Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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government and the lack of adequate planning expertise stood as the major damper against
the realization of otherwise progressive pro-growth policies. The ISF planned community,
though built at a higher cost per-housing unit, presents an example of controlled large-scale
urban planning experiment in which some design values (e.g. respect for privacy,
calculated separation between pedestrian and motor traffic movement, and organized
allocation of community services in space) were adhered to. In contrast, the relaxed
systems of the REDF housing program and land distribution policies encouraged scattered
peripheral growth. Still, the outcome is an inevitable physical growth which resembled
most Saudi contemporary built forms: urban sprawl based on the grid system and the villa
model, thanks to the REDF generous housing loans and the free land policies.