandrules and quality conditions present a substantialchallenge in adapting an existing tool (Cole,2006). Crucially, individual characteristics of eachcountry, such as historical background, climate,geography, culture, type of building stock,resources, building standards, and policies andgovernmental schemes necessitate the develop-ment of an individual sustainability-rating tool forthat country. The use of specific local indicators inthe rating systems and their credit allocation meth-ods renders the term “sustainable construction”subjective (Alyamia and Rezguib, 2012) and con-firms that assessment tools are not fully applicableto all regions (Crawley and Aho, 1999).Furthermore, the ultimate success of an assessmenttool will inevitably rely on its acceptance and on therecognition it receives from the local communityand industry. As suggested by Du Plessisa and Cole(2011), participation and input from stakeholders isessential in achieving the most effective change inshaping design and practice. Stakeholders’engagement can provide a robust and verifiablesupport structure for the implementation, opera-

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tion, and management of an assessment tool (UCD& IGBC, 2011).

The interdependent and holistic nature ofsustainability requires the inclusion of socioculturaland economic issues (as well as environmentalissues) that rely on stakeholder engagement andtheir “stories and aspirations of place” (Du Plessisaand Cole, 2011). This inclusion of stakeholderengagement can help respond to main areas ofcriticism where tools are a) struggling to recognizeregional distinctions, b) lacking to offer a holisticapproach towards sustainability issues, and c) offer-ing insufficient methodological transparency (Kaatz,et al., 2006).

Figure 1 maps recently developed toolsincluding those introduced by government as acountry’s national tool (such as QSAS in Qatar,Estidama in United Arabs Emirates, GBI inMalaysia, Greenship in Indonesia, LOTUS inVietnam), and those developed as a research-based tools (such as GBtool/SBtool developed asan international tool with the collaboration of 21countries through Green Building Challenge(GBC), MOBSA developed by Zalina Shari forMalaysia, SABA developed by Ali & Nsairat forJordan, SEAM developed by Alyami & Rezgui forSaudi Arabia). Research analysis suggests that: a) aset of core criteria relevant to the assessment con-

text can be driven through the comparative andcontextual analysis of existing assessment tools, b)regional specifications can be integrated into theassessment system through stakeholder engage-ment c) where metrics, data sources and referencebenchmarks are not available, consensus basedprocess is the most applicable method to developperformance criteria assessment targets (Todd et Al,2001).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMETHODOLOGY: TOWARDS A BSAMFOR IRAN

Developing an assessment method is a multi-aspect procedure, which requires input data frommultiple sources and the employment of variousmethodological approaches. Assessment methodsare composed of three main elements:

• Assessment criteria: identifies the sources ofimpacts that should be taken into account andassessed against performance benchmarks; • Benchmarks: represent the required performancestandard expected to be met by the building indus-try;• Weighting of criteria: prioritises assessment crite-ria based on their international, national and

Figure 1. Map of Current Global Building Sustainability/ Environmental Assessment Rating/ Certification Tools (Source:

Authors).

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regional importance, and scale and duration ofimpact.

These core elements play a crucial role inthe validation of the assessment method and havea direct impact on the outcome of the assessmentpractice. Our research proposes a framework forthe development process consisting of five interde-pended stages as follows:

Stage 1: Feasibi li ty s tudyThe first step is to conduct a feasibility study in orderto explore the country’s current progress in strikinga balance between its policies and the wider sus-tainable development agenda, and to identify spe-cific conditions, constraints, goals, priorities andchallenges in promoting sustainability strategieswithin its construction industry in general, and bar-riers to developing an assessment method in par-ticular. Outcomes of Stage 1 should be discussedand analysed by panels of experts at later stages ofthe development process, and appropriate mea-sures should be established to overcome existingchallenges and constraints and to clarify regionalpriorities and goals.

Stage 2: Ident i fying sources of impactThe next step is to identify sources of environmen-tal, sociocultural, and economic impacts thatshould be included in the assessment method. It isacknowledged that a set of core criteria have glob-al importance and relevance (i.e. are relevant allassessment methods across the world) and shouldbe included in any new scheme that aims to assessthe sustainability performance of buildings (Coleand Mitchell, 1999; Todd and Geissler, 1999).These criteria can be derived from existing assess-ment methods through a comprehensive compara-tive analysis of their content and approach, focus-ing on their areas of convergence and distinction(Cole, 2005). This analysis serves as a startingpoint in the formulation of an initial tentative list ofassessment criteria as suggested by Cole (1999).The list is then subject to multiple modifications bypanels of experts in order to fully reflect sociocul-

tural, environmental, and economic requirementsat both regional and national scales. Here, thecomposition of the expert panels is important indeveloping a flexible assessment method thatallows for regional customisation and addressesvariations under a single national scheme.Moreover, since assessment criteria are multi-dimensional and require input data from a vastrange of different fields, expert panels shouldinclude stakeholders from all relevant sectorsincluding academia, industry, and government(Alyamia and Rezguib, 2012). The composition ofexpert panels also plays a crucial role in receivingacceptance and recognition from relevant commu-nities.

Stage 3: Ident i fy ing specif ic benchmarksThe third step is to explore current standards andindustry norms, develop performance targets, anddefine desired outcomes of assessment criteria andthe overall performance of the building. These arealso identified through expert panel discussions andconsensus.

Stage 4: Ident i fy ing pr ior i ties and devel-oping the weighting systemThe fourth step is concerned with identifying nation-al and regional priorities and measuring the rela-tive importance of various assessment criteriathrough a questionnaire survey. In order to developa weighting system based on the priority sets deliv-ered by the judgments of experts, a pairwise com-parison methodology involved in the AHP tech-nique (Analytical Hierarchy Process) is acknowl-edged to be the most applicable approach in syn-thesising the data and prioritising building assess-ment criteria for the given context.

Stage 5: Veri f ication, test ing, and modi-f icat ionThe reliability and applicability of any assessmentmethod is subject to testing through experts’ verifi-cation and industry application in case study testing(Cole and Larsson, 1999). In this regard, the newscheme should be sent to experts for verificationand further modifications and finally tested throughthe application and evaluation of case study pro-jects. The results of these studies should inform fur-ther refinement of the new scheme.

A CONTEXTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ABSAM: PROFILE OF IRANClimate change and sustainable devel-opment

Due to its geographical location, climate, high riskof natural disasters, oil dependent single-product

Figure 2. Methodology for the development of a BSAM for

Iran (Source: Authors).

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economy, overpopulation, rapid urbanisation,energy inefficiency, and unsustainable developmentpatterns, Iran is classified as one of the most vul-nerable regions to the impacts of climate change(DoE, 2004). Iran is the eighth largest contributor tothe global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions glob-ally (WB, 2015). The energy sector accounts for the77% of the country’s overall GHG emissions(Nachmany, 2015). Almost all (97%) of the Iran’senergy consumption relies on oil and natural gaswhile only 0.03% of electricity generation is fromrenewable sources (Nasrollahi, 2009). Over recentdecades, Iran’s environment has deteriorated andits natural resources have been significantly deplet-ed due to the lack of a coherent vision for sustain-able development, inadequate protective legisla-tion, lack of regulations and enforcement, unsus-tainable patterns of production and consumption,and infrastructural fragmentation (UNDAF, 2004).The result is that today, Iran struggles with manyenvironmental problems in urban areas such as arapid increase in domestic energy and resourceconsumption, an increase in pollution, the degra-dation of scarce water resources, and an increasein the quantity of solid waste. According to Iran’sDepartment of Environment, the average per capi-ta renewable water availability will be reduced by31% by 2021 compared to 2009 (DoE, 2010).The UN Department of Economic & Social Affairshas reported that 90% of Iran’s generated waste isbeing disposed in landfills, causing environmentaldamage and contamination of lands and waterresources (UN, 2004). Iran is already one of themost seismically active countries with fault lines cov-ering almost 90% of the country (Mansouri, el al.,2008). As a result of the increasing impacts of cli-mate change, it is predicted that the country will bemore exposed to environmental risks and severeweather events such as earthquakes, floods, etc.over coming decades (Pahl-Weber, et al., 2013).

In response to concerns on global warm-ing, Iran signed and ratified the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) Kyoto Protocol in August 2005 and andestablished the Iranian National Committee onSustainable Development (INCSD) under the super-vision of the Department of Environment (DoE) topromote the implementation of SD approachesaligned with the Earth Summit’s Agenda 21 andrelated international conventions (DoE, 2004 and2013). Although Iran has yet to develop an officialnational action plan for SD, a concern for climatechange has been incorporated into the country’s20-year Vision Plan (20-VP), its Fifth DevelopmentPlan (FDP), as well as other sector policies and reg-ulations (Nachmany, 2015). Iran’s current SDstrategies emerge from Article 50 of the country’sconstitution that is dedicated to the environment.According to this Article (The Constitution of theIslamic Republic of Iran, 1979):

“The Protection of the environment, in which currentand future generations have a right to flourish-ing social existence, is regarded as a public duty. Inthis regard, any economic or other activities causingpollution or any irreparable damage to the envi-ronment is forbidden.”

The country's 20-VP defines the direction of Iran’sdevelopment in various fields such as culture, sci-ence, economy, politics, and social (EDC, 2003).While the main development objectives within theplan are targeted at social and economic advance-ments, environmental protection is addressed with-in a number of articles. The most important aspectsrefer to the protection of natural resources, the opti-misation and reduction of energy consumption,and the promotion of public awareness and theachievement of sustainable development throughthe development of research activity. Iran’s FDP isaligned with the principles of 20-VP and aims to ful-fil its goals and objectives, by emphasising the pro-motion of environmental protection and climatechange prevention, while mandating all relevantministries to develop and implement programsleading to the reduction of GHG emissions. TheFDP anticipates that through the adoption of poli-cies established in 20-VP, the country will be able toreduce its GHG emission by 30% by 2025(Nachmany, 2015). The Iranian government hasalso announced a further possible reduction inemissions of 34% by utilising the technical andfinancial assistance of international institutions(Nachmany, 2015).

Given the context of Iran as one of themajor producers and consumers of fossil fuel ener-gy, the government’s climate change adaptation

Figure 3. Oil dependency, climate change and environ-

mental problems in Iran (Source: Iran Daily, February2015).

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sonplans mainly focuses on the following areas: devel-

oping renewable energy plans and related techno-logical improvements, developing a SubsidyReform Plan, enforcing electricity duty, changing theculture of consumption and promotion of produc-tivity and efficiency within all sectors and industries,and establishing energy standards. However, thereare few policies and frameworks to directly promotethe sustainability and energy efficiency of the builtenvironment related to the construction sector. Themain legal instrument in this regard is within theIranian National Building Code, where there is astated focus on energy savings at the level of singlebuildings, emphasising U-factors (thermal insula-tion properties) of a building’s envelope and itscomponents, and proper overall insulation(Nasrollahi, 2009). Iran’s legislation on AlteringEnergy Consumption Pattern also calls for a changein the culture of consumption stressing on theimportance of energy efficiency in residential andcommercial buildings through the provision ofpower plants. The FDP also obliges municipalitiesto comply with the building codes and regulationsto retrofit buildings and modify the pattern of ener-gy consumption in buildings with a primary empha-sis on residential buildings. The National Rules ofProcedure for Implementation of the UNFCCC andthe Kyoto Protocol, which were developed by theDepartment of Environment (and approved by thecabinet in 2009), oblige all ministries and organi-sations to develop their own Climate ChangeAction Plans, prepare relevant assessments andbenchmarks, and introduce respective policies, leg-islations, guidelines, and frameworks. The develop-ment of a national building sustainability assess-ment method (BSAM) for use in Iran should help toaddress this obligation.

The Construction industry and housingsector

Housing is one of the most important sectors toIran’s economy attracting about 40% of the coun-try’s total annual investment, and contributing morethan 20% of annual fixed capital formation. Thesector generates over 8% of GDP and constitutes12% of the employment of Iran’s working popula-tion, while at the same time accounting for 33% ofhousehold expenses (World Bank, 2004).Throughout recent decades, the main challengefacing Iran’s government has involved economic-related housing problems and the need to meethousing demand with an emphasis on affordablehousing for lower and middle income families.Iran’s housing stock of 198 units per 1,000 resi-dents is already low by international standards(World Bank, 2004) and it is estimated that at least

4 million new homes are required to meet thedemand for the next five years (Shahriari, et al.,2014). In this context, providing affordable homesand relevant infrastructure has long been an urgentpriority for the government. The provision of highdensity residential complexes within its cities (suchas Mehr Housing Scheme) and the creation of newresidential towns around metropolitan cities (suchas Andisheh, Pardis and Parand near Tehran) havebeen two key responses by the public sector to thisrising demand. However, the lack of an integratedplanning and management system and the veryslow pace of infrastructure deliveries have hinderedprogress. Economic constraints and the lack of effi-cient building codes and legislation have alsoresulted in poor construction quality of those resi-dential units provided. Additionally, as real estatedevelopment is seen as a profitable investment inIran, developers are consistently compromising thequality of design and construction in order toachieve greater profits in a shorter period of time(Sarkheyli, et al., 2012). In many cases, developersare even happy to pay fines for violations of rulesand building codes since these have little financialimpact (Pahl-Weber, et al., 2013) on their profits.Consequently, this has led to the deterioration ofthe urban fabric and has had a significant negativeimpact on the natural environment.

The World Bank has reported that Irandoes not have an integrated building code to sup-port and encourage SD and the use of appropriatetechnology (World Bank, 2004). In order to miti-gate a building’s vulnerability to natural disasters,building regulations in Iran implicitly favour steeland concrete structures, thus promoting modernenergy-intensive materials. Iran’s building sector isresponsible for 42% of total energy consumptionand the fastest growing sector (Riazi and Hosseyni,2011). The residential sector has the highest ener-gy consumption contributing to the 23% share of

Figure 4. Construction work on a high-rise building in the

foothills of the Alborz Mountains in Tehran, April 15, 2010.(Source: REUTERS/Caren Firouz, April 2010).

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total CO2 emission in Iran (World Bank, 2004)with heating and cooling being the main con-sumers with 83% of total energy used (Riazi andHosseyni, 2011). There is also a considerableamount of wasted energy in the residential sectordue to inefficient construction methods andprocesses and energy intensive household appli-ances (Farahmandpour, et al., 2008). Moreover,municipality supervision lacks the capacity to per-form any effective form of quality control. The lackof an integrated building code has led to the prolif-eration of structures in Iran that contain energy-intensive materials, consume enormous amounts ofenergy, release large amounts of carbon dioxide,use the most wasteful construction techniques, havepoor design and air quality, and have little to offerin terms of cultural and social needs of their occu-pants. It is clear that Iran needs to revise urbanplanning regulations, upgrade infrastructure, pro-mote cost-effective, energy-efficient, environment-friendly housing typologies and reduce the use ofhazardous materials, make provisions for increas-ing effective life and durability of building stock,through a revision of standards, and completion ofthe remaining parts of Iranian National BuildingCode (World Bank, 2004). The development of anational building sustainability assessment method(BSAM) for use in Iran should help support thisprocess.

Building typology and cl imate

Recent research work considers the natural and cli-matic characteristics of different regions of Iran andintroduces various classifications each presenting adifferent approach for different purposes.Considering required thermal properties of build-

ings, the country can be divided into 8 large cli-matic zones (Kasmaei, 1992). Kasmaei’s classifica-tion has been approved by Iran’s Ministry ofHousing and Urban Development as the authorita-tive document for the climatic classification forbuilding design purposes (Kasmaei, 1992).However, his classification can also be groupedinto four main climatic zones that not only representgeo-climatic variation but also represent sociocul-tural factors and similarities in lifestyle and buildingtypologies. Such classification is widely acknowl-edged by other researchers in the field of climaticresponsive architecture and is more relevant to ourresearch as it also represents socio-cultural diversi-ties of the regions (Ghobadian, 2015). The tablebelow shows the climatic classification of Iran andassociated traditional building typologies featuringdifferent climatic responsive strategies based onboth sociocultural and environmental necessities ofregional conditions.

Despite having a rich history in climaticresponsive architecture, environmental factors havelargely been ignored in the formation of modernbuildings in Iran, as construction shifted from craft-based to industry-based practices. Subsequently,with the introduction of new materials, buildingtechnologies and equipment, and constructiontechniques, building typologies completely trans-formed in favour of a modern lifestyle. Diversity ofbuildings in different climate regions of Iran has lostits ground and has been replaced by homoge-neous building types in different regions of Iran.Planning controls and building regulations havealso played a very important role not only in limit-ing and regulating construction practices but alsoby encouraging the introduction of new generichousing typologies. New controls have largely dic-

Figure 5. Different traditional building typologies in different regions of Iran. Left, Yazd in central plateau (Source: Ghods

Online News, January 2014). Right, Langrood in North of Iran (Source: Pejman Marzi, March 2015).

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tated the emergence of typologies that have had asignificant impact on urban built form in terms ofland parcel, block size, proportion of built area, aswell as on built form parameters such as buildingshape and depth mediated by building regulations(Shayesteh and Steadman, 2013). Since the mainbuilding codes apply throughout all regions of Iranthere is sparse acknowledgement of regional cli-matic conditions, which results in the prevalence ofsimilar, often inappropriate building typologieswithin different regions throughout Iran (Nasrollahi,2009). The development of a national building sus-tainability assessment method (BSAM) for use inIran that takes account of regional climatic differ-ences, should help address this issue.

CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS

A review of current assessment methodologies inrelation to Iran’s contextual framework has high-lighted a number of challenges and limitations thatrequire consideration in the development of thenew BSAM:

Bui ld ing codes, legislat ion, and policiesAn assessment system cannot be efficiently integrat-ed into the construction process as a stand-alonetool (Kaatz, et al., 2005). For the assessmentmethod to be feasible, practical, and acceptable, itis vital that it is integrated with relevant guidelines,building codes and regulations, regional andnational standards, as well larger national andinternational policies and programs. In order toensure successful application, the assessment sys-tem must take account of regulatory instrumentsestablished by the political-administrative systemwithin the relevant context (Todd and Geissler,1999). On the other hand, assessment methodscan be used to enforce essential modifications inregulatory systems or even inform fundamental pol-icy directives at a regional or national level (Cole,2005). In another words, it can push the buildingindustry towards better performance (Todd andGeissler, 1999). In the case of Iran, this seems tobe substantially problematic since building codesand national policies cannot be incorporated into

Figure 6. Architectural features of traditional houses in different climate zones of Iran (Source: Author based on Ghobadian,

2015; Nasrollahi, 2009).

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the assessment system in their current form. As pre-viously discussed, the country’s current buildingregulations can be heavily criticised in failing toacknowledge sociocultural and climatic diversitywithin different regions. Also sustainability thinkinghas yet to be embedded within all governmentalorganisations, executive bodies, and larger policydecisions. Such development takes time andrequires fundamental financial, technological, andinfrastructural changes, involving the restructuringof the entire sector.

BenchmarksThe development of relevant benchmarks or refer-ence buildings for the identification of assessmentcriteria and informing the overall evaluation of abuilding’s performance are commonly based oncurrent performance levels and existing industrynorms, which means that improvements are evalu-ated relative to the typical practice in the region(Cole,1999 and 2005; Todd and Geissler, 1999).Different regions possess different environmentaland resource capacities (e.g. water and electricitysupplies), which entail different management strate-gies and regulations. Similarly, socioeconomic con-straints in different regions require different strate-gies in terms of urban development, spatial plan-ning, and construction. As identified by Todd &Geissler (1999), “superior performance in onecountry would be considered standard practice inanother. And, a criterion that is very important forassessing the ‘greenness’ of a building in oneregion might be of less importance in anotherregion.” This raises a significant challenge for thedevelopment of a BSAM for Iran. Firstly, due to theinefficiency of the current regulatory system, thedevelopment of criteria benchmarks and refer-ences, based on current practice norms, inevitablychallenges the efficacy of the existing system.Secondly, Iran’s regional diversity necessitates thedevelopment of a national BSAM that allows forcustomisation and integration of regional charac-teristics within the evaluation process. Therefore,benchmarks and references must be developedthrough regional comparisons while at the sametime complying with national goals and objectives.

Scale of assessmentsThe BSAM must target global impacts whileresponding to regional concerns but local strategiescan often have global impact and equally interna-tional policies can effect regional decisions.Therefore, the BSAM must focus on the integrationof core criteria with global significance while incor-porating customised elements with regional impor-tance (Todd and Geissler, 1999). The scale ofassessment can refer to assessment criteria relevant

to varying geographic/ physical levels, from build-ing elements and components to the urban, region-al and national scale (Edum-Fotwe and Price,2008). In most cases, the evaluation of an individ-ual building without consideration of extraneousinfluences such as urban configuration, infrastruc-ture, community facilities, etc. is impossible.Therefore, it is crucial to define the appropriateboundaries for assessment criteria and clarifyexpectations with respect to an individual building’sto contribution to overall sustainability goals.

In frastructureThe reciprocal effects of a building on its surround-ing infrastructure have an inevitably important rolein the performance of the BSAM (Todd andGeissler, 1999) since buildings have enormousconsequences on the design and operation of thecommunity (Cole, 2005). At the same time, accessto infrastructural facilities is essential for the opera-tion of a building. Although Iran has experiencedpositive social and economic development over thelast decade, significant social and economicinequalities across different regions remain evident,particularly in terms of a lack of access to infra-structure and social amenities in rural areas. In thiscontext, Iran needs to upgrade infrastructure inexisting sub-standard settlements (World Bank,2004).

Flex ib il ity in addressing regional d if fer-encesThe problematic nature of homogenisation hasbeen widely acknowledged in the adaptation ofexisting assessment methods, where emphasis hasbeen placed on regional differences betweendeveloped and developing countries (Cole, 2005).However, as discussed by Todd and Geissler(1999), defining the boundaries of a ‘region’ isequally important in developing a feasible andacceptable BSAM. The recent enforcement of astandardised national building code has resulted inthe formation of remarkably homogeneous housingtypology in different regions of Iran. However, Iran’sregional diversities necessitate the introduction of anational BSAM that allows for customisation andintegration of regional characteristics.

Emphasise on socio-cul tura l aspectsAll aspects of sustainability are holistic and interde-pendent; hence, sociocultural, economic, and envi-ronmental aspects should be all addressed withinthe BSAM. However, as discussed, there are signif-icant differences in regional priorities in how toaddress sustainability principals. Environmentalassessment methods have originated in developingcountries where social and economic infrastruc-

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sontures are already well developed. However, in

developing countries differing socioeconomic pri-orities dictate that domestic constraints on environ-mental progress are qualitatively different (Gibberd,2002; Cole, 2005). On a path to SD, developingcountries must continue to emphasise the fulfilmentof basic needs, and promotion of socioeconomicaspects, while avoiding negative environmentalimpacts (Gibberd, 2002).

Acceptance and recogni tion f rom indust ryFor an assessment system to be reliable, feasible,and applicable, it is essential to receive acceptanceand recognition from the wider community as wellas industry. Consequently, the development of aBSAM must involve stakeholder participation inorder to clarify and meet the requirements andexpectations of the community (Kaatz, et al., 2006).Assessment criteria must consider socioeconomicconstraints and limitations in order to be acceptedby the industry (Todd and Geissler, 1999). Since, inIran, all resource supplies are managed by thepublic sector, the successful implementation of aBSAM necessitates the support of government andpublic organisations not least with regard to thefinancial and economic implications associatedwith its use. Aside from fundamental changes inwider policies and sector decisions that areinevitable in transitioning to SD, the economicimpact of a BSAM on the transformation of the realestate market must be explicitly acknowledged.While the profit motive continues to dominate deci-sion-making, especially in housing and construc-tion practices, the necessary additional costs asso-ciated with implementing a BSAM to support SDneeds to be carefully considered in the context ofIran’s urgent need to promote the sustainability andenergy efficiency of its built environment, and itspublic duty acknowledged in its constitution to pro-tect the natural environment.

CONCLUSION

Iran is a vast country with abundant naturalresources and renewable energy opportunities.However, the current state of energy and resourceuse, environmental degradation, climate changevulnerability, and urban and housing challengesrequires a robust action to promote ecologically-based SD. The country’s recent moves towardsstrategies that address global environmental con-cerns have been a significant step, however, toimplement broader SD policies address climatechange adaptation measures, Iran needs to devel-op objective frameworks within its different sectorsand organisations. In the field of the constructionindustry, this will require the revision of current

urban planning regulations, building codes andstandards, and the introduction of a sustainability-based framework for the assessment of the builtenvironment. This will require the development of anational building sustainability assessment method(BSAM) for use in Iran involving the identification ofsources of impact, specific benchmarks, and prior-ities for a weighting system for assessment criteria.

This paper has profiled the basis of a con-textual framework that will inform the developmentof such a regional tool, taking account of Iran’scurrent climate change adaptation policies, andpriorities, its environmental conditions and socioe-conomic challenges, building typologies, stan-dards, and benchmarks. The findings of this con-textual study suggests the following considerationsfor the next stages of the development of a BSAMto be reported in future publications, involving aneed:

• for integration with Iran’s national building codes,and regulations, regional and national standardsas well as larger national and international policiesand programs;• to set higher performance benchmarks com-pared to current performance levels;• to offer integration of core criteria with global sig-nificance and customized elements of nationalimportance in Iran;• to acknowledge regional variations within Iran;• to offer a comprehensive list of criteria taking intoaccount all interrelated dimensions of sustainabili-ty;• to promote stakeholder participation;• to offer transparency and compatibility;• to propose a simple, practical and inexpensivemethodology for application;• to promote performance based evaluation ratherthan technical assessment

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Author(s):

Shahrzad MalekDepartment of Architecture University of StrathclydeGlasgow G1 1XJ, United Kingdom [email protected]

David GriersonDepartment of Architecture University of StrathclydeGlasgow G1 1XJ, United Kingdom [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

In the six decades after Indian independence, met-ropolitan cities witnessed unprecedented growth.Until recently, small cities and towns evidenced aslow, steady, and organic development by virtue oftheir location in political backwaters. A certainboon in disguise, these cities have been able toretain some of the old world charms. These includea green cover, quietude, a slow pace of life, ascaled built environment, human linkages, and asaner lifestyle compared to the burgeoning metros.

The new world order ushered in by global-isation and developments in communication tech-nology has triggered growth even in these remotecities. In the contemporary era, development ismeasured by a voluminous increase in the builtinfrastructure. Urban development has usually beenan instrument for extracting political mileage. Theconcurrent debate on smart cities focuses upondevelopment of these smaller cities (http://www.urbannewsdigest.in and http://www.livemint.com).

Governmental propaganda misinterpretsthe meaning and understanding of a smart city.Debates on virtual media and miniscule publica-tions miss out on a robust discussion on the subtleyet vital ingredients of sociocultural sustainability.The many concurrent layers within which Indiancities exist makes this a complex issue.

Unfortunately, efforts focus mainly on piecemealphysical planning and development that is visiblylacking in the still ‘underdeveloped' Indian cities.Simultaneously, it is an erroneous assumption thatsuch unidirectional interventions shall lead to altru-istic good.

Research points out that an inclusive upgradation involves many aspects, importantamongst which are Quality of Life (QoL) and holis-tic sustainability (Islam, 2011). This includes peo-ple's lifestyles, their aspirations, preferences, andsatisfaction with quality of life leading to an overallwellbeing (Marans, 2012). Appreciation andpreservation of intrinsic sociocultural values of thepeople is an important aspect towards making acity ‘smart'. At the altar of technologically drivenfantasies for a future city, the significance of thehuman element as critical in a city's spatial order isover simplified. Hearteningly, a nascent yet potentterm, ‘a city of wisdom' (Reddy & Singh, 2015) ispart of the discussion. It attempts to define the vitalaspects constituting a smart city, although in aminiscule way.

The paper is positioned in the light of thissituation. It examines the case of a quintessentialGrade II city in India. It studies the typology of thehousing settlement that simultaneously exists inmany layers in Nagpur city. It draws upon threeunique lifestyle experiences drawn from different

Smita Khan, Archana Bele

Abstract

The wisdom of developmental activities that propose voluminous increase in the built infrastructure is questionable.

These can seriously undermine the ability of quintessential small cities to retain the sociocultural and people centric

character leading to a saner lifestyle in comparison to the burgeoning metros. This study is based in Nagpur, a Grade

II city of central India. It presents a comparative analysis of three unique housing neighbourhoods developed in distinct

temporal periods: historic, pre-globalisation, and post-globalisation. It focuses upon seminal parameters that are intrin-

sic to emotional well-being of residents and encourage positive behavioural responses. The methodology follows a

qualitative approach through a study of morphological maps, non-participatory observation, and photo documentation.

An argument is developed for a comprehensive urban development process, based upon respect for intrinsic socio-

cultural values. It emphasises the need to celebrate and rejuvenate the thread of continuum for betterment of small

cities. This enquiry resolves that to make a city smart and sustainable, efforts at people centricity are imperative along

with ICT and other smart technologies of the future.

Keywords: Smart Cities, Sociocultural Sustainability, Environment-Behaviour, Parameters, Housing Patterns,

Quality of Life.

TRANSFORMING LIFESTYLES AND EVOLVING HOUS-ING PATTERNS: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY.

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layers of the city. The paper argues for a compre-hensive approach towards creating housing settle-ments by an examination of the sociocultural basisof spatial organisations of these housing develop-ments. It focuses on factors that make a city ‘wise'.

METHODOLOGY OF STUDY

The study adopts a qualitative approach with casestudies and logical reasoning. Desk study of mor-phological maps and plan layouts for comparativeanalysis, non-participatory observation, and photodocumentation are predominant tools of study. Forbetter comprehension, face-to-face interviews areconducted within the field study.

The study explores the sociocultural char-acteristics and spatial ingredients of the three dis-tinctive housing developments. They are‘Shukrawari', a neighbourhood of Mahal the oldcity, ‘Swavalambi Nagar', a modern neighbour-hood, and ‘Godrej- Anandam World City', a con-temporary gated community. A comparative matrixof physical characteristics is drawn up. There issimultaneous reflection upon the socioculturalattributes by an assessment of key environ-behav-iour parameters and the characteristics and atti-tudes underlying the lifestyles of residents in theseareas.

OLD CITY AS A SEMINAL CONCEPT OF INDIANLIFESTYLE VALUES

The sequence of this enquiry initiates with an inves-

tigation of the old city. Its physical form, akin to typ-ical Indian core cities, embodies the ageless wis-dom of orientation, climate responsiveness, materi-als, and construction techniques. It displays thepotential to serve the physical and spiritual needs ofits communities from the single family to the entirecommunity (Steele & Doshi, 1998). Together theyhave shaped and supported the lifestyle of the com-munity and vice versa. The morphology of old citiesis a reflection of the values of its inhabitants(Rapoport, 1969) and the society at large.

The elongated sustainability of the strongsociocultural order, through times historical, is thehighlight of Mahal the old city and the binding ele-ment of its community as well. It is a testimony to itsflexibility and freedom for individuals to makechoices of interpretations. The human centricityarising out of such satiated ground conditionsmake it the reference point to compare the changesin the evolving city.

CRITICAL PARAMETERS OF STUDY AND MANI-FESTATION IN MAHAL

Scholarly research and lifestyle theories place deepemphasis upon the impact of seminal parametersof sociocultural milieu upon the well-being of thecommunity. Underlying concepts of social interac-tion, defensible space, sense of belonging, humanscale, privacy, and lifestyle are intrinsic to the emo-tional contentment of occupants. Built environ-ments soliciting these attributes encourage positivebehavioural responses, as studied approaches

Figure 1. Morphology of Shukrawari neighbourhood of Mahal old city. (Source: Vidarbha Heritage Society).

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emphasise (Kamp, et al. 2003). These are vital fora comprehensive urban development process.

With its democratic tradition of intellectualinteractions, the ancient city of Athens, epitomisedwisdom, justice, law and knowledge. It exemplifiesthat exalted values elevate the status of a city. TheGreeks achieved it by a synchronisation of aspira-tions of its society and an appropriate place sup-porting social transmissions. This zenith of develop-ment is a lofty benchmark and a reflection of thecrucial importance of social interaction. In a paral-lel cite, the intrinsic spirituality embedded in theIndian ethos is rooted in its social institutions.

The notion of social engagement is funda-mental to sociocultural sustainability. It supports twoimportant conditions: the psychological well-beingof individuals and the creation of society. Socialinteraction can ameliorate psychological distress bygarnering social support (Brown & Harris, 1978;LaRocco, House and French, 1980; Lowenthal andHaven, 1968). Appropriate social interaction instillsdeep-rooted security within the human. Alexanderet al. (1977) refer to the everyday contact betweenpeople in public space as an essential ‘social glue'.This relationship of engagement between individu-als holds together society and its structures.Catalysing engagement between people and thesocial space defines the critical challenge in thetask of place making (Burte, 2008).

Supportive morphology of Mahal old cityThe morphology of Shukrawari shows how spacesand built environs give permanence to such institu-tions (Figure 1).

The winding street pattern contains manyspatial happenings. A shady tree or a temple shrineoften marks the nondescript ‘chowk'1. The ‘nukkad'2, the ‘chowk', the ‘otla' 3, and the ‘osri' 4 are ele-ments in the hierarchy of spatial situations in a time-less sociocultural pattern. Modest as they mayappear, these provided an opportunity to bring thecommunity together: to meet, to discuss, to inform,to feel connected, and find solace in human com-pany and feel socially cared for. As Doshi rightlypoints out in his article on ‘Social Institutions and aSense of Place', (Ameen, 1997) such socioculturalmanifestations provide an understanding of thecommunity's intrinsic needs and must be studiedbefore designing for them.

While these support the emotional needs ofsocietal connect, the religious institutions andplaces of worship that dot the urban fabric ofMahal, hugely influence the environment of thecommunity (Figure 2). Their congregational spaces‘mandapas' support the nurture of a participatory,democratic and meaningful engagement throughregular hosting of the ‘kirtans'5 and ‘pravachans' 6

(Figure 3).

These guide the value system and keep spiritualityalive and instilled in the lives of the people. Thecommunity routinely converges over such ‘satsangs'7 (benevolent gatherings), which are also a form ofpopular entertainment. A deep sense of faith, iden-tity, and belonging are natural outcomes of thissociocultural tradition. They are provisions of cul-tural stability and have shaped behavioral patterns.The nurture and continuum of these interactive andcontemporarily relevant traditions is a special char-acter of Mahal. Moral and cultural values, a strongfaith in the community, and a sense of belongingare attributable to them. These and more suchactivities that initiate through them have shaped lifein Mahal. The value system of a society delineatesits lifestyle.

The ‘otlas' and ‘dalans' 8 of the shrines thatdot the housing neighbourhoods serve as multi-functional spaces for the young and the old of thecommunity in the dense fabric of the old city.

Figure 3. Temple with a mandapa for congregations.

(Source: Authors).

Figure 2. Street intersection with a temple. (Source:

Authors.)

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eleNarrow access spaces such as lanes and streets

characterise traditional settlements. Not designedfor motorised movement, they act as open spacesfor a variety of social, political, recreational, com-mercial, religious, and festive activities.

One of the most significant outcomes ofsocial interaction is the web of connectedness it fos-ters in a housing community. Newman's definitionof defensible space being a socio-physical phe-nomenon revolves around a well-knit community asa key agent in ensuing security of their locality(Newman, 1976). Achievement of defensibility is anatural outcome of this sociocultural set-up.

At the micro level, the typology of thehouse is an introvert spatial congregation support-ing needs of privacy. While the smaller houses openinto a shared open space, the larger ones called‘wada', are developed around a sequence of inter-nal courtyards (Figure 4 and 5). The building ele-ments of the wada were multi-functional. The win-dow, the staircase, and the roof, in addition to pro-viding light and ventilation, connecting levels, andproviding shelter respectively, provided flexibility ofusage. The staircase and window doubled as aplace to sit, to sleep if wider, and the roof was aplace to sleep in the hot summer nights, a place todry clothes and condiments and to fly kites inspring. ‘Construction was not simply additive, itsmulti-functionality made it basic to a balanced life,'Doshi explains. Such an outlook shaped the Indiantemperament and the culture at large.

Traditionally, the floor has been a flexi-usespace. Devoid of much furniture, the activity ofcooking, dining, entertaining, and also sleeping isessentially on the floor. Uninterrupted floor spaceaccommodates with ease the large family gather-ings.

The concept of security and privacy is pri-mal in a home space. Its practice varies with theculture. Wada walls abut the street. Transition intoprivate domestic space is through a gateway in thetall compound walls. In the culture under study, thewomenfolk are relatively liberated, with no purdahsystem. Wadas nevertheless had inner courtsassigned to the women and their domestic activi-ties, granting them privacy.

The patriarchal joint family system, albeit its shareof disadvantages, offers many positives. It serves asan excellent support system for the elderly as well asthe very young and provides an extended protec-tion to all members in times of need (Mullatti,1995). This societal structure gives precedence tothe organisation, the family, in this case than theindividual. This is in deep contrast to the contem-porary practices (Ameen., Ed. 1997, Chadha,1999).

Architecture is a reflection of values upheldby the community. Mahal is replete with a highquality of craftsmanship that was a prerogative ofthe building trades. Freedom of expression at theindividual level to interpret the principles within theoverall design conception was granted while work-ing within the framework of building established bythe first ‘sthapati' 9. It included materials, construc-tion, and design of ornaments. Individualisticdetails enriched the homogeneity of the resultantvisual expression (Figure 6).

Old city Mahal is a testimony to the factthat an all-compassing value system is a cohesiveforce that binds community with its build environ-ment and vice versa, through a holistic satiation ofseminal E-B concepts. It is a lesson in sociocultur-al sustainability. Transforming outlooks and con-

Figure 5. Courtyard of a wada. (Source: Courtesy of Ar.

Diba Raza).

Figure 4. Plan of a typical wada. (Source: Authors).

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temporary lifestyle preferences looking for individ-ual expression find this a stifling experience, asmany young residents expressed.

EVOLVING PATTERNS OF THE GROW-ING CITY

Post-independence, the natural organic expansionof the city was regularised with the DevelopmentControl Regulations (DCR’s). The city has expand-ed in two distinct phases: pre- and post- globalisa-tion. This study takes up two neighbourhoods thatoriginated in these two distinct time frames.Swavalambi Nagar is one of the many pre-globali-sation housing colonies that mushroomed on thecity fringes in the 1980. This is a greenfield devel-

opment displaying orderliness arising out of plan-ning bylaws. The other housing community is gatedand belongs to the post globalisation era of1990’s. This is an upcoming brownfield develop-ment located on the south-western edge of Mahal.Three overlays of Nagpur city are distinct in theirphysical manifestation (Refer to Table 1).

ANALYSIS OF OBSERVATIONS

For generations, Indian society has organised itselfaround the caste system (Adler and Pouwels, 2008). It is a very distinctivefeature of Indian cities to have areas segregated onlines of distinctive culture based communitiesdespite belonging to a similar religious faith. Sodespite the universalising effect of the bylaws, eachneighbourhood has its unique cultural flavor mani-fest through non-verbal means such as symbolism.Of the two neighbourhoods chosen for this study,the first belongs to this category.

The post globalisation era heralded a newclass, based on economic similarities, but the trendis miniscule in scale especially in smaller cities.Gated communities largely fall in this category.

Democrat ic formation of new ci ty and re-interpretat ion of mother sett lementA major part of expansion of the city in the pre-globalisation era was due to resettling of inhabi-tants of the congested core city area. Mahal wasunder attack due to malaise of urban growth. Withthe creation of new layouts in the pre-globalisationperiod of 1980-s, exodus of inhabitants fromMahal created new neighbourhoods. The Marathi

Table 1. Comparative matrix of the three neighbourhoods. (Source: Authors).

Figure 6. An intricate wooden balcony. (Source: Authors).

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elespeaking Brahmin community cre-

ated Swavalambi Nagar. Despitethe pre-ordained gridiron devel-opment of land, the migrant com-munity nurtured an acculturationof the old city. This was possiblesince the co-operative societieswere people centric and incorpo-rated their needs and aspirations.The morphological map shows thedotting of the entire area withshrines big and small, a distinctivefeature of Mahal (Figure 7).

The many open spaces,mandated by bylaws, have a smalltemple with a portico. These werebuilt and are maintained by mon-etary contributions from the localcommunity. Congregational activ-ities and community classes foryoga and pranayama are con-ducted in the dalans of the more

active temples. One of the many interesting activi-ties observed in this colony is the ‘Bhajani mandal',which is a chorus group of housewives and theelderly women. During the many festivals that dotthe calendar, these amateur micro-socioculturalgroups come together for competitions on originalcreations. This space serves as an excellent area forthe elderly to interact in the evenings (Figure 8).

Most residences house a single extendedfamily, which includes grandparents. Despitenuclear families, aging parents are cared for athome. India lacks a social security system and oldage homes are not in vogue. Family is the security.Grandparents bridge the gap between parents and

children by assisting in childcare. Thus the problemof the elderly is mellowed India (Nalini, 1997). Sostrong is the sentiment, that one of the parks isnamed ‘Aji-Ajoba' 10 park. Children use the openspace adjacent to the temple under watchful eyesof the grandparents. Thus, while the move gavegreater freedom and autonomy to the newlyformed nuclear families, this community was ableto bridge the generational and cultural gap.

A diligent follow-up of bylaws has impart-ed human scale and spaciousness to this neigh-bourhood (Figure 9). Each house has a small gar-den and compound walls to keep away stray ani-mals. Due to increased affordances of space, manyhouseholds have pets. It is a common feature to

Figure 7. Morphology of Swavalambi Nagar (Source: Google maps).

Figure 9. Visual character of the 1980-s neighbourhood

(Source: Authors).

Figure 8. Ladies chorus group performing in the temple

dalan (Source: Authors).

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find residents on an evening walk around the openspaces with their dogs.

The typical house plan shows the drawingcum dining area with the household shrine at thefar end (Figure 10). This area doubles up duringfestivals when furniture is stacked away, to create anuninterrupted space for floor decorations and fam-ily feasts on the floor (Figure 11). This lifestyle pat-tern is still popularly in vogue. This practice entailsremoval of shoes outside the main door.

Characteristics of the parent communitysuch as human scale, perceptible discipline andorder, defensibility, privacy, a sense of identity, andcohesiveness have achieved continuum, albeit thedifference in settings. In Grade II cities like Nagpur,recreational infrastructure is not well developed. Inthe absence of such, social engagements enrichlifestyle while imparting a sense of quietude andsatisfaction to this community.

Some observations worth noting in thenegative are the lack of a refined sense of visualexpression, despite the cultural richness displayed.Mahal had completed the circle of a holistic builtenvironment, with its rich display of architecturaldetailing. Swavalambi Nagar's inspiration stopsshort at the cultural continuum. It had ample scopeto be designed with involvement of skills of the localartisans, but not much thought is given to such fineraspects of the built environments. The parks havean unkempt look, so also the streets. This is withexception of the shrines, which have a fresh coat ofpaint. This comes as a surprise to the observer, due

to the maturity displayed in other endeavors.Rapoport notes that such lack of ‘taste' displayed inarchitectural expression may merely be incapacityto choose outside the framework of traditionalforms. (Rapoport, 1969).

Gated community as a product of the‘development’ industryThe second neighbourhood under study belongs tothe contemporary era. The typology of GatedCommunities is imported from the developedworld. It gained popularity in urban and suburbanareas of developing countries (Webster, Glasze,and Frantz, 2002). Marketed as a ‘lifestyle con-cept', it is a package deal consisting of exclusivity,identity, feeling of belonging to a special place,comfort, and sense of security (Blakeley and Snyder,1997; Grant, 2005). Such enclaves are akin to afancy wrapped gift, unmindful and unconscious ofthe rent created in the complex urban fabric. Theyare a sudden and deep dis-link from the ongoingurban development (Turgut, 2010). Burgeoninggrowth of such enclaves was witnessed in late1990’s in the metropolitan cities of India. One ofthe reasons for their increasing popularity in India isthe multitude of facilities that support the lifestylethat the civic authorities fail to provide in the popu-lous Indian cities. The social prestige that comeswith such location is an added advantage.

Smaller cities like Nagpur also saw suchprojects shaping on city fringes and as brownfielddevelopments within the old city. Unlike the initiativetaken by community-based co-operative societiesof the 1980’s to create residential colonies, theseare developed in totality by real estate developers.

The Godrej-Anandam World City is onesuch brownfield development in a prime area whichbecame available when colonial era mills weredemolished (Figure 12). Planned by an interna-tional firm and designed by a reputed architect, itsinternational vocabulary is obvious. Presentation isan important aspect of gated communities and

Figure 11. Festival feast on the floor (Source: Authors).

Figure 10. Plan of a typical house (Source: Authors).

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many have a themed expression. Enclosing a land parcel of approximately

thirty acres, this enclave offers various combina-tions of housing: stand alone villa houses and tallbuildings with a mix of two and three bedroomapartments. Ample parking, well-maintained ser-vices, 24X7 water and electric supply, and open

spaces with manicured lawns, plantations, path-ways for strolling, etc. make this a desirable propo-sition. Being in the heart of the city yet avoiding itsmultiple hassles and owning a place that affords alifestyle experience is a lure. The cynosure of theseenclaves is the quintessential clubhouse withamenities for health, well-being, entertainment andsocialising. This makes it possible as a dailyengagement, since commuting on congestedurban roads to the local park for an evening walkmakes it an indulgence when living in the city cen-

Figure 13. Entrance to the gated community. (Source:

Authors).

Figure 12. Masterplan of Godrej- Anandam World City. (Source: Goldbricks Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.).

Figure 14. Typical plan of an apartment floor. (Source: GI

Pvt. Ltd.).

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tre. The willing acceptance to these gated

enclaves’ results out of some positive experiences.It is a cosmopolitan place with its population andpresentation, where shared interests can be nur-tured and interactions can take place in a designerambiance (Figures 13, 14, and 15). Herein,lifestyle permits the formation of a homogenisedcommunity based upon economic class. This is adistinct departure from the traditional communitieswithin the city based on caste, regional culture, orreligion (Chacko and Varghese, 2009).

Pert inent teflect ions on the environment-behaviour realmLifestyle swings are on the anvil. New socioculturalnorms are set to take over. The focus has shiftedfrom the community to the individual, changing theunderlying basis of core concepts. The pivotal pointof the gated community is the individual, his priva-cy, and personal space. The intrinsic need for iden-tity is fulfilled by the borrowed and strong visualuniqueness of the architectural expression. Walls,gates, and security on mobile devices controldefensibility, an intrinsic human trait. The sense ofbelonging comes with familiarity rather than humanbonding.

The clubhouse designed by name archi-tects in fancy vocabulary is a place of pride, whichencourages a lifestyle focusing on physical well-being. The nature of social interactions has trans-formed to get-togethers, parties and fellowshipsover drinks. Like most social engagements, theseaim at enjoyment and relaxation, unsupported orguided by the age-old social institutions. Needlessto say, both the developers and the architect-plan-ners in their zest for ‘an international equity' do nothave an agenda to support the traditional continu-um.

Similar transformations are occurring theworld over in countries with deep historical lega-

cies. These are generally in the Global South.Research and studies are pointing at the extinctionof common elements resulting in loss of urbanidentity. Mirmoghtadaee (2009, p. 79), succinctlystates the failure of enforcing fundamental changesin the intrinsic culture of the residents by transfor-mation of their physical environments:

‘Habitats should be physically harmonious with tra-ditions and lifestyles; otherwise residents will reactby changing the environment according to theirwishes. When environment itself is not changeable,residents have to adopt themselves to the new con-ditions; consequently, some valuable traditionswould be lost forever.’

While economic well-being is appreciable, the lossof spirituality and social binding is a looming neg-ative. Loneliness in the midst of a populated worldis the irony of the contemporary lifestyle, glorified bythe synthetic, and alienating make-up of theenclave community.

CONCLUSION

This study compares the morphological set up ofthree housing neighbourhoods of Nagpur city andlifestyles it supports. In doing so, the status of E-Bparameters such as social interaction, defensiblespace, sense of belonging, human scale, privacy,and lifestyle are observed for determining QoL ineach case. The assessment involved the neighbour-hood at the macro level and the individual house atthe micro level. The study brings out the primalimportance of a robust and meaningful social inter-action in serving as a catalyst for achieving ahealthy sociocultural environment. It highlights theunique nature of the traditional continuum in small-er Indian cities as the backbone of socioculturalsustainability.

The study is pertinent from the point of viewof the recent governmental propaganda for trans-forming grade II cities into smart cities. The appli-cation of ICT is the hyped agenda in such anendeavor. An isolated effort of haphazard infra-structural additions seeks the well-being of citizens.The approach being adopted lacks a holistic viewof development, making manifest a huge gap inperception of the ground situation and the valueaddition being proposed.

ICT-enabled with state-of-the-art technolo-gy has the prowess to virtually connect cities andhumans globally. Ironically, the distance betweenhumans in the real world is increasing phenome-nally. This is leading to many lifestyle changes,many of which are undesirable. Gated communi-

Figure 15. Interior setting of a villa. (Source: Authors).

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eleties with their gratified existence divorced from sur-

rounding ground realities are shaping lifestylescommensurate with globalisation and commodifi-cation. The rift cannot be bridged by technologicalapplications alone. Smart cities can never be aholistic dream without a sociocultural revolution.The ethos of Indian cities still continues its existenceas one of the many layers of its simultaneity. Thereis need to celebrate and rejuvenate this thread ofcontinuity for urban betterment.

Many architects are acknowledging thisfact when they borrow liberally from the spatial pat-tern of old cities in a bid to recreate a familiar set-ting with an altruistic hope, that the essence ofcommunity life shall conjoin to add value to mod-ern lifestyle. But the vital continuity of live traditionsthat constitutes the soul of community life eludes.There is a need in an aware world, to expand theconfines of positive traditions to a cosmopolitanlevel, instead of sidelining them. Without the soul ofsuch human traditions, these remain as visuallyappealing spatial patterns. The sea change of pri-orities from the community’s well-being to the indi-vidual's well-being is a change that no amount ofnostalgic pattern making can revive.

Quintessential tier 2 cities in a developingnation, despite lack of adequate social infrastruc-ture, still reflect a humane side of urbanity with itsquietude, pace of life, scale and community con-nectedness – jcharacteristics that need nurturingand learning from. Environs of pre-globalisedneighbourhoods support a vigorous continuum ofcommunity events that dot the Indian calendar. Thisis an age-old sociocultural mechanism to keepcommunities engaged, enriched, and bonded. This‘greening' is the backbone of sociocultural sustain-ability. It is as vital as the other aspects of city devel-opment.

The model of pre-globalised neighbour-hood is an excellent example of people's participa-tion in the making of their colony. It takes positivelyfrom the past and can be made ‘smart' in conso-nance with the need of the times. The right balancebetween the ICT applications and preservation ofthe sociocultural "green" is the need of the hour.

Small cities with their perceived ‘backward-ness' hold great potential for a holistic develop-ment. To make a city smart and sustainable, effortsat people centricity are imperative along with ICTand other smart technologies of the future. The cur-rent reckless additions in infrastructure are myopicand oversimplify human aspects. This study plugsthe gap by highlighting the vital need for a contin-uum of intangible traditions that are enrichinglifestyles in smaller cities. It is important to safe-guard the age-old devices of human bonding evenas cities grow and become smart. Such initiatives

should be designed to nurture and enrich ‘the mea-surable and the unmeasurable, the physical as wellas the spiritual' (Kahn, Trombly, 2003). These arecritical aspects for the achievement of socioculturalsustainability.

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http://www.urbannewsdigest.in/?p=14217

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/vIp4DZyZZY37L9ihcaQpLI/T

urning-India-citysmart.html

NOTES

1.‘chowk' is space at the intersection of streets; 2.‘nukkad' is the corner of street; 3. the ‘otla' is a plat-form to sit around; 4. ‘osri' is the verandah exten-sion of a house.

5. ‘Kirtans’ and 6. ‘Pravachans’ are a form ofsocio- religious activity that is rooted in the ‘Bhakti’movement. These traditions date back to the 12th

century AD and are still alive due to their massappeal. Kirtan is a form of theatrical folk song withinteractive chanting. It also involves music, dance,comedy, oratory, memory, awareness of currenthappenings, and Sanskrit literature. Pravachans arediscourses on scriptures. Both these are performedby erudite performers.

7. ‘satsangs' are benevolent gatherings where peo-ple meet over some intellectual or social activityand are popular even today.

8. ‘dalan' is a semi-open verandah

9. ‘sthapati' was the chief architect and designer

10. ‘Aji-Ajoba' stands for grandmother and grand-father in Marathi

Author(s):

Smita KhanDepartment of Architecture and PlanningVisveswaraya National Institute of Technology(VNIT)Nagpur, [email protected]

Archana BelePriyadarshini Institute of Architecture and DesignStudies (PIADS)Nagpur, [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

Kathmandu Valley in Nepal has a unique con-glomeration of indigenous urban settlementsspread out in historic core areas of the three cities– Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur, whichencompass seven monument zones of theUNESCO’s World Heritage listed, KathmanduValley World Heritage Site. Everyday activities inand around these settlements illustrate an ongoinginteraction between society, culture, and the envi-ronment through numerous religious and culturalpractices.

Various rituals and religious practices –mainly Hindu and Buddhist – shaped the urbanspaces and forms giving the cities a distinctivemedieval flavour. In the last two decades, spacesand buildings in the Valley have been goingthrough a transition and the contemporary buildingtypologies that have emerged are emblematic ofthe changing urban environment and behavioursarticulated through new forms of identity, aspira-tions, and aesthetics (Gutschow and Kreutzmann,2013; Sengupta and Bhattarai Upadhyay, 2016;Shah, 2013). New residential design is dominatedby distinctive patterns following the Western subur-ban ideal of detached or semi-detached individualhomes and high rise tower blocks. This building

style is in contrast to the indigenous urban forminterspersed by series of communal spaces, link-ages, and landmarks. Traditional houses wereorganised around a square where people from theextended families resided. Often the votive minia-ture temple, large water spouts or a well enhancedthe aesthetics of the space and also provided thelocal residents the opportunity to interact andsocialise. The embedded nature of public and pri-vate spaces was unique to Nepalese society thataccommodated the age-old sociocultural and reli-gious practices. Today as Mumford (1938) con-tends “a great many things stand in the way ofgrasping the role of the city and of transforming thisbasic means of communal existence” limiting notonly opportunities for social interactions but alsoeroding traditional housing forms and spatial sys-tem.

The medieval urban culture that existed inthe Kathmandu Valley until 19th century (Aranha,1991; Gutschow and Kreutzmann, 2013; Tiwari,2001) is being replaced rapidly by the new moder-nity, which penetrated urban landscape of theValley and the lifestyle of its residents in the last fourto five decades. The new urban landscape of theKathmandu Valley today is attributed to variousforces of urbanisation and globalisation and thedemand for new buildings and spaces. Traditional

Vibha Bhattarai-Upadhyay, Urmi Sengupta

Abstract

Culture has always been important for the character of the cities, as have the civic and public institutions that sustain a

lifestyle and provide an identity. Substantial evidence of the unique historical, urban civilisation remains within the tra-

ditional settlements in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, manifested in houses, palaces, temples, rest houses, open

spaces, festivals, rituals, customs and cultural institutions. Indigenous knowledge and practices prescribed the arrange-

ment of houses, roads, and urban spaces giving the city a distinctive physical form, character, and a unique oriental

nativeness. In a technical sense, these societies did not have written rules for guiding development. In recent decades,

the urban culture of the city has been changing with the forces of urbanisation and globalisation and the demand for

new buildings and spaces. New residential design is increasingly dominated by distinctive patterns of Western subur-

ban ideal comprising detached or semi-detached homes and high rise tower blocks. This architectural iconoclasm can

be construed as a rather crude response to the indigenous culture and built form. The paper attempts to dismantle the

current tension between traditional and contemporary ‘culture’ (and hence society) and housing (or built form) in the

Kathmandu Valley by engaging in a discussion that cuts across space, time, and meaning of architecture as we know

it.

Keywords: Housing, Architecture, Traditional, Modernity, Kathmandu Valley.

UNSETTLING MODERNITY: SHIFTING VALUES ANDCHANGING HOUSING STYLES IN THE KATHMANDUVALLEY.

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buildings are being replaced by incongruous tallbuildings with little emphasis on artistic taste(Shrestha, 1981) whilst the shift from owner-builthousing to developer-built housing has acceleratedthis trend. More recently, multi-storeyed apartmentbuildings have dotted the Kathmandu Valley sky-line, which Shah (2013, p. 53) claims “offered anew product in the market for the newly rich”. Therecent devastating earthquake of 25th of April,2015 further placed the appropriateness of the newresidential architecture at the forefront of discus-sion.

The paper discusses the current tensionbetween traditional and contemporary ‘culture’(and hence society) and housing (or built form) inthe Kathmandu Valley by engaging in a discussionthat cuts across space, time, and meaning of build-ing. The next section discusses the organisation ofspace and house types in the traditional and con-temporary Kathmandu Valley to illustrate the majorideological difference between the conception andcreation of urban architecture and space then andnow. The paper concludes that residential architec-ture in Kathmandu Valley today stands disengagedfrom its glorious past and remains disoriented.

REL IGIOUS VALUES, SOCIOCULTURALNORMS, AND TRADITIONAL ARCHITEC-TURE

The distinct urban form and spatial pattern of thetraditional quarters in the Kathmandu Valley datesroughly back to 2000 years, with multiple dynasties(such as, Licchavis, Mallas, Ranas and lately Shahs)contributing to city building. Building and artisticactivities peaked during the 15th and 16th cen-turies as the Malla rulers from the three city states,Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur (Patan), com-peted with each other in building temples, monu-ments, and public spaces. This period is regardedas one of the glorious periods in the history ofKathmandu Valley that provided distinctive identityto the architecture and urban form of the Valley.

Royal palaces and squares assumed thehighest importance as administrative, bureaucratic,and religious spaces. These were multifunctionalspaces implying an extended involvement of ‘Royalinstitution’ in the society. The traditional townsreflect organic growth over centuries, “the splen-dour of the Newar1 town design seems to emanatefrom an innate sense of aesthetics, a natural rhyth-mic articulation achieved over a long time spanrather than a conscious organisation of spaceaccording to dictate” (Slusser, 1982, p. 94), butscholars (Müller, 1981; Tiwari, 2008) argue that

they are certainly not unplanned settlements despitethe lack of a regular road pattern, a general mis-conception about a planned town. The layout ofthe towns generally centred on a palace with imme-diate surrounding areas occupied by the elites –people from the higher castes2. The lower casteslived outside the city walls. The importance of thedistrict declined with distance from the city centre(Wright, 1877).

Typology of a Newar houseA typical Newar house was a three to four storeyedbuilding which either faced a courtyard or a street.On the ground floor, rooms facing the street wereoften used as shops and the inner rooms facing thecourtyard were used as open living areas or work-shops, approached through courts (Müller, 1981).Typical building materials were red bricks laid outon mud mortar. Timbers were used for floors,doors, windows, and roof structures. Almost all thebuilding materials were sourced locally and built bythe local builders and craftsmen. Houses of the richhad ornately carved wooden windows facing thestreets. The windows were small to shut out the win-ter cold. Courtyards were shared spaces to observereligious or everyday activities.

The individual house was a part of the larg-er group, a neighbourhood (tol), which consisted ofhouses built around courtyards and people gener-ally moved through a series of interconnected

Figure 1. Traditional houses along a street in historical

quarter in Lalitpur. (Source: Authors, 2014.

1Indigenous inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley.2Class hierarchy is the stratification of the society largely based on the traditional occupations of the people in the Kathmandu Valley.

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ptacourtyards to get to streets and nearby public

squares. Some houses are even connected at theattic level, and doors are opened on the days oflarge communal feasts (Pant, 2002). The doorswere very low in height and it is believed that thereason for this was to show respect to your ownhouse when entering it by bowing your head(Haaland, 1982).

Each tol of around 150-300 houses wasintricately linked to people based on their caste andoccupation, thereby giving them a unique collectiveidentity. The location of the house in a typical streetor in tol indicated the social status of the owner(Shrestha, 1981). Each house used to be two tothree storeyed and usually housed a joint family ofparents, their children, and grandchildren, livingtogether for social, as well as, economic reasons(Haaland, 1982).

An individual’s house is the first place ofworship, where there is usually a corner or a sepa-rate room, usually on the top floor, dedicated to dif-ferent deities. There is also a place of worship in thecourtyard, which is worshipped by the families livingaround the courtyard. Away from the periphery ofthe house, at the first junction of the streets, there isa temple, often for Lord Ganesh or GoddessBhagavati. In larger open spaces, there are biggertemples. There are a number of temples spread outacross the city. Each family is attached to thesedeities located in different parts of the city and theirassociation with them is based on daily or annualrituals or festivals held at a particular time of theyear. The festivals attached to certain deities andlocated in certain neighbourhoods also provideunity and belonging to the neighbourhood. Thelocal religious procession is the manifestation ofthis cohesion (Sharma, 1997). The living quarters,distinctly divided according to caste groups, wereassigned different set of rules for building, forexample, people on the lower caste were prohibit-ed from using tiles on their roofs; instead, theirroofing material had to be thatch. The procedurefor building a house was different for each castewith elaborate rituals generally prescribed for high-er caste groups. Houses of the elites, who livedcloser to the palace, were valued more than thehouses on a street or a lane, farther from thepalace or the city centre (Wright, 1877).

Location, public spaces, and activitiesThe traditional settlements in the Kathmandu Valleywere usually compact, built on the higher grounds,where cultivation was difficult to conserve the agri-cultural land (Hosken, 1974). Surprisingly, withinthese compact settlements, there were plenty ofpublic spaces where people met, markets wereheld, agricultural products were thrashed and

dried, and various festivities were carried out (Korn,1993; Wright, 1877). These activities spilled outfrom the private spaces of the house to the semi-private spaces of the courtyards to the publicspaces, such as neighbourhood squares andstreets, with very little demarcation between privateand public spaces. The relationship between thebuildings (both public and private) and the streetsand open spaces illustrates not only an under-standing of visual requirements but also of the func-tional and social needs of the population. Religiousvalues, social structure, and kinship relationships ofthe indigenous inhabitants of the KathmanduValley, the Newars, played significant roles in theprovision of spaces in the cities in the Valley.Similarly, numerous religious festivals occurringthroughout the year – and continue until today –determined the social and ritual hierarchy of thesquares, streets in the cities. Maintenance of thesespaces lay entirely in private or communaldomains.

Guidel ines, restrict ions, and incent ivesAs early as the mid-14th century, the Newar rulersestablished clear guidelines on what a houseshould look like and its value using religious scrip-ture as a basis for settlement planning. These reli-gious rules of allocating spaces in or outside thecity based on one’s caste group are a clear andearly example of how rules regarding urban spacehave been used to reflect and reinforce social sta-tus. Building scale and visual harmony was empha-sised with uniform building designs prescribed forthe size and the structure of the building for differ-ent castes. Values of houses in different parts of thecities were standardised. This indicates the expect-ed economic outcomes if the properties were to besold, i.e. the identification of economic opportuni-ties of the house and land (Wright, 1877).

Not only were there certain rules on how tobuild residences and where to build, there were sys-tems in place to make sure that the public buildingsand spaces were appropriately maintained. Oncethe public buildings and spaces were constructed,donations of various kinds were organised, whichgenerally involved the establishment of a trustknown as guthi, to fund the long term maintenanceand management of those spaces/ structures(Tiwari, 2007).

SHIFTING VALUES, MODERN ASPIRA-TIONS, AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHI-TECTURE

The Kathmandu Valley is the biggest urban centrein Nepal and includes five major urban areas:Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Lalitpur sub

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Metropolitan City, Bhaktapur Municipality, KirtipurMunicipality, and Thimi Municipality, each withvarying degrees of urban development activities.Kathmandu Valley’s expanding architecturalmodernity lends itself to the exploration of its recenthistory. Historians in Nepal mark the year 1786 asthe beginning of ‘modern era’ when PrithviNarayan Shah (the first King of Unified Nepal) tookover Kathmandu Valley and establishedKathmandu as the capital of Nepal. From the com-mencement of the rule of Prithivi Narayan Shah,power of the state was transferred from the rulingMalla class and the elite Newars into the hands ofthe Shah dynasty and original Gorkhalis. However,while the Shah Royal family were the official rulers,there was a de facto seizure of power by prime min-isters belonging to the Rana family between 1846-1951 (Slusser, 1982). The Rana rulers directed allthe wealth of the country’s treasury towards theirown welfare and led extravagant lifestyles withinluxurious palaces. Opposition was repressed andinformation and education was kept away frompeople (Müller, 1981). The indigenous Newars ofthe Kathmandu Valley, however, were less affectedby the political chaos revolving around the contin-uous fighting between the small upper caste rulingclasses, as the majority of the population was asso-ciated with trade and farming and had very little todo with the feudal class (Hosken, 1974).

Contemporary architecture in KathmanduValley has its roots in external influences. As early as1850, Rana ruler Jung Bahadur Rana travelled toEngland to witness the development and militaryprowess of England and other European countries.His trip was the instigator to the creation of hugeNeoclassical, baroque style palace buildings strewnin different parts of the Kathmandu Valley. Thesepalaces became the identity of modernity in theearly years as the pseudo renaissance columns andstucco decorations became a part of theKathmandu Valley landscape (Shrestha, 1981).Still, modernisation in Nepal effectively began withthe redevelopment of much of Juddha Sadak(renamed ‘New Road’ – to underscore advent ofmodernity) into a retail hub, which was followingthe 1934 earthquake (Gustchow and Kreutzmann,2013).

On reflection, modernity in KathmanduValley is analogous to globalisation. In 1951, afterthe revolution to overthrow the autocratic Ranarule, the new democratic government opened thecountry to the outside world for the first time aftermore than a century of seclusion. Soon foreigndonations started to pour in and international aidagencies started setting up offices in Nepal. In1955, the country acquired its first airport bringingthe city closer to the outside world. The growing

importance of the Valley internationally was accom-panied by rapid internal migration that broughtdiverse ethnic population with disparate materialpossession into the Valley (Proksch, 1995). TheValley’s agricultural hinterland became the newmaterial sites for development. Images from the1960s and 1970s (Hagen, 1980) show settlementsstill clustered around traditional town areas andalong major transport routes, whereas between1971 and 1981, residential land area grew twice(Doebele, 1987). Increasing exposure to the out-side world fuelled by easy access to internationalprint and visual media influenced the developmentof so-called modern architecture in the Valley. Thelandscape of uniformity and homogeneity in archi-tectural style and design gave way to a collage ofstyles driven by images of Western modernity.

The first-ever plan for the KathmanduValley, the Physical Development Plan for theKathmandu Valley, was prepared in 1969 followedby a number of planning studies and policy docu-ments over the subsequent decades. Most of thesedocuments discussed the gradual loss of the historicarchitecture in the Kathmandu Valley, but nonemade efforts to understand the underlying sociocul-tural mechanism that was successful in conservingthe traditional environment in the KathmanduValley for centuries. Various controls, including theAncient Monument Preservation Act that came intoforce in 1956, introduced a horde of buildingbylaws mainly in and around historic centres; how-ever, owing to difficulties in monitoring mechanismand lack of penalty for non-compliance, theenforcement of rules have been weak leading toindiscriminate conversions of many older buildings.The lack of adequate management and immensedevelopment pressures have been a major threat tothe World Heritage sites and the peripheral areas(Tiwari, 2001). This coupled with the failing plan-ning guidelines and control mechanism can also beexplained by what AlSayyad (2013, p. 3) calls the‘homogenising forces of twentieth-century moder-nity’.

Development incremental ismThe contemporary urban environment ofKathmandu is dominated by individual piecemealhousing developments. Unlike the houses of theoriginal Newar towns, these houses are usually verydifferent in colour, design, and in scale to eachother. The introduction of reinforced concrete in the1950s was instrumental in changing the traditionalbrick-walled residential houses into bungalow typestructures which would start as a single-storeyedresidence with subsequent addition of floors as thefamily grew in size and the needs expanded (Shah,2010). More recent houses with multiple storeys

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had different families living in each floor rented outby the owners. With the rise of land prices, housingplots became smaller as the residences rose inheight disregarding the bylaws. The new evolvinglandscape was marked by the reinforcement steelbars protruding form [sic] the top slab of buildings,in anticipation of future additions (Shah, 2010,para. 2).

Emergence of formal real estateThe privately planned residential enclaves in the cityemerged in around 2000, with the enactment ofthe Apartment Act and deregulation of housingfinance. In the turn of the century, the Indian realestate giant, Ansal Group, partnered withChaudhary Group to launch the first apartmentbased housing project in Nepal ‘KathmanduResidency’ in Lalitpur followed by Mount ViewResidency in Hattiban in Lalitpur. Those projects infact predated the promulgation of Apartment Actmaking it a classic case of government apparatusplaying a catch up with the market. Since then,about 150 private companies have become regis-tered with the Nepal Land and Housing Developers'Association. Whilst the majority are one-off devel-opers, more than 10 have built a successful realestate developer’s business model. As of yet, thesupply of housing estates and modern apartmentcomplexes is mainly geared towards the upper mid-dle class, including non-resident Nepalese livingabroad. In fact, many of the developers specificallytarget the latter group. Real estate expositions areregularly organised in the UK, USA, and Australianot only attracted overseas buyers but also broughttheir aspirations and lifestyles.

Middle class imaginaries: Contemporaryresidential architecture redef inedPrivate developers in Kathmandu Valley haveplanned modern enclaves in a grid-iron pattern tomimic classic Western suburban neighbourhooddesigns. More recently, apartment towers have

appeared in different parts of the city. Most of themare developed by the local investors, but lately,Chinese, Korean, and Indian investors have alsoentered the market.

One of the first housing companies to startplanned housing colonies is the Civil Homes PvtLtd. Civil Homes is currently undertaking phaseseven of a housing development on the outskirts ofthe Kathmandu Metropolitan City. The past sixdevelopments have been hugely successful. TheCivil Homes website claims it is “one of the largestplanned housing undertakings in the country; it setsnew standards of living, amenities, and aesthetics”.The developer further claims that the developmentis specifically and authentically Nepalese:

“It is a project undertaken by the Nepalese for theNepalese people, with conscious efforts made toprovide for local conditions, tastes and habits. Theexquisitely designed buildings, though contempo-rary, fit in the Nepalese landscape” (Civil Homes,2015).

The Civil Homes Phase III development located atSunakothi in the southern part of Lalitpur district isone of the biggest housing developments. Thisdevelopment was marketed as a place with goodviews, a peaceful and healthy environment, treelined boulevards leading to a central open spacefor community uses, full security with boundarywalls, gates, and security guards, an onsite privateschool, clinic, and postal services, as well as a reli-able water supply and drainage systems (CivilHousing Program, n.d.). There are six types ofhouses depending upon the area of the land andthe facilities, but each has some private open spaceand onsite parking. The prices of these houses atthe time of their selling varied from approximatelyNRs. 3.35 million to 7.75 million (approximatelyequivalent to £20,563 to £47,571, as of July2015) (Civil Homes, 2009; Civil Housing Program,n.d.). The developers claim that the housing com-plex is developed to achieve a greater sense ofneighbourhood and to be environmentally friendlyby utilising a low density grid street pattern with ahierarchy of road sizes (Civil Housing Program,n.d.).

Despite the nationalistic marketing blurb,the Civil Homes housing development deliberatelyimitates the subdivision design of Western gatedcommunities. Entry to the housing is guarded bysecurity personnel. The researcher observed thatdevelopment is strictly zoned and there are no com-mercial activities within the residential areas – acontrast from the traditional neighbourhoods.Community facilities are allocated to a separatesection of the complex. Although there are six dif-

Figure 2. Owner built house. (Source: Authors, 2014).

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ferent types of houses in the plan, the exteriors ofthe houses vary little with the same materials anddesign elements used. In contrast to downtownKathmandu, and even new independently devel-oped areas, the streets inside the complex wereobserved to be very quiet. The open space was alsovery quiet with no activities.

Another example of a modern residentialdevelopment in Kathmandu is the Terraces alsolocated in Sunakothi. The Terraces, developed byValley Homes Pvt. Ltd., was marketed as a gatedcommunity. The properties were sold in 2009-2010, with prices starting at NRs. 12.17 million(approximately equivalent to £74,701) to NRs.17.56 million (approximately equivalent to£107,786, as of August 2015) depending upondifferent house types. There are 12 differentdesigns, with some potential for customisation tosuit specific client needs. The Terraces had land-scaped gardens, walking and jogging paths, wideopen roads, open spaces, and a soon to opencommunity club with all the modern facilities (ValleyHomes Pvt. Ltd., n.d.; Valley Homes, 2009).

Inside the Terraces compound, visitedbetween 2012 and 2014, the houses presented anidealised image of the houses in Western countrieswith European neoclassical elements used in thetreatment of the exteriors. These houses are luxuri-ous and expensive in comparison to those in theCivil Homes development. There are no visible ref-erences to indigenous architecture or neighbour-hood design.

Apartment buildings are the most recentresidential developments in the Kathmandu Valley.The biggest advantage the apartments had over theindividual houses like Civil Homes or Terraces werethe lower costs but similar facilities. One suchdevelopment is the Sun City. Sun City is the ‘luxuri-

ous and affordable apartment township’, built in thesuburb of Gothatar in Kathmandu. The ShangrilaHousing Pvt Ltd., developers of the Suncity, claimon their website that the township was developed

“to ensure that it serves to all those who believe inenthusiastic living…the apartments offer a fineblend of the comforts of Luxury resort…Sun CityGlobal Township is all about modernized, sophisti-cated yet smooth living. We have made sure thatSun City provides all the basic necessities forsmooth living such as good supply of water andsecurity, so that you can live a hassle free life andenjoy great moments that it offers.”

Similarly, developers of the TCH Tower IV –Sitapaila, a suburb on the outskirts of Kathmanducity, claim “that apartments are the need and theultimate solution of this rapidly growing society”.The features of the development such as, ‘round theclock security system’, ‘treated water supply’, ‘gym-nasium, sauna, and jacuzzi rooms, swimming pool’are highlighted including a small temple located atthe ‘site gate’.

Construction of the apartment buildingsgathered pace in the last couple of years and saleshad gradually picked up and the businesses lookedpromising after a gradual slump since 2009 due toa recession (KTM2Day, 2014). That was until thedevastating earthquake of 25th of April, 2015 inwhich few highly sought after apartment buildingswere destroyed beyond repair (AFP, 2015).

CONCLUSION: UNCANNY MODERNITY

The paper has described how traditional architec-ture in the Kathmandu Valley has become an ongo-ing, potent symbol of engagement with the past.

Figure 3. Houses at Civil Homes Development. (Source: Civil Homes website, accessed January 2016).

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ptaWithin these symbols are found traditional practices

and ways of life that have evolved over many cen-turies. Architecture and built form has been shapedby the well-structured societal norms and religiouspractices, in turn helping preserve these very normsand practices to give cultural continuity. The adventof modernity, however, grounded in historic timings,has subscribed to different reference points.Modernity in residential architecture was shapedduring the decades globalisation flourished with apowerful architectural vision laden with Westernideals and aesthetics. Private developers becamethe torchbearers to promote this vision, which waswell received in the Kathmandu Valley.

Writings of the early travellers toKathmandu Valley, such as Wright (1877) andOldfield (1880) were dismissive of the Newarhouse designs, claiming them to be repetitiveacross the Kathmandu Valley towns. In their writingsthey assert as though anything different or notequivalent to the designs popular in Western coun-tries are deemed to be inferior. Similar feelingsbecame deeply rooted in Nepalese society, as overthe years, society tried to adopt Western styles ofbuilding and architecture assuming it to be superi-or from the indigenous style. Bhattarai Upadhyay(2012, p. 170) quotes one of the current urbanplanning practitioners KW in the athmandu Valleywho claims that

“there is a misconception that ...once youbuild with concrete your house is modern… All thelegal system is based on this understanding thatconcrete is pukka (permanent) and non-concrete iskacha (impermanent)”.

This highlights the technical ignoranceamong the general public and the inability of thegovernment to promote awareness in these issues;as a result, people find it easier to follow the tech-niques that everyone is using, thus abandoning thetraditional architectural styles for imported tech-niques of building construction. Moreover, the con-temporary professionals’ treatment of the indige-nous system as inferior to the new techniques hasresulted in the gradual abandonment of the tradi-tional system.

It can be argued that the new residentialarchitecture had an opportunity to engineer a newsociety keeping and enhancing some of the bestarchitectural practice. Why Nepalese architecturecould not serve as an example for the new builthomes or apartments is an important question. Thethree decades of civil war triggered massive influxof migrants and capital offering opportunities forredevelopment and urban extensions aligned withthe traditional architecture. But the sustained sub-scription to Westernised and globalised notions ofbuildings and spaces have been pervasive. These

practices have steadily grown to undermine thevalue of historic enclaves as centres of tradition,identity and nationhood.

Shrestha (1981) questioned how much ofthese architectural treasures could be preservedgiven the then pseudo-modernization. Nearly fourdecades later his question remains even moreimportant as the process of transition to modernityhas intensified.

The relevance of the new residential archi-tecture should be reviewed especially in the post-disaster context and also in the context that there isacute fuel, electricity, and water supply shortagethroughout the year. There are traditional Nepalesearchitecture and techniques better equipped to pro-vide the much needed resilience in the city. It is atragic paradox that the contemporary architecturein Kathmandu Valley turns its back on the very lega-cy that gave it an identity and survival.

REFERENCES

ALSAYYAD, N. (ed.), 2013. Consuming TraditionManufacturing Heritage (2nd Edition). Oxon, Routledge.

ARANHA, J. L. 1991. A Comparison of Traditional Settlementsin Nepal and Bali. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements

Review. Vol. 11, pp. 35-47.

AFP 2015. Flat Owners Baulk at Return to High-Life PostEarthquake, 09 July, Available at: http://kathmandupost.ekan-tipur.com/printedition/news/2015-07-08/flat-owners-baulk-at-return-to-high-life-post-earthquake.html

BHATTARAI UPADHYAY, V. 2012. Modern Plans, Ancient

Ideologies: A Hybrid Urban Management in the Kathmandu

Valley. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Sydney.

CIVIL HOMES 2009. Introduction. Available at:http://www.civilhomes.com/intro.htm. (Accessed 24 February2009)

CIVIL HOMES 2015. The Company. Available at: http://civil-homes.com/housing-company-in-nepal/ (Accessed 24 July2015).

CIVIL HOUSING PROGRAM Undated. Civil Homes-Phase 3.Civil Homes Marketing and Project Office.

DOEBELE, W. 1987. Intervening in the Informal Urban LandSupply: Neglected Opportunities. Paper prepared for USAID.GUTSCHOW, N. AND KREUTZMANN, H. 2013. Mapping the

Kathmandu Valley with Aerial Photographs by Erwin Schneider.

Himal Books, Kathmandu.

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HOSKEN, F. P. 1974. The Kathmandu Valley Towns: A Record

of Life and Change in Nepal. Weatherhill, New York.

KORN, W. 1993. The Traditional Architecture of the Kathmandu

Valley. Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu.

KTM2Day 2014. Apartment builders gear down and wait formarket revival, Feb 9. Available at:http://www.ktm2day.com/2014/02/09/apartment-builders-gear-down-and-wait-for-market-revival/. (Accessed 26th July2015)

MÜLLER, U. 1981. Thimi: Social and Economic Studies on a

Newar Settlement in the Kathmandu Valley. Giessen,Selbstverlag des Geographischen Instituts der Justus Liebig-Universitat Giessen.

MUMFORD, L. 1938. The Culture of Cities. Harcourt Brace,New York.

PANT, M. 2002, A Study on the Spatial Formation of

Kathmandu Valley Towns- The Case of Thimi. Unpublished the-sis PhD, Kyoto University.

OLDFIELD, H. A. 1880. Sketches from Nipal (Vol. I and Vol. II).London, W. H. Allen and Co.

PROKSCH, A., Ed. 1995. Images of Century: The Changing

Townscapes of the Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu, GTZ UrbanDevelopment Through Local Effort (UDLE Project).

SENGUPTA, U. and BHATTARAI UPADHYAY, V. (forthcomingMarch 2016) Lost in Transition? Emerging forms of residentialarchitecture in Kathmandu. Cities, Vol. 52: 94-102.

SHAH, B. 2013. Land Markets and the Emerging Urban Formin the Kathmandu Valley. Studies in Nepali History and Society,Vol. 18/ 1, pp.147-170.

SHAH, B. 2010. A Brief Overview of Incremental HousingConstruction in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Global Consortiumfor Incremental Housing. Available at:http://web.mit.edu/incrementalhousing/articlesPhotographs/nepalKarthmanduValley.html (Accessed 26th July 2015).

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Purba-madhyakalik Samajik Adhdyan (in Nepali). CNAS,Kathmandu.

SHRESTHA, M. 1981. Nepal's Traditional Settlement: Patternand Architecture. Journal of Cultural Geography, Vol.1/2, pp.26-43.

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Kathmandu Valley. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

TIWARI, S. R. 2008. City Space and Life Then, 150 Years Ago:A Presentation of Concept and Realities. Vedic Udbodhan.Available at:http://www.kailashkut.com/pagepublications/cityspacean-dlife.pdf (Accessed 14 July 2015)

TIWARI, S. R. 2007. Transforming Cultural Heritage intoSustainable Future: A CaseStudy of Patan, Nepal. In: Nadarajah, M. and Yamamoto, A.T. (eds.) N.D. Urban Crisis: Culture and the Sustainability ofCities. United Nations University Press, Tokyo, New York, Paris,pp. 62-106.

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Report for city Development strategy: Kathmandu Metropolitan

city, Report, pp.219-254, Kathmandu Metropolitan city andthe World Bank.

VALLEY HOMES. 2009. House Plans. Available at:http://www.valleyhomes.com.np/houseplan.html. (Accessed24 February 2009).

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Author

Vibha Bhattarai-Upadhyay, Institute for Culture and Society, Western SydneyUniversityParramatta Campus, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia [email protected]

Urmi SenguptaSchool of Planning, Architecture and CivilEngineering, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

The face of Asian cities is transforming to shapenew realities. The economic growth in the past fourdecades has resulted in the rapid increase in urbanpopulation and the emerging of new global cen-tres. Between 1970 and 2005, the urban popula-tion in Asia has more than tripled and the level ofurbanisation was short of doubling at 39.7% in2005 (Yeung, 2011). Cities in Southeast Asia,including Kuala Lumpur reflect this transformation.Once independent from colonial rules, KualaLumpur began to seek its local identity and andsocial coherence. The impact of development isstrongly evident in architectural identity, the eco-nomic state, and social behaviour. ContemporaryKuala Lumpur city is a by-product of the physical,technological, and social transformation.Beginning as an agrarian society, the city emergedas a new post-modern industrialised city.

Urbanism comprises the physical, social,and psychological characteristics of urban life. Inthe context of urban design, urbanism is capturedin a ‘place’ in its total sense. Beyond the physicalforms, a city is a lived experienced where peopleseek meanings and contentment. As many otherdeveloping cities, Kuala Lumpur urbanism featuresa complex layers of historical transformation whichhas embraced the global urbanity. While the phys-ical and spatial transformation seemed to be much

influenced by the West, the social and psychologi-cal impact of the change on the city inhabitants hasbeen implicit and inadequately explored (Pirera andTang, 2012). This paper provides an account ofpeople’s affective perception that may have influ-enced the social behaviour of contemporary urbansociety.

The need to rethink place as a total humanexperience was relevant to the issue of place inau-thenticity. Relph (1976) and Tuan (1977) regardedthese conditions as “placelessness”, i.e. “an envi-ronment without significant places and the underly-ing attitude which does not acknowledge the signif-icance in places”. In the case of Kuala Lumpur,global culture and images often resulted in thehomogeneity of buildings’ scales and appearances.It has led to the loss of buildings and spaces of tra-ditional and cultural values and the disappearanceof traditional streets as major public spaces forsocial and cultural interactions (Uyang, 2014).These transformations have shaped the way usersexperienced, perceived, and felt about local places.Arefi (1999) cautioned that the weakening of placeidentity could result in the loss of meaning and dis-rupt emotional attachment to place. In this case,the conflict between tradition and modernity per-sists. The psychological effect of this conflict couldbe reflected in the urbanites’ attachment to theplaces, in particular, the historical parts of the cities.

Norsidah Ujang

Abstract

Asian cities have witnessed changes in the urban landscape and social behaviour in the past decades. As a result of a

continuous transformation of urban centres, the sense of place is often subdued by a global culture and imagery that

may have impacted the people’s perception and experience of the city. This paper dwells into the urbanites’ relation-

ship with historical urban places in the context of Kuala Lumpur city, Malaysia. Based on a qualitative inquiry, this paper

presents the way in which these places shape the perception, knowledge, emotion, and memory of the urbanites.

Findings indicate that urbanites’ experience, role, length of association, and age provided varying reactions that defined

the attachment, knowledge, and memory about the places. Place attachment was reflected in the economic and cul-

tural dependency on the places. The cultural significance of the place was manifested in its diversity within the colonial,

multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic identity. Thus, reinterpretation of culture and tradition should take into consideration the

continuity of place legacy, heritage, and sociocultural values. Despite the urbanites’ strong identification and knowledge

of the built heritage, preserving place identity is a challenging task due to the complexity of the physical environment

and the urban life.

Keywords: Place Attachment, Dependence, Emotion, Memory, Urbanism.

AFFECTIVE PERCEPTION OF PLACE: ATTACHMENT TOKUALA LUMPUR HISTORICAL URBAN PLACES.

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PLACE ATTACHMENT

Human experience and behaviour are developedthrough a network of memories and identitiesattached to the environment (Cheshmehzangi andHeath, 2012). The loss of association, desegrega-tion, or detachment weakens place attachment.Researchers argue about the incapability of themodernist approach in facing the contemporaryissues including the deterioration of historical cities(Salama, 2009). The lack of connectivity of thephysical landscapes with place meanings cut acrossbroader physical, cultural, and emotional contexts.As the phenomena affect the identity of the manylocal urban places, there is a need to approachplaces contextually and understand the complexi-ties of what give places their identities.

The concept of place attachment is closelylinked with the affective aspects of environmentalmeaning (Altman and Low, 1992). Beyond thephysical manifestation, a place is a space imbuedwith meanings (Relph, 1976) according to the val-ues that people give to that place (Zakariya,Mohyuddin, and Yaman, 2007). The physical andcultural characteristics combined with the individ-ual’s affective perceptions and functional needsshape place attachment (Bott et al, 2005). Placeattachment refers to "the development of an affec-tive bond or link between people or individuals andspecific places" (Hidalgo and Hernandez, 2001)expressed through interplay of affect and emotion,knowledge and beliefs, and behaviours and actions(Prohansky, et al., 1995). It develops when "a placeis well-identified and felt significant by the users andable to provide condition to fulfil their functionalneeds and supports their behavioural goals betterthan a known alternative, known as place depen-dence" (Williams, et.al, 1995) associated placedependence with the degree to which occupantsperceive themselves to be dependent on a particu-lar place (Smaldone et. al., 2005). Place identity isimportant for contributing to individual, groups,and cultural self-definition and integrity, (Altman,1992) and individual variations in people’s percep-tion and conception of place.

METHODOLOGY

The qualitative methodology has been favoured byresearchers to unravel the relationship betweenpeople and the environment (Castello, 2010,Mazumdar, 2005). A face-to-face conversationusing a semi-structured interview format was car-ried out with Kuala Lumpur urbanites to understandhow they associated their experience with historicalplaces in the city centre. Questions were related toknowledge (familiarity, changes, information),

dependency (place importance, length of engage-ment, activities, responses to relocation, suggestionfor improvement), emotions (feelings, emotionaland social attachment), and memory (memoryrecalled, response on demolishing old places andbuildings). To understand the cultural influence, thispaper focuses on the Malay ethnic group as themajor and the earliest cultural group in Malaysia.The framework of the inquiry could apply to otherethnic groups namely the Chinese and the Indian.

Twenty-five respondents (13 males, 12females), aged from 17 to 55 years old, participat-ed in the inquiry. They had between 1 to 20 yearsof association with the places. Apart from shoppersand local visitors, the respondents were those whowork and study in the areas. The locations of theinterviews were Jalan Masjid India (Masjid IndiaStreet), Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square), PasarSeni (Central Market), and Medan Pasar (MarketSquare).

DESCRIBING HUMAN-PLACE RELATION-SHIP: A PLACE OF ATTACHMENT

The emotional attachment to the places indicatesthe ability of a place to fulfil the psychologicalneeds of the users of the places. The inquiry revealsthat the distinctive symbolic or intangible character-istics of the historical places were reflected in theurbanites’ feeling and emotion. In addition, placeidentity is developed parallel to the length ofengagement, deeper sociocultural interaction, andsense of pride and belonging. The following sec-tions discuss the knowledge, dependency, memory,and emotion of the urbanites towards the historicalplaces.

A place of the familiarThe significance of the historical place for trading,businesses, and leisure activities has shaped theurbanites’ knowledge and familiarity about theplaces. The attachment has influenced their sensi-tivity towards the physical changes observed in theareas, in particular from those who had long-termassociation. However, younger urbanites demon-strated very little knowledge of the history of theplace despite continuous engagement with theareas. The older respondents had not only explicitknowledge of historic events but also expressedgreater pride of the city’s history. For instance, theyrepeatedly mentioned the significance of theMerdeka Square as a place of memory; the squarewas proudly remembered as a meaningful eventassociated with Malaysia’s Independence and alsowell known as a tourist location. This was exempli-fied by the following response:

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jang“This is a historical place (the Merdeka Square).

Our Father of Independence announcedIndependence here. Tun Mahathir inaugurated thisgallery in 1989. If you go to the gallery at the rightside of the square, you will find information relatingto the history of Kuala Lumpur” (R2: Female 39years old; Shop owner).

The respondents’ general knowledge about the his-torical places was to some extent, commendable.Nevertheless, their knowledge about the historyand transformation of the buildings and spaces isvery limited. Many noticed changes in the area andmajor transformations in the city. Those include thepositive remarks on the provision of the light railtransport (LRT) and the increased bus services.

A certain level of positivity, excitement, andhope could be felt when the urbanites describednew improvements to the existing public spaces inthe City. This, in particular, is the River of Life pro-ject – a new riverfront redevelopment project cur-rently in progress in the heart of the City. Those whorun businesses in the area had a good knowledgeon the improvement of the places. They were happythat the improvement will bring more tourists intothe City thus promoting their good and services.The beautification of buildings and spaces isregarded as a positive effort to increase attractiondespite the issue of immigrant workers occupyingthe area and the meandering homeless that wasperceived as a negative image of the City.

“Some of the historical places in Kuala Lumpur areMerdeka Square and National Monument. I knowabout Sultan Abdul Samad building. It used to be acourthouse. There are changes such as the newTextile Museum and the Smart Tunnel to solve theflooding problem” (R1: Female, 26 years old; Localvisitor).

Places to which individuals become most attachedare those with which they have the highest levels ofexperience. This was often the result of long-timehabitation in a particular locality (Gustafson,2001). Knowledge of changes and transformationwere described as below:

“Kuala Lumpur is developing very rapidly. Therewas no river project as what we have now. We mustupgrade our city so that tourists can appreciate. Iam happy and excited with the changes andimprovement, more tourist activities, creating agood image. So, we should promote landmarksand the history of this place” (R15: Female, 22years old; Local visitor).

“I used to visit these places during my childhood.

The Merdeka Square is a place where ourIndependence was declared. In Market Square wecould see old buildings, the design is preserved.This is a place where tourists take photos. From theMerdeka Square, they will go to Central Market,and then to Market Square, where art items aresold. The Market Square became more beautifulnow after the renovation, so does the MerdekaSquare. Of course I am happy with the upgradingbecause the places are our landmarks, it is good toattract more tourists” (R18: Female, 25 years old;Local visitor).

Previous studies on urbanites in the main shoppingstreets in the city also revealed similar responses.Familiarity was also reflected in people’s knowl-edge of the physical elements and changes in thearea. The attachment to the historic places couldbe best described by those who spend most of hisor her life in the area and engaged in daily activi-ties for the life sustenance. The followings reflectthis scenario:

“Both my parents have lived in Ampang, KualaLumpur for the last 30 years. I am very familiar withthis place. I was with my father selling antiques andartworks here from my early years. The CentralMarket is a one-stop centre for art and crafts items.As far as I know, this place was the main fish mar-ket in Kuala Lumpur before it was commercialisedinto the Central Market. I have seen many changes.The most obvious is the coming of immigrants,many new roads, and new shops. I like it when itbrings more visitors and tourists. But I don’t likewhen the rent of shops is rising” (R10: Male, 17years old;Shop Assistant).

Place dependencyThe study indicates that place attachment is devel-oped as a result of interaction in diverse activities.The significant commercial functions of the historicplaces are blended with cultural, educational, andrecreational activities sustain the sense of place.

Economic dependency on historical shop-ping streets is described by the pattern of engage-ment based on daily trading association and thefrequency of visits to the areas. The importance ofthe historical places was identified when the idea ofrelocation was brought up. The sentiments from afew of the urbanites were felt despite positiveresponses on the values of the historical places asthe main tourist attraction in the city centre.Influenced by the background, role, and the needfor engaging in activities, the respondents relied onthe historical places for income generation, leisure,and shopping activities. The workers and shopown-ers wished to remain in the area because of the

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availability of public transport facilities for easyaccess from home to the workplaces. The placesare also viewed as the best place to appreciate thehistory of Kuala Lumpur with many historical build-ings.

“I enjoy running my business here. Close to touristspots such as the Central Market, the library, andthe Royal Club. Also, it’s close to the LRT station. Wehave the free bus service, the Go KL. It is easy forme to move with good transport services. There aremany tourists, even more people during specialevents. They like my henna pattern and ask me todesign it especially for them. I feel hurt if I wereasked to move to another place because I havebeen here for a long time. My customers arealready familiar with the location of my shop” (R2:Female, 39 years old; Shopowner).

The business owners felt that the place is the bestplace for their economic sustenance due to popu-larity and attraction. Those who had long-termengagement were strongly opposed to the idea ofrelocation. Since the customers have been familiarwith their locations, shop-owners were uncomfort-able with the risk of losing the customers’ attach-ment to their shops. A new location would be unfa-miliar to the regular customers. This is unlike thehistorical places that are known to the visitors. Theterritorial belonging to the business and vendingactivities turned into a feeling of insecurity as aresult of contestation of trading spaces. The issue ofterritorial contestation strongly prevailed among theshopowners and street vendors. A few respondentsperceived immigrants as outsiders that threatenedtheir territories, therefore, were not welcomed.

“The problem here is the coming of immigrants whoalso run their business here. I am not sure if they runthe business legally. I do not know why a lot ofrestriction was imposed on us, not the immigrants.When there are so many of them, and there is nocontrol, the locals feel unsafe. It’s not good for thetourism’s image. This will affect this place. The atti-tude of shopowners to engage the immigrants insaving cost has caused this problem. The authoritiesshould be more sensitive to this issue before it getsout of hand. They need to take action” (R23: Male,53 years old; Street Vendor).

A shopowner expressed his attachment to theCentral Market because his father has been sellingcrafts for 30 years in the market. His father’s lega-cy of owning and selling the antiques in the areahas been a meaningful part of his life since he usedto play and live in the shop since his childhood. Heis used to the place and unwilling to be relocated

to other places. He would feel sad if they wereforced to move.

“I am very happy being here. I have been livinghere from my childhood years, I know almost every-one here. I was schooling at Bukit Nenas area. I fre-quently came here after school, weekend andschool holidays - I will spend my time here.Transportation here is easy, with the bus and the LRT.I disagree with the idea of moving because myfather and I have been here for almost 30 years.There are eight antique shops here and we own oneof the shops. There are batik shops upstairs andalso easy to get necessities for a marriage ceremo-ny. It is just that the rent of the shop is very high. Ifeel sad if we were asked to move because I grewhere, this is the place where I used to play when Iwas young” (R10: Male, 17 years old, ShopAssistant).

EmotionsThe urbanites’ affective reactions can provide anindication of the value of the historic places andqualities associated with the places that influencetheir attachment. The urbanites expressed a senseof happiness, dissatisfaction, sentiment, and carewith regards to the historic buildings and places.Many insisted that the historical places should bewell managed and preserved to sustain their attrac-tion. On the other hand, the respondents alsoexpressed dissatisfaction towards the presence ofimmigrants dominating major public spaces andthe street vending areas. During weekends andpublic holidays, large numbers of immigrant work-ers gather in public spaces for socialisation. This sit-uation creates the feeling of discomfort and insecu-rity to the locals who visit and work in the area. Thefollowings expressed sentiments over the issue:

“The main issue here is that there are too manyimmigrants. I don’t feel that safe because this placeis overcrowded with immigrants, normally on week-ends. The coming of immigrants should be con-trolled, if not, we will continue to feel insecure”(R17: Female, 25 year old; Office worker).

“The authorities should monitor immigrants, eitherthey have to have passport or visa. There are toomany of them that the locals could not use thespace, it’s a bit difficult to use the space comfort-ably” (R18: Female, 22 years old; Local Visitor).

A few of the respondents felt comfortable associat-ing with those from other ethnic groups due to along-term association with the places and the peo-ple. They know some of them personally becausethey interact on a daily basis. A respondent men-

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jangtioned that he loved to mix with people from differ-

ent ethnic backgrounds, foreign tourists, and visi-tors. He found that public spaces are accessible forpeople from different ethnicities. The concern is tofeel at ease with other people surrounding theareas.

“I do mix with people from all ethnic backgrounds;I love to make friends. I know many people herebecause I have been working here for a long time.I meet familiar faces everyday. This place is the bestplace to sell artworks” (R4: Male, 48 years old;Shop owner).

The feeling is also associated with the unwelcomingpolitical event in the city. The issue of politicaldemonstrations was also regarded as ‘negatively’affecting their association with the places, in partic-ular, the Dataran Merdeka. A few of the urbanitesaddressed the feeling of uneasiness. However, apeaceful demonstration is acceptable since it doesnot affect the business and social activities. TheDataran Merdeka is a famous square in the cityand receives many tourists. The fact that this squareis a formal ‘independence’ space does not allowfor many types of activities in the area. The activi-ties mainly involve walking and touring with lessopportunity for longer stay due to the lack of shad-ed spaces to sit and view the surroundings. The his-torical square, however, has been associated withoccasional political rallies that the shop-owners feltthreathened with.

“The problem here is that this place becomes thespot for political rallies to express dissatisfaction. Ithappened in the Merdeka Square and SOGO. Somany of them gather outside the building, we werescared to go out. They chose a tourist place todemonstrate. This occurrence will tarnish the imageof our country” (R5: Male, 45 years old; Worker).

Place memoryThe urbanites recalled memories associated withshared activities and the physical changes of theplace. These memories include shopping with par-ents during childhood and the urban elements ofthe past that are still treasured. They shared similaridentifiable elements perceived to be the character-istics and qualities that described the character ofthe places. Those include activities, historic placemarkers, the shopping attractions, special historicalevents, the physical structures and features, and thegeneral atmosphere of the streets. Here, peopleand activity are the key components of a livingplace that generates a sense of belonging and spir-it of the people (Steele, 1981). A sense of pride wasexpressed in relation to particularities distinctive to

the historical places, from the historic buildings tomemorable historic events.

The memory of the places directly links tothe length of association and engagement with thepeople and places. Many mentioned the memoryof participating in special events such as theIndependence Day celebration and other festivalsin the city.

“In the past, I joined all the celebrations. I wasschooling at the religious school close to theNational Mosque. Walking distance to the Bird Parkand Botanical Park. I was always roaming aroundthat area after school. The place used to be felt verybig. I used to do an exercise with my mother at theLake Garden. A lot of childhood memories living inthe city. I could see the firework right from my win-dow. The sound of the firework awakened me, andI would watch it from the window. Those are myenjoyable moments” (R19: Female, 21 years old;Local visitor).

The respondents were asked about their feelings ifthe historical buildings and spaces were to bedemolished for new developments. Almost all ofthem disagreed with the idea and felt that the build-ings should be preserved and conserved for thebenefit of future generations and the tourism indus-try. However, a few respondents thought that if thebuildings are dilapidated and unsafe to function,new buildings should replace it. A few felt sad if theold buildings are demolished because the valueand history of the place or the building will be lost,and new generations will not know about their her-itage.

“I am sad because it had been there for a very longtime, became tourist attractions and contributed tothe economy of the place. The buildings have sen-timental values to the attached users and should berefurbished and restored, and remain as a symbol-ic element and landmark of the city. They are price-less historical elements for people to appreciate his-tory and heritage. The colonial buildings such as theMuseum should not be demolished because thebuilding represents the British architectural identityin Malaysian history that should be acknowledgedby future generations. The original elements will notbe the same as the new elements because of thememory attached to the old elements” (R5: Male,45 years old; Worker).

The Central Market and Jalan Masjid India havebeen the source of income for a few of the respon-dents. They expressed a strong resistance to theidea of rebuilding because the new place and loca-tion may not be the best for such activities and will

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cause a huge loss to the shopowners. The followingpresent the urbanites’ responses on the issue:

“It’s very sad if the old buildings are destroyed.They are our historical places. If we demolish them,that is the end of our heritage. There is no chancefor the young people to know about this heritage”(R11: Female, 25 years old; Office worker).

“I feel sad. For those who have been staying herefor a long time, the old buildings may have senti-mental values to them. It is a symbolic element.However, if the changes are necessary and bringbenefit, I agree. But the heritage buildings shouldbe restored and repaired. Even if the buildings willbe demolished, leave a sign of the existence of thebuildings, for example, a monument, etc” (R9:Female, 20 years old; Student).

“I feel it’s not fair. Because there have been toomany changes in the area; this place is also knownas a heritage place. If this Central Market is demol-ished, where will be the new location? The newplace will be known, and people will come to lookfor craft, and batik. The new place should be appro-priate to the needs and aspiration of the local com-munity; if not the place will be dead” (R12: Female,42 years old; Shopkeeper).

DISCUSSION

The urbanites shared their knowledge about placesmixed with sentiments and pride. The compellingsentiment related strongly to the sense of ‘owner-ship’ and ‘territoriality’ reflecting place dependencyand place identity. Familiarity and frequent engage-ment developed a sense of belonging expressed ina strong emotional feeling. In a few instancesattachment to a place was translated in the form ofpride towards the distinct historical and heritagecharacteristics. That contributes to social activitiesthat give places meanings (Nik Muhamad, et. al,2013; Ujang, 2008). The cultural significance ofplaces is strongly manifested in place diversity aswell as colonial and multi-ethnic identity. Therefore,changing in the physical forms and actions if notsensitively implemented, will disassociate theattached users from familiar objects in in the city.Changes could be acceptable as long as they willnot exacerbate lives, economic sustenance, andease of mobility around the areas.

Place attachment involves culturally sharedaffective meanings and activities associated with aplace. Culture relates to beliefs and perception,values and norms, customs and mode of appropri-ate behaviour (Altman and Low, 1992). The differ-

ences in landscape experiences pose different form,types, and degree of attachment for different cul-tural groups (Riley,1992). There is a need to under-stand the meaning and interpretation of the con-temporary spaces with consideration for local cul-ture and spatial practices, perception, and mean-ings. In the case of a pluralistic society in Malaysiancities, cultural principles play an important role indefining group identity and influence the characterand identity of the places.

IMPL ICAT IONS TO PLANNING ANDDESIGN

Place attachment and meaning(s) could beexplained by examining the live-in experiences ofthe people in place. In cities, the form and degreeof attachment are reflected in place dependency inthe economic and cultural sense. The multi-culturalcharacteristic is a challenge for determining thesocial and psychological values of the place in theperception of the people. In the case of KualaLumpur, it is imperative that the social well-being ofcommunities and their ‘valuable and memorableelements' can grow accordingly. However, thesevalues and the physical elements are continuouslyunder the threat of modernisation and unfit regen-eration of places and globalised images and econ-omy. Proper understanding of place values pre-pares the designers to develop places naturally tosustain its physical and social significance.

In Malaysia’s major cities, physical trans-formation has been parallel with the growth ofglobalised culture and social behaviour. Therefore,it demands that psychological, physical, and socio-cultural aspects be considered integratively in theplanning and design process. The reinterpretationof tradition based on current needs should take intoconsideration the continuity of place legacy andsocial values embedded in the meanings attachedto the people’s life in the city.

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Author

Norsidah UjangDepartment of Landscape Architecture Faculty of Design and ArchitectureUniversiti Putra [email protected]

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