Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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kilometer. These "no-man" territories are hospitable only to the automobile, which in their
own are threatening elements to street users, including pedestrians and children eager to
play outside as soon as the temperature descends to comfortable levels.
The widespread adoption of the grid system in Riyadh resulted in reducing the area
assigned for private land use from 75 percent in the traditional area to 50 percent (given that
existing planned areas are fully built). The new municipal codes provide minimal solutions
to the emerging problems its own building codes have created, leaving residents to devise
"band-aid" solutions to the privacy issue. Municipal building codes (e.g. setbacks,
building height and building types allow only for "passive" forms, that is protective
measures by residents (screens and high walls) are allowed. "Active" or "positive"
approaches such as creative architectural and culturally oriented urban design solutions (lot
configurations that maximize privacy) have not yet been widely explored by private land
developers or incorporated into municipal codes. Nor have existing urban design and
planning processes allowed for systematic and effective input on the residents' part. In the
traditional Arab-Muslim built environments, shariy'ah upheld privacy and permeated
customary building practices, while residents maintained greater say in their
neighborhoods. For example, nowadays, residents cannot sue their neighbors for
infringements of privacy. Instead, a duality of legislation ensues with the consensus
leaning more toward the secular, technical codes of the municipal system. 60
C. Dispersed Growth
The absence of property tax constitutes a major factor behind the slow development
of urban land currently hoarded by land speculators. The absence of taxes and other prodevelopment
incentives, have contributed to an urban form characterized by scattered
development, bound only by the major highway network. The fact that land prices tend to
decrease as one travels from the town center helps lower-income groups to seek cheaper
land at the periphery in order to obtain an REDF loan. Consequendy, 51 per cent of
Riyadh's metropolitan 1,000 square kilometer area is unbuilt, though platted and serviced:
(eighty five per cent of the undeveloped land has already been serviced with one or more
types of public utility). The projected capacity of Riyadh's Urban Domain at its First
Phase, which ends in 1995, is 3.4 million inhabitants at its full utilization (Figure 6.17).
The dispersion of residents over large, half-built tracts of land negates any possibility of
effective small-community life for Saudi city dwellers.