SANA’A URBAN TRANSFORMATION: FROM WALLED TO FRAGMENTED CITY

Abstract

The recent rapid uncontrolled urban transformation of Sana’a city is asignificant example of the historic core of most Arab cities with regard toits formation, growth and development. Sana'a city has expanded frommerely 3.7 square kilometers in 1962 to more than 1,600 squarekilometers at the end of the 2010.When El-Sheshtawy (2004) presented the evolution of Arab cities, Sana’acity was discussed under “the cities affected by globalizationphenomenon”. That has had an extremely uneven impact on Sana’a.When Sana’a compared to the cities in the region, globalization is notnecessarily a central issue for Sana’a city. In fact Sana'a shares thefragmentation phenomenon with the rest of the cities in the region. Thisis the point from where this paper starts.The approach of this paper is based on both diachronic and synchronicreadings of the historical and new city. It will discuss:· Urban transformation approaches.· Phases of Sana'a urban form fragmentation.This research pinpoints the current spatial and environmental problemsfacing the new and the old urban fabric as consequences of urban formfragmentation. Though it doesn’t aim to reach conclusive results, thestudy hoped to provide a conceptual background for the present debateon city's urban future.