Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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functions. 61 This emphasis on the spatial aspects of physical design has had a definite
impact on the early development of urban planning with the city as the dominant focus.
Soon, such architectural urban design and other civic-minded solutions to urban
predicaments proved ephemeral. With experience, such emphasis has shifted as urban
issues have attracted various disciplines such as economics, urban politics, sociology and
urban geography. It became realized that unless urban planning was extended to the
planning economic and social resources, its solutions to urban growth problems would be
incomplete.
The traditional Arab-Muslim city, or medina, organization reflected the emphasis on
the privacy of the family and the semi-autonomy of the tribe. Quarters developed were
distinguished and personalized reflecting their inhabitants who had a great say in the
building of their neighborhoods and the running of their internal affairs. 62 The design of
city master plans and building codes lack established connection with the religiously-based
building processes of the past, namely, the concern over privacy and traditions. The
contemporary metropolis is a result of the pressures of rapid urbanization, reliance on
Western models of architecture and planning, the economic peculiarities of oil and the
Kingdom's political system.
While the embryo of systematic intervention in the built environment goes back to the
municipal decrees of the 1930s, the genesis of modern comprehensive planning reposes on
the introduction of the city master plan and the five-year development plan both launched in
the early 1970s. As such, the history of development of urban planning in Saudi Arabia is
a tripartite one which comprises the following stages, (1) the earlier municipal legislation of
urban growth, (2) the building of planned communities, and (3) the comprehensive, topdown
approach to urban development. In their own terms and given the short history and
external influence, these efforts were impressive. However, shortcomings abound. These
plans were perfunctorily wrought by foreign consultants first, and later by callow Saudi
planners and technocrats educated and trained at Western institutions and aided by foreign
expertise. Due to time constraints and costs, foreign consultants were less likely to allot
considerable effort to understand cultural process in their host societies. Aside from the
copious studies on existing conditions, problems and trends, given the political
imperatives, their solutions were little more than rationalized, colorful maps for the various