Arab City Research Articles

Traditional Market Design towards Cohesion between Social Sustainability and Bioclimatic Approach

Traditional markets have its significant cultural, functional, and socio-economic values, which reflect the main pillars for an effective sustainable development. Traditional markets are places which show the community lifestyle, culture and heritage that’s why it has a strong rootedness to its local people. By relating space to culture, a relationship between historic and contemporary design decisions can be achieved. Most of the Arabian Cities are undergoing continuous development through different qualities of expression in terms of economy, culture, and global outlook in the old cities ‘centres. Nowadays sustainable development has become an essential intervention in the capital cities. However, sustainable solutions should not concern themselves only with utilizing technology, but also with respecting a community’s social, cultural, historical, and environmental aspects. Traditional souqs (market places) are centralized as an iconic inherits in the historic old quarter of the city. The research problem arises from that some of the current traditional markets in the Arab region do not promote social cohesion as they have been developed without consideration for local identity and lifestyle. The question then becomes how to maintain the relationship between the spatial, social and environmental aspects in renovating traditional markets. The importance of the research is derived from the need of applying a critical study for traditional markets’ architecture with pre-existing cultural values. The aim is to reach appropriate sustainable solutions that facilitate the integration of socio-bioclimatic requirements, qualities of the spaces, and culture identity in developing sustainable traditional markets. This study examines and employs a descriptive qualitative and quantitative research strategies for one of the oldest traditional markets in Riyadh’s city old center “Al-zall souq”, to explore the impact of change in the old center, through deriving a typological formation analytical framework which asses; morphological language, socio-cultural and bioclimatic aspects. This study comes out with a complete vision tracing the lifestyle and the cultural values of the society, to end up with a group of suggestions and recommendations that helps in the design decisions taken to create an integrated cultural sustainable market.

Abu Dhabi’s Downtown Area, An Examination of Modernist Applications of the international style; Superblocks in a Modern Arab City, Improving Visibility and Social Space

Currently Abu Dhabi is expanding along its shorefronts and urban Islands creating many iconic buildings and social spaces, however, the downtown area is in need of regeneration. The city centre remains popular for a multi-cultural community because it was shaped by the modernist/International style and abstract Arab ornaments namely in the form of screens on the facades that attempted to fit within the climatic context of a desert city. The ‘modernist’ designs of the downtown buildings reflect practicality and pragmatism supported by Abu Dhabi’s grid street pattern that created rectangular land plots on which high-rise buildings were constructed-known today as downtown ‘Superblocks’. Abu Dhabi’s downtown architecture reflect the ideas of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and other influential theoreticians of the International Style, the architects invited to participate in creating a modern Arab City in the 1980’s did not attempt to create a post-modernist pastiche of a Arab/Islamic vernacular expression, in contrast facades of the concrete high-rise buildings reflect attempts to deal with the hot humid environment of the Gulf. This research examines means of regeneration of Abu Dhabi’s downtown area, through the study of modernist buildings and the spaces between the superblocks. The area of study is the zone between Zayed the 1st street and Hamadan Street in the downtown area. We study selected buildings in downtown Abu Dhabi and offer recommendations for improving the social experience and liveability of in-between spaces, especially in the large asphalt parking lots created by the superblocks.

Cities of the Arab World: Theory, Investigation, and Critique

Cities of the Arab World: Theory, Investigation, and Critique Salah D. Hassan (bio) On February 14 and 15, 2019, scholars came together on the campus of Michigan State University (MSU), East Lansing, MI, to discuss “Cities of the Arab World,” at a conference organized by Najib Hourani under the auspices of the Global Urban Studies Program in collaboration with the Muslim Studies Program, the Department of Anthropology, the College of Social Science, and in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Ann Arbor, MI. Papers presented in the course of the two-day interdisciplinary conference emphasized “Theory, Investigation, and Critique” in connection with urban studies of the Arab world. Over the two days, panelists presented their original research to a full house in the conference room at the MSU Union building. Rachel Croson, Dean of the College of Social Sciences at Michigan State University welcomed the participants and attendants, underlining the importance of the event for the university, the College, and the Global Urban Studies Programs. Igor Z. Vojnovic, Interim Director of Global Urban Studies further accentuated the uniqueness of the conference, one of the first major events organized by the program, whose staff served as the fulcrum for a rich partnership with several academic units at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. In his welcoming address, Najib Hourani, associate professor of anthropology and global urban studies, and the principal organizer of the conference, conveyed the importance of pushing the boundaries of research [End Page 135] in urban studies and Middle Eastern studies by bringing the two fields together in more complex and challenging ways. He noted the growth in the field of urban studies, which has only recently begun to take up the specific character of Arab cities, whose histories and 21st century transformations remain on the periphery of mainstream scholarship on cities. According to Hourani: “despite the revival and growth of Urban and Middle East/Muslim studies, these two interdisciplinary fields rarely speak to each other, even as the study of Arab cities in particular, has taken off over the last decade. Indeed, the theoretical works and debates that drive urban studies remain beholden to European and North American experiences, and so rarely engage or learn from Arab cities, their histories or contemporary dynamics. For example, while the literature engaging neoliberal urbanism has exploded in the last decade and a half, Arab cities (the occasional reference to Dubai, notwithstanding) are absent from the major collections that theorize the concept. At the same time, research on Arab cities is only now beginning to engage and redirect dominant strains of urban theory. How might in-depth study of Arab cities enrich urban theory? How might theoretically-driven explorations further enrich our understandings of Arab cities, in all of their complexity and diversity?” Hourani’s opening remarks provided the necessary frame for understanding the importance of this timely conference. Day One (February 14, 2019): Cities of the Arab World Panel I “Projecting Cities” included papers that addressed uniquely complicated developments in Gulf cities. Eva Kassens-Noor (Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI) presented research on “Mega-event Planning in the Arab World: A Case Study of Dubai’s 2020 World Exposition,” highlighting the struggle over ownership of the city during the event, and examining how mega-event legacies are understood. Her investigation looks at political, economic, and cultural influences shaping the 2020 World Exposition in Dubai and examines how developments related to the Expo are having an impact on Dubai’s urban planning. She concludes that the neoliberal tendencies associated with mega-events have significantly transformed Dubai’s urban and socio-cultural landscape, eroding further Arab urban culture in the Gulf. Gökçe Günel (University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ) provided a snapshot of the extensive original research on Masdar City that she has done for her recently published book Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi (Duke University Press, 2019). The paper summarized the main points of the book, underlining the political-economy of the utopian project of Masdar City. Günel’s research exposes the contradictory and often opportunistic features of the...

Consumption Rates of Invasive Freshwater Gastropod Pomacea Canaliculata on Aquatic Plants from Shatt Al-Arab River, Basra, Iraq

Pomacea canaliculata (Gastropoda: Ampullariidae) is a common species in many parts of the world and an important consumer of aquatic macrophytes. We conducted laboratory tests to quantify the rates of consumption of aquatic plants in Shatt Al-Arab River, Basra, Iraq. six freshwater plant species were presented to an invasive P. canaliculata in laboratory tests. This study was carried out during January to December 2017 to evaluate the consumption rates to specific aquatic plants than others by freshwater snails Pomacea canaliculata . Specimens of Snails were collected from ponds in intertidal zones at banks of Shatt al-Arab River near Al- Salhyaa canal in Shatt Al- Arab city from aquatic plants; Typha domingensis, Phragmites australis, Bacopa monniera, Ceratophyllum demersum and Potamogeton crispus . The presence of these Specimens aquatic plants was affected by the water temperature and salinity, they almost disappear in winter leading to low snail numbers at that season. Statistical analysis shows a significant differences (P<0.05) between numbers of snails on five aquatic plants in the field that were these are collected. Bacopa monniera , Lemna minor, C. demersum and P. crispus were the higher preferred to snails in this study, while T. domingensis, P. australis recorded lower preferred by snails. In this study we use snail Pomacea canaliculata as a biological control agent of common macrophyte weeds species. Results indicated that P. canaliculata reared on Lemna, Bacopa, Ceratophyllum and Potamogeton had the highest food preference and consumption rates, but all individuals fed with Phragmites showed lowest feeding consumption rates and little the food preference. significantly differing from the others. However, in the absence of Bacopa , Lemna, Ceratophyllum and Potamogeton were consumed. Keywords: Consumption rate , aquatic plants, Pomacea canaliculata, Snail . DOI : 10.7176/JAAS/52-07

“To Believe in God and in Own Personal Competencies”: The Family Life of Arab Muslim Widowed Women in Israel

This study is of five Muslim widowed women from the Arabic city of “Tabula” (a fictitious place for ethical reasons) from the north of Israel, out of a desire that they would expose their personal experiences (Spradley, 1979) [1]. It deals with women’s personal status, the widows’ difficulties, and the conflicts between the Arab Muslim traditional society and modernity. The Arab society is a traditional, collective, patriarchal and religious society. The women’s status is considered inferior to that of the men’s and their main role is conceived as raising children and taking care of the house. Following are the stories of Muslim women who became civilian widows by the ages 30 to 40. The study examines the way widows coped with their situation in a time in which the society underwent great changes, moving from a traditional society to a more modern one. By dealing with this situations: 1) The personal changes; 2) The main difficulty of being lonely; 3) The return to religion; 4) Coping with the loss of the husband; 5) The women’ expectations out of the Arab society.

Assessment of Modern Architecture in the Living City of UAE: Incorporating Sustainable Design into Covered Bazaar Buildings

In the UAE modern architecture is now considered part of early attempt of sustainable design and heritage of the living city that reflects good design practices, especially after the establishment of the Urban Planning Council and Estidama Guidelines. Madinat Zayed Gold Souk/bazaar still attracts many visitors because it represents a space of specialization, tt is also a representative of ‘modernism’ of 1970s Parallel examples such as the Central Market/Gold bazaar in Sharjah also manifest architectural attempts to create architecture within cultural and environmental contexts. Traditional wind towers known as Barjeel, vaults, domes and arcades borrowed from the broader spectrum of Islamic arts, recreated in concrete act as architectural containers of heritage and spaces of socio-cultural interaction accessible to all social groups. The aim of this research is to examine modern Arab ornament and its application on buildings in the downtowns of Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. This research examines the environmental properties of the gold bazaars in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah using Formit architectural modelling software. This study outlines the importance of forms of representation of form and identity in rapidly developing Arab cities and proposes a number of solutions/designs to improve the facades, and to enhance the comfort in the building then offers scenarios to make these buildings more sustainable.

PATHOLOGIES AND INTERVENTIONS FOR DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES: THE SAFEGUARD OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

Affecting the direction of the rapid urbanization due to the oil discovery and exportation, in the Gulf Regions, there is a perpetual dispute, between the construction of a new, modern identity and the advocacy of traditional architecture as a possible way to establish new relations with the local history and culture. In the struggle for the definition of a new architectural identity in the emerging Arab cities, this paper focuses on the action needed to preserve architectural heritage, with the aim of analyzing and comparing some significant examples of pathologies that affected the existing defensive structure in Qatar and the restoration works that were recently completed. The analysis of data and results made it possible to compare the different pathologies and the conducted interventions with the aim of defining an approach that is consistent and add value to the Arab culture in matters of conservation and re-use.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF URAN IDENTITY IN OLD ARAB CITIES: THE CASE OF ALEPPO, SYRIA

In the past, old Arab cities had a strong identity and distinctive urban and architectural characteristics. Nowadays, some of those characteristics are still visible in the historical urban texture showing Arab architecture’s great adaptability to environmental and social circumstances. However, the rapidly changing lifestyle can affect urban form and built heritage of those cities, that’s why redevelopment and reconstruction projects pose a real threat to city’s identity. Therefore, this paper aims to observe the change in urban identity of Aleppo city through analysing the result of modern interventions to achieve a better understanding of what causes the transformation of urban identity.

Toward Sustainable Compact City: (Study in Convert Traditional Najaf City to Sustainable Compact City)

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Heritage Restoration as a Tool to Promote Architectural Identity in the Gulf Regions

AbstractRecently most of the Gulf countries have had significant urban development, with innovative architecture, as a result of the production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in many places in the world. This has generated an unprecedented construction boom in the cities and the surrounding areas.Despite their rather short urban history, the Gulf States have recently launched several signatures mega-projects, where public investments are developing an urban structure of a global dimension. Affecting the direction of the rapid urbanization is a permanent tension between the creation of a new, modern cultural identity and the promotion of traditional architecture. One aim is to establish new connections with local history and cultural traditions.To reveal the challenge of the construction of a new architectural identity in the Arab emerging cities, this paper focuses on the action needed to preserve historical, cultural, traditional, and architectural heritage, with the aim of filling the gaps of knowledge and encouraging new research in the fields of restoration and conservation that will lead to future practical implementation.The paper also calls for a fresh look at the tradition, modernity, and identity, by outlining a number of aspects related to the current status of architectural heritage conservation in some Arab cities. Traditional culture, ancient architectural constructions, and vernacular architecture are the result of historical processes and products of Arab societies. Understanding this is an indispensable tool for the comprehension of the Arab modern cities, a knowledge which can influence their future expansion and revitalization, and the shaping of a new architectural identity in these areas. In the Arab regions, restoration methodologies also need to be defined and implemented with the aim of preserving cultural heritage and raising the conservation and restoration research profile among the international research community.

DEVELOPMENT OF PLANNING THEORY AND PROFESSION: IMPLICATIONS FOR PLANNING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE IN ARAB STATES

Presently, cities of the Arab world are experiencing many urban ills. Some are physical, such as environmental degradation, housing problems, unemployment, urban infrastructure-related issues, congested roads; while others are more subjective such as loss of identity. Transformation in the capitalist system and social structures, the inadequate understanding of planning practice and theory, in addition to design education, are to blame for these issues. Currently, in many Arab countries, planning education is still limited to the realm of architectural education, where it is restricted to city form, land use, and design requirements, while little attention is paid to the social, political, institutional, and economic realities of cities that serve as driving forces behind these changes. This paper tries to trace the development of the capitalist system and its corresponding societal transformations and their implications for cities in the Arab region. Subsequently, it reviews the development of planning theory and practice in the developed world and its implication for Arab cities. It attempts to shed light on the reasons behind these transformations and to explore the driving forces of the current state of the Arabian city including, capitalism, class, culture, and communication. Subsequently, it investigates challenges and explores opportunities, and elaborates on possible corrective scenarios to recommend three actions regarding the fields of planning theory research, practice, and education.

Predicting the Vote in Kinship-Based Municipal Elections: The Case of Arab Cities in Israel

This paper examines the feasibility of using pre-election polls in kinship-based municipal elections in Israel, and the methods needed to increase the accuracy of predicting the results. The research focuses on the Arab society in Israel, which is an ethnic minority within a nation-state and a traditional society and that its municipal elections are characterized as kinship-based elections. The results of municipal elections in four Arab cities and towns show that pre-election polls succeeded in predicting the elections’ outcome with high accuracy. This research suggests the use of “Clan Sampling” in which the sampling is according to the sub-tribal societal structure—and further suggests applying the “Cross-Section” treatment for the undecided. Separately applying one of the two treatments gave a high level of accuracy; the accuracy further increased when applying the two methods together. By adjusting the methods used, pre-election polls were found to be accurate in predicting the vote in elections within a traditional Arab society.

Violence towards healthcare workers: A study conducted in Abha City, Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND:Workplace violence in healthcare settings is a common, but an underreported problem that has been largely ignored. Violence against healthcare workers can have an adverse effect on their performance outcomes and thus influence patients' health and satisfaction. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and types of violence against healthcare workers in a Saudi Arabian city. It was also to identify the risk factors of violence against healthcare workers and to investigate the possible consequences of such behavior.MATERIALS AND METHODS:In Abha city, there are two government hospitals and ten primary healthcare centers. All healthcare workers in these healthcare institutions including physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, laboratory technicians or specialists, radiologists, social workers, and psychologists were eligible to participate in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire.RESULTS:A total of 738 healthcare workers responded (92% response rate). The mean age was 31 ± 7.7 years (range 21–60) and the majority (64.9%) were females and 69.4% were Saudis. More than half (57.5%) had experienced some workplace violence at least once. Verbal assaults and slaps were the most common form of workplace-related violence (58%).CONCLUSIONS:Violence against healthcare workers in Abha city is more common, especially against nurses. The reasons need to be explored in order to set and develop policies, regulations and interventions to prevent violence against workers.

The Social Urban Block: A Proposed Typo-Morphological Element to Measure the Social Interactive Spaces between Blocks in the Case of an Arabian City, Benghazi, Libya

Social interaction and spaces between urban blocks is a topic that has dominated recent discussions concerning urban social and cultural studies. In this paper, I argue that the study of the different types of urban block arrangements should also adopt social interaction spaces that will encourage local communities’ social bonds. I propose the use of the social block in addition to the physical block to better understand the social dimension in a spatial context, which enhances the understanding of neighbourhoods’ urban issues. I analyse the proposed social block by adopting a metric scale that was developed from Ghel’s (1987) empirical criteria from his approach to understand life between buildings as measures to realise the social process. Through a case study of the Ottoman, Italian, and Modern neighbourhoods in Benghazi, Libya, I illustrate the necessity of the complementary nature between the physical block and the social block in understanding the social life among street neighbours.

An assessment of the impact of urbanization and land use changes in the fast-growing cities of Saudi Arabia

Understanding rates, patterns and types of land use and land cover (LULC) changes are essential for various decision-making processes. This study quantified LULC changes and the effect of urban expansion in three Saudi Arabian cities: Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah using Landsat images of 1985, 2000 and 2014. Seasonal change of vegetation cover was conducted using normalised difference vegetation index, and object-based image analysis was used to classify the LULC changes. The overall accuracies of the classified maps ranged from 84 to 95%, which indicated sufficiently robust results. Urban area was the most changed land cover, and most of the converted land to urban was from bare soil. The seasonal analysis showed that the change of vegetation cover was not constant due to climatic conditions in these areas. The agricultural lands were significantly decreased between 1985 and 2014, and most of these lands were changed to bare soil due to dwindling groundwater resources.

Queer exceptionalism and exclusion: Cosmopolitanism and inequalities in ‘gay-friendly’ Beirut

This article examines how LGBTQ individuals in Beirut articulate discourses of progress, modernity, and exceptionalism in light of the regional geopolitical situation. While transnational discourses portray Beirut as an open and cosmopolitan city in the Arab World, the study focuses on how LGBTQ individuals engage with and negotiate these discourses in their everyday lives. The author examines the gap between discourses of Beiruti openness and exceptionalism, and the realities of exclusion experienced by LGBTQ individuals in Beirut. Focusing on unequal access to space, the author asks, for whom is Beirut cosmopolitan and gay-friendly? Drawing on ethnographic observations and 20 life-history interviews with LGBTQ individuals in Beirut, the author finds that LGBTQ individuals in Beirut create relational understandings of modernity and cosmopolitanism that situate Beirut in relation to other Arab cities, rather than just Euro-American cities. In addition, gender normativity and class shape LGBTQ individuals’ access to several types of spaces. Finally, it is suggested that scholars must be attentive to celebratory discourses of exceptionalism and cosmopolitanism of places, and conceptualize them as relational and contextual designations which obscure inequalities that characterize those places.

The Arab City - Reality, Fiction, and Affect on Culture and Civilization

The increasing urbanization of the Arab world, especially the emergence of huge and ultra-modern cities such as Riyadh, Dubai, and Doha in the Arab Gulf, has renewed discussions and even debates on the nature of the Arabian civilization. Some people maintain that urban places such as the above-mentioned are only copies of Western cities within Arabia, and that there is no such thing as an Arab city, socioculturally speaking. This debate has also taken place informally in the office of the English Department at Qassim University, in a spare time that a number of faculty and staff (including the authors of this article) happened to have. We decided to take it further and look into the question more deeply. Therefore, we covered some relevant literature, including Islam’s important perspective on the issue. We eventually came up with the conclusion that the Arab city does exist and has existed long before the Industrial Revolution. Accounts of real and fictional cities in the Arab world, predating the industrial era, prove the validity of this assertion. Without advocating seclusion or withdrawal into themselves, we think that Arabs should stop thinking they owe the concepts of city, urbanization and therefore civilization to the West. There is certainly a lot that can be learned from each other on both sides, but importing everything wholesale from the West can only result in increasing social problems.

Th?j through the course of its history and the Saudi work there

Th?j is considered one of the most important ancient sites in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula. However, information gained from research at the site raised many questions, which require careful consideration before reaching correct answers. For example, what are scholars able to say regarding the inscriptions and the coins which have been found in Th?j? What are new findings have been achieved from the excavations in Th?j? What is the connection between Th?j and the lost Arabian city of Gerrha? This study seeks answers to these questions and carefully reviews the discussions published in older studies.

Mapping the Growth of an Arabian Gulf Town: The Case of Doha, Qatar

This paper is based on research undertaken for the Origins of Doha Project. It is a unique attempt to interrogate the construct of the Arab city against rigorously collected evidence and meticulous analysis of historical urban geography. We have found that Doha in its urban layout, physical development, architecture, and pre-oil demographics, combined its disparate cosmopolitan elements into a blend that probably typified the historic Gulf town, simultaneously encapsulating aspects of the generalised “Arab and Islamic town.” We have found strong structural principles at work in both the traditional and the early modern town, many of which correlate strongly with tribal social organisation, although the historic population of Doha was neither overwhelmingly tribal in character nor entirely Arab in origin. Rather, these constituted prevailing ideologies, social structures, and identities in a diverse and cosmopolitan population

Amale Andraos, Nora Akawi and Caitlin Blanchfield (eds.) 2016: The Arab City: Architecture and Representation. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, Columbia University Press

Amale Andraos, Nora Akawi and Caitlin Blanchfield (eds.) 2016: <i>The Arab City: Architecture and Representation</i>. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, Columbia University Press