Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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all attracted nomads, ruralites and immigrants from distant settlements and Arab countries
as well. Consequently, government services were expanded to meet the increasing demand
for public services and educational facilities generated by population growth and improved
living conditions in Arar and the region it served. For example, between 1973 and 1986,
the number of schools increased from 15 to 39 while the number of students increased
from 9,583 in 1982 to 16,594 in 1989. Arar was supplied its administrative components, a
regional imarah (principality or emeer's governorhsip), police station and mail and
telegram office. Construction activity prospered in response to increasing demand for
buildings setting a north-west growth pattern.
While some migrants managed to obtain dwellings through the formal housing
market, others were forced to live in temporary units. Peripheral growth surpassed the
sluggish physical planning and growth controls as practiced by the municipality.
Consequently, there was no uniformity governed peripheral growth. Shanty towns were
comprised of tents, as well as mud and concrete structures, while others were built with
scrap materials. Few paid attention to uniformity and land ownership. Outside the original
Tapline Houses, modern villa type residences mingled with "Arabic" houses, or biout
sha'abiyah (a modified version of which the organization of indoor spaces matched that of
courtyard mud houses, i.e. introverted arrangement of rooms, but built with modern
building materials and modified fenestration). Communities that were dominated by such
hybrid architecture were commonly referred to as 'ahieaa Sha'abiyah (popular or
communities of the masses). 11 They were usually inhabited by low income households.
For instance, in 1973, monthly income for households that lived in concrete (modern villa
type), the popular, the mud houses and the shanty towns (denoted as "others") were SR
1,140, SR 860, SR 720 and SR 390 respectively. 12 The original rectilinear layout of the
Tapline Houses' land subdivision remained dominant. Commercial and public land uses
were clustered around the central thoroughfare (later called King Abdul-Aziz) which
continued as the town's major commercial center. The Imarah (Principality) which was
located at the eastern end of Arar formed an opposing magnet, hence strengthening the eastwest
linear pattern of Arar's urban form.
Generally speaking, Arar is essentially a modern, planned town. Its development has
passed through five major planning phases or experiments, (1) the original Tapline plan of
the early 1950s, (2) land tenure, (3) the 1960s' expansion of the Tapline plan, (4) the 1973