Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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Huraimla offers an interesting case study in which an agricultural-based subsistence
economy town gave way to a service economy (by 1982,57% of Huramila's working
force was employed in the tertiary sector, of which the government services, by 1989,
accounted for 55% of the town's labor force). Two particular phases can be discerned in
the urban process which followed the emergence of the nation state in 1932. First, as the
town underwent slow, yet steady economic development, Huraimla grew following a
modified vernacular architecture, using new design styles and imported building materials.
This pattern dominated in the newly built structures until 1968. Second, with the
multiplying of central government's wealth, Huraimla's population increasingly aspired
toward the modem modus vivendi: the wholesale adoption of modem conveniences such as
the car, electricity, and a massive array of consumer goods, made possible by the
government's modernization programs. During this second phase, Huraimla entered a new
era of "planned" growth: marked by centrally-ordained growth controls, eclectic
architecture and the rectilinear layout of lots and circulation space. Because urban planning
as practiced by municipal authorities is based on instructions by the national government, a
process which has been essentially applied equally to most of today's Saudi settlements,
Huraimla's new growth would inevitably resemble other suburban development in other
Saudi settlements. 9
A. Modified Traditional Growth
The confluence of political stability, economic prosperity, and improved health
provisions resulted in steady natural population growth nationwide. The government
allocation in modernization programs, though first targeted for large cities, trickled to
smaller settlements. Despite the national trend of city-ward migration by villagers and
towns' residents to Riyadh and other major cities, Huraimla's population increased
gradually from a mere 500 inhabitants during the late 1910s to 3,870 in 1974 and reached
5,500 by 1987. Demand for new buildings started with vacant areas, within the Al-
Jama'ah wall, by filling open spaces and substituting the old, ramshackle stock.
Nevertheless, the building process during the formative decades of the Kingdom (1930s-
1960s), or prior to 1960s, the decade which witnessed the inauguration of the municipality,
remained within the confines of the Al-Jama'ah wall.
Meanwhile, citizens aspired to the land outside the walled area, for the curving
property lines inside the compact walled town did not suit the trend to larger houses with