Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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them to seek better and larger lands for homes and other urban uses. Consequently, the
real estate market has become the battlefield for frenzied speculative land practices. 37 A
new urban land aristocracy emerged which laid its tight grips on land that promised
lucrative returns. These land-related policies resulted in skyrocketing land prices which
made construction in many areas within the Doxiadis plan unattainable by many ordinary
denizens and even Government departments seeking large lots for their large scale projects
(e.g. the Internal Security Forces housing development, the Ministry of Health and
Defense). All were forced to obtain land at lower prices ostensibly outside the Doxiadis
Plan (Figure 10). A centrifugal process of land subdivisioning and construction took
momentum under the five-year plans' modernization programs which commenced in 1970.
Most importantly, Arar's physical growth continued unabated until seemingly harnessed by
the launching Of the Urban Domain regulations in 1986.
Finally, the Plan was duly technical, that is it overlooked the role of the citizen in the
shaping of Arar's future development. But this was not solely, if at all, the mistake of the
foreign planning firm. The technical aspect of both local and imported planning was a
reflection of the centralized political system's character and government-sponsored towns'
economies. Planning firms, characteristically and legally were obliged to yield to the
contract and acquiesce to the clients demands. 38 Faced with such a formidable political
environment, foreign planners hope that their proposals are used to aid decisions by
politicians and the affected population. Ideally, the implementation of the plan was left to
the local authorities and planners to abide by the plan, amend it or discard it based on
concurrence and feedback. In sum, the failure of Arar's Doxiadis Plan was a function of
several factors one of which was the foreign planner's inattention to the sociopolitical and
physical environment of the host country.
The explosive 1970s population growth added to the chaotic urban growth of Arar.
The Arar experiment was a testimony to the failure of the perfunctory, wholesale grand
design approach to cities. The Doxiadis experiment corroborates the axiom that cities are
dynamic and complex urban systems, inhabited by social actors involved in an ever
growing, learning process. It proves that successful top-down, urban planning is only an
illusion.