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

Khaled Galal Ahmed
open house international Vol.37 No.1, March 2012 A ‘Fareej-in-the-Sky’: Towards a Community-oriented Design...
has received little concern on the part of the decision
makers and designers. Some of the recent limited
international design initiatives have proposed
solutions for the community-relevant problems
inherent in conventional high-rise residential buildings.
Nonetheless, the problem remains in the
inappropriateness of the direct implementation of
these initiatives in the UAE without examining their
compatibility with the specific local social and cultural
contexts. The aim for this research is not to
develop a specific design for community-oriented
high-rise residential buildings in the UAE, but rather
to highlight the concepts leading to realize this
design. Consequently, the research proposes a
seven-points theoretical framework composed of a
blend of concepts built upon both the relevant
lessons derived from these international initiatives
and more importantly on the urban pattern of the
traditional fareej as the smallest traditional urban
housing element in the UAE that has been recently
adopted in the official future planning visions in the
country. These points include: the design for a
mixed-use development, the design for social connectedness
and integration, the design for security
and privacy, the design for a high quality living
environment, the design for user-responsive houses
within the residential towers, and finally the residents’
involvement in the design and the management
for the high-rise development.
It is envisaged that applying the above-mentioned
theoretical framework is going to help realize,
albeit not perfectly, community-relevant considerations
in the high-rise housing not only in the
UAE but also in other neighbouring countries. After
transforming this theoretical framework into some
design alternatives for high-rise residential developments
in the UAE, further research is needed for
examining the acceptability of these applied design
concepts through exploring the attitudes of the UAE
local communities towards them.
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