Privacy As an Image For The Islamic Societies City

By Shafiq Bara

a Palestinian architect

Urban Analysis Course final research

V.U.B – Brussels –Belgium 9/1/2009

Note: “ Islamic society cities are the interpretations of Muslim societies way of life not the utopian way of Islamic religion “.

Part2

The New Islamic society Cities:

The new Islamic society cities went out of their interpretation as we mentioned before , the new interpretation is very near to the modern movement interpretation of space that emerged back in 1950-60 western cities , we can implement the definition of M. Carmona for the traditional and modern urban spaces , for him : a "Tradional Urban Space Consist of buildings as constituent parts of urban blocks , were blocks define and enclose external space ", he adds :" Modernist urban space typically consists of free standing Pavilion buildings in landscape settings ". [15]

Some cities like Dubai as an example went to the extreme side of implementing modern theory as its motivated by the move of Capital power , other cities like Damascus , Nablus and other cities still keeping part of the original identity , the new parts had deferent levels of resistance to that new interpretation ,this level of resistance changed throw the last century , ( we can see high level of resistance in the individual wealthy urban spaces and a low level one with the wave with economic investment sector of urban planning and housing sectors).

Shape (14) : the new city of Dubai , the extreme (free Standing Pavilions ) modern urban fabric ,Source: http://www.bestwaytoinvest.com

Shape (15) : Arial photo for apart of Nablus where you can see all kinds of urban fabric, source: www.nablus.gov.ps/govphoto/data/media/2/Nablus_FromJerzim

Nablus City was a good example for a high degree of resistance to the new urban fabric plans tell 1990 and inward , which started to decline after that by the increasing role of investment in housing sector and the lack of new urban projects due to the occupation role ,

If we compare the urban fabric of the city of Nablus with the modern one we can figure part of the resistance process , using the lynch theory we can notice the changes on the five elements :

* Paths:

In the modern cities a complete grid of streets is imposed all over the urban fabric, Nablus have grown in the past century out of the old city fabric , a mobile road network was established , a Linear one as it lies between 2 mountains, the total network seems to form an un complete linear organic grid with a main Longitudinal axis that connect the western Entrance with the eastern entrance of the city, the final result is very similar to the grid erosion process that happened in some American cities in their search , and in some parts of it it look very mush like the Laddered street system.

It seems that this way of road network provide the citizens of the city with their need of privacy because of the big number of dead end roads that lead for group of houses , but in the new plans the municipality try to make full grids and to complete some of the missing parts of the existing grid , and that will certainly affect this feature .

Shape (16): Nablus Areal view 1994, Source : http://www.nakbaonline.org/images/LandBtwn/Nablus-1994.jpg

Shape (17): the plan of Nablus municipal , with the roads ( opened and planned) , 6/2008, http://www.nablus.org/uploads/map.jpg

*Edges:

the cities have went out of the pervious artificial edges like walls , but new edges took the place , like the municipal borders , main roads , and industrial parks , Nablus for example have to main Natural edges ( Mountains ) how formed the city border for a long time but new machinery and roads make it possible in the last few years to expand the city over it , but Nablus still have many powerful edges that were designed by the occupation before to stop it's urban expansion like Industrial Parks in the east and the west sides of the city , settlements , Military bases , Bypass roads A,B, C Zoning are very powerful edges .

The main road that connects the two main entrances of the city in the east and west is a very powerful edge that separate the North district from the south one , this road serves as a leaner market with shops in the both sides of it .

deferent Urban fabric also creates powerful Edges , Like the old city fabric the 3 refugee camps and the poor areas with high density populations Like Ras alaen area.

*Districts:

the new districts in the city was till the 1990s build by the initiatives of the users ( every family build it is own house ether a single one or extended one) , they were forced by the new laws to separate the houses they built from each other ,creating a small pavilion with surrounding space that served as a garden for the house , this space was a positive space in the beginning because it was quite big ( due to the relatively big areas and sheep land prices ) and it was always surrounded by walls so it created a private green area ,

Shape (18):part of the new fabric of Nablus back in 1950 , were you can see the small separated houses surrounded by gardens and walls , Source:

Shape (19):Nablus Urban fabric In the year 1967, where you can see the old and the new districts, Source: http://www.nablus.gov.ps

But after the 1993 Oslo agreement those spaces became limited by the A, B, C areas which put an end to the city expansion , the economic situation for the society declined , and the land price become higher and higher , the building process after 1994 were led by the Investors how build commercial residential towers ( which was not accepted by the society back in 1980s ) , those investors tried to benefit from the land to the maximum , as the building laws were insufficient to deal with the issue, the piece of land witch served for one or two families before became for a use for more than 36 families in 7-16 floors residential towers .

The surrounding areas became limited to the minimum that the laws implement , as they were still surrounded by walls those areas became very negative and used as a car parking or dominated and closed by the family in the ground floor , and sometimes it's not more than a cement dumpster .

As there is no laws that limit the towers building in certain areas , we started to see those buildings everywhere in the city, and that affected all the surrounding buildings and the private areas , as there is no private space any more , rich people in their search for privacy started to build their own houses in small private districts around the city , were certain laws is implemented by the original owner of the land to prevent investors from building towers there.

Shape (20): the new fabric in the city of Nablus , a mix of everything ,source: http://www.westbanktours.com

There is limited space for the public parks as there was a private Alternative before, most of the public land inside the city is used for schools & mosques , there is also 4 main parks in the city that they started lately ( in the intifada) to be heavily used because of the lack of private spaces and the closer on the city that forbid people from going outside to the nature , even most of these gardens is not designed to supply the basic society need for privacy ( which we could see it before intifada by a very light use for these spaces) .

The main important point in Nablus that the old traditional district is on the contrary of many other tradional cities all over the Islamic world is still full with life and very well connected with the Overlapping new market and those two districts form the commercial heart of the city and the surrounding cities and villages .

* Nodes:

the city have many local nodes that help in building the city image like a big number of mosques and schools that give the city its image as conservative Islamic society city , the main hospitals , the University Campuses and even the main parks in the city , the football play ground.

But public spaces are still very limited and the only public square is the main square in the heart of the commercial district & in the outskirt of the old district , and it is heavily used for commercial purposes especially in the holiday seasons and also used as a public activity space in occasions and even for demonstrations against occupation .

*Land Marks :

no big change happened in the land marks of the city of Nablus from those of the Islamic society cities , the mosques minarets and dooms still play Avery important role but this time as local ones as the new fabric make it possible to see them from inside the city , some residential towers in the mountains also play the role of a Local land Mark but Nablus mountains are the main land marks that help in recognizing your location in the city( this advantage also can be seen in cities near mountains or shore line's ) and that advantage was not available inside the old city fabric , and only the way the roads width change could give you a hint about your location from the main road.

Shape(21): the new Clock Tower , a local land mark in the heart of the Commercial District ,http://nifblog.kesem.net/Image/nablus.jpg

Conclusion:

Many changes occurred in the Urban fabric of the cities all over the world , many changes and problems on the cultural and social life happened , as the Image of the city become a result of the Capital Perception not the society needs as before , Islamic society cities were effected badly by the lose of many main aspects that the tradional city fabric apply like the aspect of privacy.

As the effect of capitalism was limited on many Islamic society cities like Nablus , people showed a powerful resistance for the changes , trying to create some new solutions for the problems they faced .

the level of resistance against the implemented changes declining throw the time due to many factors , like space , economy And connectivity , the problems in the city fabric is growing , it is not the field of individual Capabilities or responsibilities any more , actions must be taken in rethinking the new Islamic society cities , and trying to figure out and implement solutions in further research .

Making a comparative study between those three types of urban fabric ( the tradional one , the modern one & the uncompleted deformed ones like Nablus case ) will give us a good idea for the actions and solutions that could be used to solve modern Islamic society cities problems.

The individual solutions ( wish evolved throw the social resistance to the modernity deformation process ) could be a base for solutions in a Grand scale , some solutions on this level were implemented in the western cities after a similar comparative studies , and you can see that many of those solutions were developed from the individual and tradional solutions .

Shape (22): some Suggested solution for the network of roads that serve inside the units of big grids in American cities based on historical studies as Clarence Perry proposed, source: M. Carmona & others , Public Places – Urban Spaces , architectural press, UK, 2003 , page: 61

· The End

References :

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