Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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town inhabited mostly by the underprivileged. Due to technological limitation, vertical
expansion was not feasible and buildings were attached to one another to take advantage of
the existing adjoining wall and to minimize walking distance. The clumping of buildings is
intensified by the limited space allowed for circulation, mere passageways for humans and
animals. The meandering, narrow circulation space was confined to the residual interstices
between the built quarters.
The urban outcome of the traditional form was natural. Builders recognized
technological means (building methods and the transportation mode), and economized in
both dwelling space and circulation space. With towns people's security at stake, the
tortuous network was carefully laid down for defense purposes, it was puzzling for the
unaccustomed intruder. Such defensive measures were the product of centuries of
inherited experience. The end product was a compact town with clearly defined open
spaces, social turfs, edges, neighborhoods, and quarters, easily discerned by locals. The
compact traditional building process placed great value on efficiency: the carefully arranged
street network and houses paid due respect to means, nature and social values. The
collective respect for contextual factors was a matter of survival in a desert environment.
Riyadh was essentially a single-material town: sun-dried mud was used for all the
buildings giving it a rare architectural unity. The walled town was estimated by H. St.J.B.
Philby to measure 700 yards along its north wall, and about 650 yards east-west, or
approximately 100 acres. He estimated the town population at 19,000 people in 1919. By
the 1930s it reached 30,000.
B. The Social Fabric
The walled town of Riyadh prior to the promulgation of the nation-state in 1932, was
typically preindustrial, one that lacked inanimate technology and maintained a rigid class
structure. The prevailing society was virtually entirely dependent on animate sources of
energy, human and animal. Due to the lack of modern technology, division of labor was
minimum, most of the population were peasants tied to the land, supporting themselves and
a small elite. This dearth of specialization precluded the development of a complex class
system. Najdi towns' social systems had a ruling squirearchy, a religious literati and the
general populace, largely involved in agriculture. Aside from paying taxes to influential
regional rulers, the rulers of these settlement enjoyed full control of their subjects. While