Vol :37 Issue No.1 2012 - Open House International

Figure 10. The reconsideration of the idea of the fareej in the future vision for public housing in the UAE, Al Ain 2030
Urban Structure Framework (Source: Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council 2009).
both for internal rooms and for the courtyard
design. For example, a guest majlis (hall) at the
front of the house can have its own courtyard, while
the family can have a second more private courtyard.
Traditionally, there was a third ‘service’ courtyard
that was associated with the kitchen and servants
quarter (Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council
2009).
The sikka is a narrow path, which is usually
shaded by the buildings they run along. The sikka
provides a cool, safe and walkable route to different
destinations. Being pedestrian-friendly as they
enable year-round walking, the sikka allows pedestrians,
especially children, to move easily and safely
from one courtyard to the next, they strategically
connect the homes to neighbouring homes, community
facilities and intimate public spaces known
as barahaat (a plural noun of a baraha), as well as
larger gathering spaces known as meyadeen (a
plural noun of a meyadan or a square). Together
these form the fareej. The baraha is a small and
friendly space between homes that are located in a
small number of key positions throughout the fareej
(Fig. 11 a,c). There are usually a small number of
shaded and cool barahaat to create focal points
for residents to come and interact with one another,
ensure maximum use and provide a focus for a
larger number of people. Each baraha contains a
safe, pleasant environment for residents and is
designed to meet the needs of the people and facilities
close-by and provides a pleasant environment
for residents. For example, barahaat near schools
may contain a small playground for children and
families, whereas barahaat near mosques may
contain a public majlis or a berza, which is found
outside a mosque, for worshippers from the neighbourhood
to meet and greet each other (Abu
Dhabi Urban Planning Council 2009).
The spatial design pattern of the fareej makes
walking throughout the neighbourhood much easier.
Roads are created around the edge of the fareej
and through the main sections of it to enable resident
access and parking. It is recommended in the
Abu Dhabi 2030 Plan (Abu Dhabi Urban Planning
Council, 2009) that the vehicle roads and sikkak (a
plural noun of a sikkah) can also be combined to
create safe streets that enable vehicular access but
are predominantly pedestrianized. Furthermore, the
combination of the fareejs achieves a variety of
community needs, including open spaces, community
vitality, a choice of housing, good air quality
and walkable, well-connected public transit. Now,
the question is how to ‘vertically’ apply the traditional,
and yet currently adopted, idea of the fareej
with the help of notions derived from the above
mentioned global initiatives? The following section
is an attempt to address this question with the aim
to realize the main objective of the research.
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open house international Vol.37 No.1, March 2012 A ‘Fareej-in-the-Sky’: Towards a Community-oriented Design... Khaled Galal Ahmed