Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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mollifying and complementing the rather rigid street scapes and contributing to a scenery of
ambience . In the dry desert climate of Riyadh, coupled with emphatic concern for privacy,
the insipid application of the grid and its walled villa has resulted in desolate, anti-social
street scapes contributing to the sterile sense of place. Consequently, the wall has resulted
in an abysmal impact on the modern city's landscape: blocks upon blocks of residential
units and commercial uses wrapped with walls up to nine feet high contributing to the
overriding lack of a sense of place.
Second, the setback requirements together with the wide streets resulted in
underutilized areas within the developed urban land. In a typical land subdivision, the area
assigned for streets varies between 25.5% to 38% of the total area, while setback
regulations have resulted in immense unbuilt areas, within developed properties. In
addition, the modernization of the Saudi built environment has ushered in an expansion of
traditional functions such as governmental, educational and circulation spaces.
Modernization has also resulted in an outcropping of new land uses: military, health,
recreational, and transportation. The contemporary (industrialized) functions require large
uncovered urban land such as parking, and storage.
Third, the relatively walls (six to nine feet high) surrounding the yards of the villas
have become a de rigueur. The ubiquitous wall is built at the property line to shield users
from obtrusive looks by outsiders as well as for security reasons. The outcome of
wrapping properties (private and public) from the modern network of wide streets (25 to
100 feet wide) is a dust-swept, barren space prone to direct sun heat, that creates "walled
corridors" constituting the contemporary circulation space. In contrast to the modern built
environment, the compact, traditional built environment's buildings were built abreast,
starting at the sidewalk. They were built relatively high (two to three stories) and were
served by an exceptionally narrow street network (7 to 25 feet wide). This configuration
between built forms and circulation space offered considerable shaded areas for movement,
play and social gatherings. The meandering, semi-covered passageways were carefully
laid down to provide for privacy, functionality and allowed for the flow of cool breezes.
The resulting modern landscape is repulsive, rigid and a repetitive environment of
asphalted streets systematically ending at ever vanishing, straight, oven-hot walls,
especially during the hot summer, which alienates streets' social activities. Riyadh
possesses 400 square kilometer of paved roads, feeding an urban expanse of 1,012 square