Crisis of Traditional Identity in the Built Environment of the Saudi Cities a Case Study: the Old City of Tabuk
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CRISIS OF TRADITIONAL IDENTITY IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF THE SAUDI CITIES A CASE STUDY: THE OLD CITY OF TABUK By Mabrouk Alsheliby A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2015 University of Newcastle upon Tyne School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have contributed to my education throughout the years and I will always be greatly indebted to them. During the years of my time at Newcastle University and the preparation of this study, I want to express my gratitude to my supervisors, Dr. Martin Beattie and Professor Andrew Ballantyne. Without their patience, continuous encouragement, and unfailing support this work would not have materialised. I am also deeply indebted to Marian Kyte and the staff of Newcastle University. I am greatly thankful to HRH Prince Mansour bin Met'eb bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud (Municipal and Rural Affairs Minister) for sponsoring my studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Acknowledgements are also made to Eng. Mohamed Alamri (Mayor of Tabuk Municipality), Eng. Khaled Alhaje (Previous Mayor of Tabuk Municipality). In addition, I would like also to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Hisham Alsahly (Deputy of Tabuk Governor), Mr Nassir Alkhuraisy (Head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities in Tabuk region), Dr. Waleed Al-hemaidi (President of Tabuk Municipal Council). I would also like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the staff members in the Tabuk Municipality for their help during the data collection. I would also like to thank the Cultural Attaché of Saudi Arabia in the United Kingdom, Dr. Faisal Abalkhail and the staff members in the Cultural bureau for their assistance and support. Finally, my deepest thankfulness goes to my Mother and to the memory of my Father who offered many sacrifices in order to provide me with an education, my debt will always be acknowledged. And last but not least, I am very grateful to my wife and children (Nawaf, Dhari, Rayyanh and Mayyadah) for their time, patience and understanding as well many thanks to my brothers, sisters and friends for their moral support. I ABSTRACT Over the last four decades, the built environment in Saudi has lost its traditional identity, as a result of the economic boom. The characteristics of construction heritage in Saudi cities have been affected and exposed to a lot of harm. Tabuk is one of the cities that face a crisis with regards to its traditional identity in the built environment, due to the lack of maintenance by the owners and leaseholders, in addition to changes made to the buildings, in order to meet personal needs. As a result of the extremely poor services provided in the old town and with no particular planning policies for the development of the old city, most of the significant old buildings have been damaged. The development is likely to negatively affect these places due to the change in the residents' economic conditions and their rapid and collective move to developed areas surrounding the city. Most of the inhabitants of Tabuk associate the traditional buildings with a negative appearance and believe that traditional buildings are not suitable for modern life. Therefore, many old buildings have been removed and new buildings have been constructed in the old city, although these new buildings do not represent the local identity. Additionally, the traditional way of life in the old city is usually accompanied by poor social conditions . This makes it necessary to study the transformation of traditional identity in the old city of Tabuk, in order to find ways of preserving our heritage in the built environment. This research presents an investigative study to understand why the traditional identity of the built environment has been lost and why we need to preserve it. This study has adopted a mixed method approach because it is necessary to understand the reasons behind this crisis, in addition to the relationship between people and their physical environment. The interaction between people and physical form required the researcher to study the traditional built environment in Tabuk, both prior to and after the changes. Moreover, not only did the physical environment require to be investigated, but also the perceptions of the local people towards the alterations, as well as the impact of these changes on their sense of place in the old city of Tabuk. II TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III LIST OF FIGURES IV LIST OF TABLES VI CHAPTER (1): INTRODUCTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.2 TRADITIONAL IDENTITY CRISIS IN SAUDI BUILT ENVIRONMENT 2 1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH 9 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 11 1.5 RESEARCH SETTING 12 1.6 RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCESS 16 1.7THE ORGANISATION OF THE RESEARCH 18 CHAPTER (2): THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: IDENTITY AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PART ONE: THE IDENTITY AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 2.1 INTRODUCTION 20 2.2 THE CONCEPT OF IDENTITY 20 2.3 STAGES OR LEVELS OF IDENTITY 23 2.4 PERCEPTUAL DIMENSION FOR IDENTITY 30 2.5 SENSE OF PLACE 32 2.5.1 Defining place 35 2.5.2 Attachment of place 37 2.5.3 Identity of place 39 2.5.4 Memory of place 41 2.5.5 The Perception and Image of place 44 2.6 CONCLUSION 46 PART TWO: ISLAMIC LAW AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 2.7 GENERAL BACKGROUND 47 2.8 THE CONCEPT OF TRADITION 48 2.9 THE CONCEPT OF MODERNITY 50 2.10 MODERNIZATION VERSUS TRADITION IN THE SAUDI BUILT 52 ENVIRONMENT 2.11. ISLAMIC LAW AND TRDATIONAL BUILT ENVIRONMENT FORM 57 2.11.1 Basic sources of shari‘ah ( law) 59 2.11.2 'Figh al-Bina' (the construction jurisprudence) 61 2.11.2.1 Neighbourhood 62 2.11.2.2 House 63 2.11.2.3 Building Height 64 2.11.2.4 Open Windows 65 III 2.11.2.5 Privacy 67 2.11.2.6 Street 71 2.11.2.7 Mosque 72 2.11.2.8 Souq (Marketplace or Bazzar) 74 2.12 CONCLUSION 75 PART THREE: ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE BACKGROUND AND THE STAGE OF TRANSITION IN THE SAUDI BUILT ENVIRONMENT 2.13 INTRODUCTION 76 2.14 CONCEPT OF HERITAGE 77 2.15 DIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE 80 2.15.1 Central Region 81 2.15.2 Southern Region 86 2.15.3 Northern Region 95 2.15.4 Western Region 99 2.15.4 Eastern Region 106 2.16 THE STAGES OF TRANSITION IN THE SAUDI BUILT 112 ENVIRONMENT 2.17 CONCLUSIONS 117 CHAPTER (3): THE OLD CITY OF TABUK AS CASE STUDY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.1 INTRODUCTION 118 3.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 119 3.2.1 Before Islamic era 120 3.2.2 Islamic era 122 3.2.3 Modern era 130 3.3 TRADITIONAL URBAN CHARACTERS OF THE OLD CITY OF 136 TABUK 3.3.1 Alqalah (Tabuk’s castle 139 3.3.2 Al- harrah (Neighbourhood) 143 3.3.3 Albayt alsa,be (the traditional house) 145 3.3.4 Almasjed (the Mosque) 149 3.4.5 Souq Aljadeh (Bazaar) 152 3.4.6 Shajar Al-Nakheel (Palm trees) 155 3.4 CONCLUSIONS 158 IV CHAPTER (4): RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1 INTRODUCTION 159 4.2 RESEARCH PROCESS 160 4.3 RESEARCH APPROACH: CASE STUDY 162 4.3.1 Why Tabuk 162 4.3.2 Why the traditional identity in the old city of Tabuk 163 4.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY: MIXED METHODOLOGIES 165 4.5 DATA COLLECTION METHODS (FIELD WORK) 170 4.5.1 Quantitative Survey (Questionnaire) 170 4.5.1.1 Sampling techniques 170 4.5.1.2 Sampling size in quantitative survey 172 4.5.2 Qualitative Survey (Interview) 180 4.5.2.1 Sampling size in qualitative survey 180 4.5.3 Visual data 183 4.5.4 Direct observations 184 4.5.5 Documents 185 4.6 DATA ANALYSIS 186 4.7 CONCLUSIONS 188 CHAPTER (5): DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND TRANSITION OF TRADITIONAL IDENTITY FORM OF THE OLD CITY OF TABUK ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1 INTRODUCTION 189 5.2 THE ZONING REGULATIONS VERSUS TRADITIONAL BUILT 190 ENVIRONMENT 5.3 AN EVALUATION OF THE CURRENT BUILT ENVIRONMENT 201 5.3.2.1 Land use 202 5.3.2.2 Building height 204 5.3.2.3 Building material 206 5.3.2.4 The traditional buildings 208 5.4 THE OBSTACLES TO PRESERVING THE OLD CITY OF TABUK 217 5.5 CONCLUSIONS 224 CHAPTER (6): MODERNIZATION FACTORS AND CRISIS OF TRADTIONAL IDENTITY OF THE OLD CITY OF TABUK ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.1 INTRODUCTION 226 6.2 THE ZONING BUILDINGS REGULATIONS VS TRADITIONAL FORM 227 6.3 SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTOR 241 6.4 MODERNITY AND TREND DESIGN IN THE BUILT 249 ENVIRONMENT 6.4.1 The Role of the developers 250 6.4.2 Real estate development Fund (REDF) 254 6.4.3 Technological Factors 256 6.5 CONCLUSIONS 259 V CHAPTER (7): THE OLD CITY OF TABUK: CONTEMPORARY BUILT ENVIRNOMENT AND SENSE OF PLACE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.1 INTRODUCTION 260 7.2 ATTACHMENT OF PLACE 261 7.2.1 Emotional attachment 261 7.2.2 Functional attachment 266 7.2.3 Place satisfaction 268 7.2.3.1 Accessibility and Legibility 269 7.2.3.2 Diversity and Vitality 271 7.2.3.3 Feeling comfortable 272 7.3 IDENTITY OF PLACE 278 7.4 SOCIAL BONDING 286 7.4.1 Demographics change 287 7.4.2 Safety concerns 288 7.5 CONCLUSIONS 291 CHAPTER (8): CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------