Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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expanding cities. Master city plans are long-range, multi-phase conceptualizations of
towns future growth. They constituted comprehensive land use and infrastructure
development plans, projected in tune with vigorous national economic growth schemes.
All sought to facilitate economic prosperity and social stability through manipulating the
spatial system. Along with the housing loans provided through the REDF, Riyadh's new
Master Plan institutionalized the grid and indoctrinated the villa as the preferred form of
laying new districts by setting rectilinear lot-sizes, and enforcing set-back regulations. 43
The new Plan was sought to guide development in according with the objectives of the
political authorities,
- flexibility, so as to accommodate varying rates of growth;
- a fair distribution of services to all levels of the population;
- a transportation system based on the use of private vehicles. 44
The above main objectives were translated into (1) the adoption of the linear form for
the City toward the north with a Central Business Area a spine extending north-south
allowing Doxiadis; (2) the redesigning of certain areas within the City as "self-contained"
units, that is with their own service cores with access to medium level service centers and
the central CBD; (3) the charting of a new road system with hierarchy of streets and
pedestrian precincts. The Plan included the detailed design of individual Action Area
Plans, those deemed potential for development, covering 11.5 square kilometers, in an
effort to relive the City's center.
By shifting to comprehensive city planning, the authorities sought to control Riyadh
and other major cities' phenomenal growth. Sectoral planning approaches of the past,
mainly the laying of land subdivisions according to planning-by-laws measures
implemented by cities' municipalities, proved lacking. This new orientation was an attempt
to create more economically and efficient urban systems in line with national economic
growth plans. The justification of such a massive allocation in the urban built environment
was to increase the population's share in the benefits reaped through oil revenues. Also, as
Deputy Minister of Rural and Municipal Affairs, Khalid Al-Ankary, points out, it is
"indicative of the Saudi government's intention to develop a modem urban network which
is capable of assuming its functions in die newly emerging industrial economy." 45 Prior to
the 1970s, the majority of Riyadh's population lived in substandard housing. Now, it was
intended they would benefit from generous housing subsidies, free land, interest-free loans
on industrial establishments, all geared to shift towns and cities subsistent economies to