Smart urban design and smart cities

Cities as complex systems evolve over time ; some take millenea and others few decades..Time on a city scale is essentially spatial for each action in a city causes it to further expand geographically , to contract or to slowly wither..

As such, time is a dimension that has been researched by Jane Jacobs and other urban theorists as an essential factor in understanding cities 

In our age, time-space are compressing. We can have an in-depth two hour one to one comversation with a friend in asia while we are sitting with a group of our colleagues in our office in the states..

This dillution is impacting the urban space in cities for as these becone compress, a virtual city is created in addition to its spatial countrepart .That virtual city which Bill Mitchels  has prophetized  in his book "city of bits" is exponantially augmenting the actions occuring in real time and thus embedding  a multiplicity of meanings of the urban space.

Lately , a mall in dubai -Wafi Mall - hosted a fashion event as part of Dubai Fashion Week. The invites were sent virtually to attendees via social media creating a virtual community of the event that might outlast the event itself and thus augment the city social network beyound its urban fabric. Post event, tens of videos via social media captures the fashion show linking it to the mall. These videos were sent to hundreds of social media friends, felliw twitters or insta followers .The mental image of that space  - an empty court or corridor in wafi mall- is augmented to include these videos - that compresses space and time into three minutes , enough to alter our image of that space and feeds into our overall image of the city.

That is the challenge we face as urban designers - the challenge of grasping this multitude of representations into our proposals and our visions for our cities so they can actually benefit organically of that augmented reality .

Placemaking and social entrepreneurship in Dubai

Creative Place making is an aspect of making places that uses art and culture in order to promote community engagement in urban space programs - connecting its different social groups and revitalize it . So, in this post, I want to take you into my journey to discover how creative Place making is unraveling through grass roots community initiatives and most importantly how it gives a quick sketch of social entrepreneurship in Dubai .

The journey will take three stops; the archives, the screening of a movie and the presentation of an artist.

First, The Archives has been an endeavour carried out by two entrepreneurship enthusiasts who wanted to provide for young artists ,entrepreneurs and the wider community a space to network, work and present and specially read about art . They chose a rundown facility in SAFA Park and transform it into this thriving hub. The space became a gate to a wider array of spaces -be it reading a book about Moroccan architecture, working on your computer on a new poster for an event somewhere or attending the events that this blog is describing.The capability of the space to open up mentally, emotionally and spatially is echoed by its transparent architecture where culture (symbolised by books) is the tangible aspect within light . Safa Park fifth and fourth gate became redefined from gates to the park to gates to this space of art,culture or even just reflection.

Second, I was invited by Rana Askoul – founder of changing Pink to attend the screening of Girls rising movie at the Archives Dubai. The invitation touched different spots in my consciousness; it was about education for girls, run by a local based women empowerment platform in a space designed and managed by entrepreneurs. This event epitomizes for me creative Place making through grass roots activities in many aspects through using ''The archives'' open architectural space in order to insert a community awareness event.

Changing pink launched by Rana Askoul is an ambitious initiative on empowering women in the corporate environment .It has dedicated an online interface on connecting established female role models in UAE community with the budding young female entering the market ;even the space of the internet becomes a medium to further expand our reach.As an entrepreneur, it aroused my curiosity the linkages this platform has established with internationally recognized charity institutions through the holistic view it has presented on our engagement on women’s day – Read , watch, empower, write. This multi-dimensional view on how a social event shared globally can be tackled locally is of interest to many entrepreneurs who works on an idea inspired by a local problem and reaches a point where the solution touches the Globe. This takes me to the third aspect- art,movies and social causes.

The screening of girls rising in a women day in a park was run within The silence and the peace one finds in a natural setting ;This brought more emphasis to the individual struggles of each of the girls who appeared in the movies; a struggle for a basic need – Education within environment hot by hunger, war,racism,poverty,ignorance. The movies as an art form dedicated to a human cause was interesting for it has dedicated for each of the girls, a female writer who can present her story and an actor who would give her a voice; the human tones of the voices and the mis -en-relief of the writers enveloped the still space of the archives and impressed points of awareness .Again, write, read and talk becomes an artistic experience blending within the settings of the archives. That experience at that moment, for me , was the optimal hands on personal understanding of what creative Placemaking is – Art ,Community, well being and humanity connected with a point in space and time and transcending the local space (archives)and the local time (Dubai ) to embrace all of us as humans living on earth .

I also attended Sustainability and capacity building presentation by internationally acclaimed artist Samar jodha brought by Promise Of A Generation -a platform for discussion and action which facilitates a candid exchange of ideas, experiences and concerns in order to fulfill the promise of a generation to improve our world.I was expecting the presentation of multiple black and white photographs depicting the lives of the threatened local communities in India. As I walked towards the archives, I saw a glimpse of a container photo on the screen. Samar has chosen to show us in a space-time experience his installations. So, he took us through three short movies- Bhopal installation, Outpost and express and aspire. Samar is an entrepreneur like us and his expression is based on the mediums of photography and films to raise awareness on the issues of intrusive development and conservation. The movies carried in them a silence broken by acute sounds as if the sounds are ways to wake us up; he always chose the sounds of the environment he wanted to take us through. In Bhopal, it was the sounds of the chemical alarms, in Outpost, it was the sounds of drops of rain on the metallic structures of the community he was portraying and in Express and aspires, and it was the sounds of the children. Sounds here became a medium to connecting us to the places he is actively involved in sustaining them through his installations. His other medium was metal ;whether printing on them or sculpting them, the forms in which metals was used to portray the human condition made us as human to be aware of the immensity of pain one feels when his own community is threatened. That is what an entrepreneur would want at the end; using a medium of presentation-visuals, movies, 3D models, prototype, reports even blogs- to take people through his thinking process into the human dimension that unites all of us and then working actively to sculpt and transform this medium as if it becomes the concept similarly to what Steve Jobs did with his IPAD - it is the thin and simple design that embodies the simple and user friendly interface of its systems.

In these three expressions of entrepreneurship, I found out that what we define as social entrepreneurs are colleagues, friends and fellow artists who are trying to raise us above our local differences into the realm of the human that we all share .In that scope, Social entrepreneurship uses creative Placemaking strategies to transport us from the local point of space to the global space of flows .Its ability to transport us depends also on the attributes of the space that we are in. Without the existence of ''the archives'' , I would not be writing this blog and without social entrepreneurs , you would not be interested in reading how as humans ,we entrepreneurs from all walks of life and industries , are all connected ……

Housing developments in the U.A.E ; a place maker perspective

Sustainability is based on a triangulated relationship between three dimensions- economic, social and environmental.

The development community is moving slowly towards integrating the principles of environmental sustainability; Dubai has witnessed the increase of platinum LEED rated buildings and an increasing awareness of the importance of sustainability on a community level. Social sustainability is still lagging behind ; affordability of housing choices within Dubai is a main concern with the current rental hikes expected at 30% in 2014 .

Dubai Development industry is complex because the migration flows feeding its population growth is born out of the job market numbers. Currently , 277,000 jobs are expected to be created from 2013 -2021 with the spike expected during the preparation and operation of Dubai expo 2020. In a recent statement to Zawya.com, Deepak Jain, head of Strategic Consulting, MENA at Jones Lang LaSalle, states that whilst the current and the mid-term focus is more on mid- to high-end residential projects, the market fundamentals will result in developers launching affordable housing projects in the long term. Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council had taken a bold step in July 2010 when it announced that at least 20% of new residential property in the UAE capital needs to be set aside for affordable housing, with rents for a studio to start from AED 25,200 per annum. The new rule was applicable to all developments larger than 75,000 square meters, but the regulations have not been implemented yet. The Jobs,  created mostly by the construction sector, means that the demand will be around for 200,000 units.

Affordability in Dubai is always a compromise between the amount of savings that could be sent to the home country and the intended lifestyle that the migrant would like to invest in. Therefore, I would tackle housing from the second aspect. How we encourage  middle income employers to invest in buying affordable housing units in Dubai instead of renting? I believe the answers lie in the lifestyle of the environment he will be living in which is usually an output of the interaction between the urban design firm, the architecture team and the developer team.

The first master planned development in Dubai intended for affordable housing was The Gardens next to Ibn Battuta mall . The Gardens is a community built in 2000 to provide affordable housing for the employees of Dubai expanding TECOM free zone. The Community was based on typical horizontal low rise buildings in an expansive open space network providing parks, children parks, sports facilities, malls to the residents. Subsequently, schools, hospitals were added. The affordability of the Gardens was due to the low cost of land, low cost of infrastructure developments(in 2000 of course).From a design perspective, the layout of the buildings , the organisation of the flats, the elevation materials produced a sustainable typology. From a sustainability perspective, its typology enabled companies to rent out complete buildings in order to provide housing for their employers. The clustering of building into a complex of three/buildings gave it a sense of community as children from the same complex tend to play in the spaces nearby. The layout of streets between main arterial , maundering collector and cul de sac local roads made it legible as roads hierarchy corresponded to the spatial configuration of urban spaces. The most positive aspect of the gardens is its extensive cycling and pedestrian network connecting the expansive development; the main cycling path spans kilometres without interruption of vehicular circulation. The sense of community is further strengthened through the existence of two major parks that connects the different residential neighborhood.

From an urban scale, Affordability is linked to Density .However, density here means the intensity of occupants per square foot and therefore it is about the urban block rather than plot level. Barcelona has achieved higher densities through the densification of the urban block rather than the densification of the plot itself. The urban block is completely built around a courtyard giving the possibility of double decking the circulation corridors .The densification of the urban block did not prevent Barcelona from heavily investing in public and open spaces that contributes to the social life of its residents. Densification of the urban block needs to be coupled with the provision of recreational facilities, parks, gardens and activation of the street level spaces through retails, libraries and medical uses in order to maintain the safety of the development. Motor City Fox hills apartments are a clear example on how street level activity can be coupled with high densities.

Coming from that dimension, Urban policies need to focus on the elements that would promote intensification of density  through monitoring the number of units per hectare as an additional measure of the development in the urban block and link communal facilities such as sports, retail and open spaces with the population densities .This measure gives a space for the developers and the designers to experiment with new typologies that would give them the densities required. We have experimented with this urban measure while I was part of the master development team in Dubailand, the  regional framework plan in Dubai . Linking land pricing, community facilities provision, population densities and units densities has provided a win win situation for both public and private sector.From the current real estate market trends, we have succeeded in bringing dense developments with new typologies that are closing the gaps in affordable housing while maintain the wellbeing of their residents in perspective.

Other measures tested in other markets include up-zoning on commercial development corridors on the basis of provision of affordable housing that could be potentially served in the future by public transportation lines and reliable bus routing system; the up-zoning can be coupled with public private partnerships for roads and infrastructure construction.

ecological urban design

Ecological Urban Design

Nadine chahine

Ecological urban design is becoming a reality - a reality endorsed by one truth -our cities are an ecosystem operating in a larger eco-system. Once we understand and are aware of the intricate details of how these two ecosystems can complement each other, our cities - being the largest man made creations - will definitely heal from the alarming ecological footprint they are producing.

Figure 1-cities as urban ecosystems

Roads act as main way of transporting people and goods from the point of entry of a neighbourhood to an array of potential stop stations. The choice we human make when designing such a road needs to be influenced by the way our brain interpret and perceive these different possibilities. As designers, we are responsible for ensuring legibility- the capability of a city arteries(roads) to be understood intuitively . Although it is a design factor, it goes a long way in addressing efficiencies; the more direct and clear it is for our brains ( or GPS ) to guide us through the maze of points we need to go to ,the more possibilities for alternative transport mode can be thought of such as tram, monorail, biking tracks ,pedestrian zones. We tend to always analyse the pedestrian network as running parallel to roads through the inclusion of sidewalks sandwiched between the roads and the buildings .However, cities that have been resilient through thousands of years prove to us that our rationalisation of how we walk in cities is reductionist to our urban spaces. Walkable cities are legible .

Figure 2 walking is a choice that legible cities force us to take

Whether it is surface, multi story or basement parking, it plays a role in increasing accessibility to public transport points , pedestrian retail zones within the city ,civic spaces .accessibility as a design facto is highly linked to proximity of public transport  to public spaces and recreational spaces .it results in  vibrancy and animation of these spaces during all days and across different population segments ,

An example of ecological urban design is Downtown Silver Spring .The Development near transit stations is often compact and intense which gave the developer an opportunity to do Placemaking. The design of Civic open spaces make the development unique and fulfil an important need in compact, urban neighbourhoods.

 After residents in Silver Spring, Maryland, called for more open space, Montgomery County, Maryland, planners wrote guidelines for a Transit Oriented Development. A developer of a 27-acre project a short distance from the Metro stop responded by redeveloping the  suburban superblock around a series of public spaces by Bing Thom Architects and Sasaki Associates. The public spaces add to the urban centre distinctness and a sense of place .

Figure 3-Source:bettercities.net

Cities in the Gulf are part of a larger ecosystem – a coastal desert .The heat in urban spaces is caused through the reflection of the sunlight rays on the horizontal and vertical surfaces. This warming leads to an over use of  air conditioning - air cooling that consumes fossil fuels . In these days, our technologies are focused in either inventing materials that do not get affected by sun rays or cooling technologies to save on energy. What about wind? What about we work with the wind? Understanding the relationship between sun, wind and the orientation of our city fabric, streets and public space is important to manage efficiently the city as an ecosystem leading to efficiencies in energy consumption especially if it is applied on a district level and city level. Xeritown is a development in Dubai that have used wind in shaping its urban fabric-see figure 2

Figure 4-Xeritown  used wind to reduce heat by reorienting the fabric to benefit from cool breeze coming from the sea to the desert -source-Carboun.com

Greening the city is gaining momentum as a substantial resource efficiency initiative. There is always a pitfall in our cities to consider greening the city as just dedicating a big plot of land for a park .Actually, greening the cities now is expanding into urban ecosystem management through Urban agriculture and Biodiversity protection activities. We share with these city elements the oxygen and carbon - carbon being the enemy number one across the world when it comes to national sustainability campaigns. We look for ways to buy, share , transfer , calculate and resolve carbon footprint issues . What about plants? Cities are looking for various ways now to incorporate urban agriculture projects. In Dubai, Zaabeel park acts as an urban haven reducing heat and the impact of sheikh zayed highway high traffic activities carbon emissions. Zaabeel park also hosts a numerous of local adapted flora species that with time might become also a haven for local birds, insects and other fauna species. One of the interesting use of zaabeel park is storm water management due to its proximity to Dubai International Financial center .In case of wind storms, its palm trees might reduce the impacts of san erosion on the neighbourhoods in karama and bur dubai.

Figure 5-possible projects in urban agriculture

In ecology, urban ecosystems are not mere assemblages of their parts but are continually growing and changing along with their elements. The generative field of a living system extends into the environment and connects the two, for what is needed for the health of the entire system.  It is about the connected fabric of constantly evolving relationships between all living things.

 Ecological urban design, in face of the current pressures, adopts a holistic design approach that combines accessibility, walkability, local climate constraints, greening cities in order to produce places that are meaningful . Our spaces will turn into places that breath, inspire, uplift and even heal...

One society .. One space

It was a sunny day .. As I stepped into my appointment , i could not but notice that I was in the middle of an urban acupuncture phenomenon ..
During the planning of Um Suqueim - the urban area where burj al Arab proudly stands - Dubai Municipality used the different urban scales of neighborhood , community and district to over lay its social infrastructure onto the subdivision plans grouping together the education , medical and convenience needs into one cluster .. The guidelines were published in the 1990's when dubai structural plan was formally approved and then reevaluated in the 2000's after the large scale urban developments springing in the city ..
These plots were silent for a long time .. Although school plots were the first to be built , the objective of providing a social infrastructure to the community could not be yet achieved ..
As I was stepping into my appointment at Aswaq, I realized that the vision that the planners back then were thinking of has materialized .. Next to Aswaq was a mosque and on its left was king's school .. You can see in the southern centers coffee shops and local small restaurans spilling ..
As I stepped into Aswaq gate , I saw an old prayer , one that was said in old Islamist era when one enters the souks .. In between Aswaqq ( souks in English ) and the actual souk in Arabic is one denominator , local community .. Aswaq brands were 100% Local brands from French bakery to the bookshop to the spa to the supermarket .. There is an air of informality , of spontaneity , of familiarity .. There was an air of being A Dubawian * and Dubawis ..
In old Islamic souks , the mosque was always next to them making it easy on people to leave their businesses and pray but also for Friday prayers crowd to spill over and regenerate the souk .. It was interesting to see that connection made thousand of years later ..
The one thing that I felt may need more attention on this coming- back- to - life- old- planning idea is the urban design aspect .. Between the contemporary design of king's school , the heritage inspired wind towers of Aswaq and the ornamental architecture of the mosque, the street perspective was kind of lost.. Urban design has been always a in- between no man Land between architecture and land use planning .. Design guidelines are always seen as discounting value by developers , restricting their creativity .. Many research done on urban neighborhood proved that adhering to flexible yet consistent guidelines actually increase real estate value because it is perceived as maintaining a long term sense of aesthetics and safeguarding the neighborhood spatial character and therefore identity . As we all strive to be distinct and unique , the urban space in between us suffers because its character leaks out trying to be everything for everyone .
As a social infrastructure project, guidelines might have been in fact a much needed dialogue between how as dubawians *and local dubawis we aspire our community values to be manifested architecturally.. Small focus groups might have been ideal to pinpoint objectives and then the technical consulting team might have deduced guidelines based on multiple residents sessions and their aspirations on how the area will develop..
Guided participatory sessions might have lead to a journey of discovery .. An interesting ride into um suqueim past , present and future aspirations as a community of transient , permanent and resident dubawians and Dubawis also .. It may also be an opportunity for Aswaq to relate more strongly to the community it serves by emotionally investing in building trust and communication ..
What is a relationship but trust and communication ?
So as I was leaving the parking , my head was boiling with sketches and bursting with this urban dilemma that while doing our best to anchor ourselves in values such as heritage , authenticity , creativity, we need to foresee The denominator in all - the space itself in the perceived and the perceiver .. In the experienced and the experiencer ..
We are the space and in return , the space becomes us as we build around it meanings and therefore character.. Urban character ..


PS I invented Dubawian to name residents of dubai emirate and Dubawis the citizens of dubai emirate

young minds and Creativity--AUD final year showcase -Interior Design

It was raining...

As I parked my car and walked on the wet sidewalks, I remembered the tension I had when 10 years ago I was hanging my final year project..

By sheer faith in the conceptual foundation of my design thinking, my professors encouraged me .I reached the Jury incomplete still struggling with solving the openness of the project to the waterfront and the privacy needed for the guests..

 

 What experience we would have today sitting on the other side of the educational act?

As I stepped into the cosy office of Dr. Albert Fakhoury, greeted by familiar faces from last year jury, the talented and handpicked professionals, I could smell the tension as we went through the standardized students presentation.

Sophisticated and carefully designed banners, laid out reports, Sketch books and report thesis.. All put up showing clearly the information that as juror you need to grasp in five minutes the work of two semesters of hard work..

 

The first thing that stroke me is the genuine interest of these students in their city Dubai.. Each one of them is relating his project to the community and the life of Dubai adding to the  cultural, social, educational, artistic even spiritual aspects of the city dwellers experience... From cultural centres to spas to libraries to meditation centres to centres of cultural understanding to fashion, we had an overview of genuine reflection of these young minds insights on putting their imprints on the city fabric.

As a juror , I learned a lot from this outburst of creativity..

First, my belief that Design is a thinking process has renewed .Although the designer needs to immerse himself in it, there is a need for observation moments..Moments that you step out and observe the stage where you are in close out and becoming aware of how you need to start the next stage. Design Development if not controlled mentally by the designer might take you to final outcome that instead of reinforcing the creative spark originating from , might bring out its dysfunctional aspects..

I also discovered that Design is a volumetric poetry .It is a poetry of spaces, an interplay of rhythm, language and proportion and clarity.it is a tool to assert how we relate to our cultural identity and our environment…Fashion, spirituality might be a starting point to engage us in a dialogue as a designers.As we research the interrelationships between the theme  we have embraced and its physical manifestation, we understand more ourselves and engage architecture as a tool to share this understanding with others..

I realised that Design is also Silence ,,just like a piece of jazz music, the melody needs to move out of silence and back to it just like breath, just like thoughts, just like human beings birthed out of the silence of the womb and back to it,,

 

A designer needs a high level of architectural presentation. The projects we have seen explained their intention and aspiration in detailed plans , sections , elevations and mood boards : the distinguished students were able to relate them in depth to their design development and original conceptual foundation building consistency throughout  the project  .

I was delighted to sense the high self esteem and confidence emerged from these young minds ; they presented business cards , projects and topics in a lucid style and passion ..Their projects exhibited a great understanding of the relationship between architecture and interior design.. Some projects even spilled over urban design and even landscape.. It was the first milestone in honing Their ability of working in multidisciplinary environments..

I realized that young minds like seeds have in them the power and the will to flourish and to bring an added flair of skills and undiscovered tools.. All what we need is to be present for them and attend to them motivating them... This is surely what we aspired to do  as jurors and this is exactly what AUD has been successfully providing it  as a learning institution .