Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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modern ones capable of meeting the rising demands of the population. The improved
living standards and government spending, all contributed to city expansion.
The realization of these targets has come at the expense of state intervention.
Bestowed with immense oil revenues, the state spearhead the march to modernization. In
the prevalence of overcrowded neighborhoods lay not only the danger of disease and
degradation of social mores but also the latent prospect of widespread revolutionary
sentiments, which previously surfaced during the 1950s and the 1960s. Yet, sharing
national resources did not necessarily mean sharing decision making. In their shift to
comprehensive physical planning, that is to city master plans, planners failed to include the
city's residents. Citizens were not informed on their city's destiny, and businessmen were
not consulted on the economic value of the new plan. Both groups were perceived, by
administrators and planners, as uneducated on the complex techniques of the modern city
planning. Due to this exclusion of the populace, city planning remained highly technical
and bureaucratic.
The Doxiadis Plan was organized around a system of two-by-two kilometer superblocks.
Such a repetitive framework was justified for its flexibility, a crucial criterion for a
city undergoing rapid growth (Figure 6.13). The Doxiadis planners envisioned a
functional city, predicated on a modular grid, simple, straight forward, easy and legible
urban framework for a city's population growing at 100,000 per annum. It was projected
that the 1970 plan would serve the city's needs up to the year 2,000. The municipality
(Amanat Madinat Arriyadh) was to preside on the implementation of zoning regulations
outlined in Doxiadis' plan. For example, regulations required that land owners provide up
to 30 percent of their subdivision land for streets, open space and, if large enough, public
services, such as a school. Land developers and individual house builders were required to
meet the detailed instruction on building codes including height, lot size, setbacks and
residential type. The application of these regulations has resulted in profound similarity
between communities within the cities and among cities.
The 1968 Doxiadis' master plan for Riyadh, which was put into effect in 1971, and
its subsequent regulations set the direction for future growth. The consequence was a city
organized into the modern, high-income north and the semi-traditional, low-income south.
For example, the Plan proposed average plot sizes ranging between 150 m 2 and 250 m 2 for
South and old Riyadh; minimum 400 m 2 for the northern part. As such, the Plan ignored