Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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leading to the airport.
In contrast to the traditional architecture, both in style and scale, the modern row of
ministerial structures were built to show sturdy engineering and flatulent exhibitionism, an
exercise in vanity reflecting the rising influence of the nation-state. Three more hospitals, a
maternity clinic and several institutions were built to cope with the increasing demand for
health care. Furthermore, Riyadh's vitality was enhanced by significant water discoveries,
making the city more attractive for city-ward migration especially during the long drought
years between 1957-1964.
City-ward migration continued apace approximating significantly high levels of 9 per
cent per annum between 1968 and 1977, or an annual increase of 93,000 inhabitants. 32
This resulted in the spatial expansion of Riyadh. The city expanded by annexing nearby
villages to the south and east. In the north, new, planned districts proliferated to
accommodate the rapid increase in population. The expansion took two basic types:
ruralized, sparsely controlled growth of low income districts and planned development.
The ruralized section was likened to Abu-Lughod's findings on Cairo.
...the housing in these ruralized districts is grouped mainly in small villagelike
clusters, and the buildings are primarily one or two stories in height and
are made of bricks or mud-bricks. In fact, these districts resemble Arabian
villages more than they resemble the modern section of Riyadh in their
physical and socioeconomic features. 33
B. King Faisal's Socioeconomic Reforms: 1958-1974
Despite the remarkable strides in physical planning and urban development, the 1950s
and 1960s were distinctively disharmonious. The combined effect of incessant migration,
the introduction of the automobile, the application of banal urban growth controls by the
municipality and the increasing cleavage between income distribution shredded the
historical harmony of the mud town, expediting its demise. The incremental growth had
lost its pace as the leap-frog growth pattern took place in the form of construction of palatial
suburbs and governmental land uses which continued to lead sprawl, and were built at a
scale and style duly contrasting those of the historical core, itself undergoing more
demolishing of its mud buildings to allow for the construction of roads, apartment
buildings and shops.