Do Villages' Shape Our Cities? Wafa AL-Ghatam University College
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Do Villages' Shape our Cities? Wafa AL-Ghatam University College London, UK. [email protected] Abstract It frequently occurs in the growth of cities that villages are absorbed into the fabric of that city. But what are the consequences of this? How far and how do these villages become part of the overall fabric of the city? How does this a®ect the village, and what is the e®ect on the wider city? These questions have been raised by geographers and social scientists in relation to the cities of Manama and Muharraq, \Have these small and big villages evolved to become no more than just settlements `implanted' in an environment that they have nothing to do with, from the economical or cultural angle?" (Jafar, 1975:320). Today, the urban expansion around or inside Bahrain villages has changed its structure;(Al-Najar, 1998). Fast urbanisation, especially if considered in the context of Bahrain's metropolitan growth, has considerably blurred the boundaries between urban, and village districts (see ¯g.290). However, it has not been discussed as a spatial question. The aim of this paper is to pose these questions in relation to the cities of Manama and Muharraq, by the methods of space syntax in order to try to clarify the spatial aspect of the processes described by the geographers and social scientists. Through the study of villages of real cases and the ability of space syntax we need to extract common `generic' themes of villages at macro and micro levels as well as the degree of their mechanism in the city. The outcome might be linked to di®erent levels of changes in the city growth process when studying the complexity of global patterns based on the spatial interaction of local units such as villages. This paper is divided into four parts: ² The ¯rst part is the quantitative analysis, which is based on 9 of these villages in Manama and Muharraq cities in 1998. The ¯rst measure lies upon the axial repre- sentation of space. It will be ¯rst applied to the main con¯guration of the villages' layouts within the city system - at a global level - trying to analyze the mechanism of the villages' spatial con¯guration in the part-whole relationship system? Are they segregated or integrated in the city? Are villages' spatial con¯gurations having a similar behaviour in the two cities? Secondly, this measure will be applied to the villages at the local level, which will benchmark these villages, in order to see how the villages' spatial con¯guration di®erentiates the local level from the global level? Thirdly, the study will merge both levels to see how the spatial factors common between the global level and local level play a role in segregating or integrating the villages into the city system? ² The second part represents the main core of this study in which we will try to answer the following questions: What are the spatial factors behind spatial segregation or integration of the villages in the city? Does the segregation or integration of the villages depend on the local level of the village's con¯guration, or on the global level 682 Wafa AL-Ghatam of the city's development/planning, or on both? The account will comment on: the axial lines of the urban grid surrounding the village, the axial system size of the village, where and how the urban grid surrounding the village is connected to it, and ¯nally the integration values of the urban grid axial line at a global level and the integration values of the villages at both levels; global and local. ² The third part consists of suggestion of constructing, through syntax analysis of the axial lines, a theoretical model to present the relationship between the city and the local area (as representation for the spatial of village). ² The ¯nal part discusses the results in the light of the previous questions and con- cludes with many questions that need further addressing in future studies. Part One 1. Bahrain's urban growth process The urban growth process in Manama and Muharraq, described by planning historian Dr. Mustapha Ben Hamouche (Ben Hamouche, 2004, p.530), outlines that by 1930s ex- tensions outside the old limits of Manama and Muharraq, were planned accordingly (Ben Hamouche, 2004, p. 528). The suburban zones, in Manama, were the ¯rst to accommodate gridiron road network (Mandeel, 1992, p.115). By 1954, old Manama already had become a small nucleus surrounded by vast modern quarters. A number of public mega-projects were launched in the early 1960s among which by were the two bridges linking Muharraq with Manama (1966 and 1985), the outer ring road (1983) and the new airport (1961). Simultaneously, a scheme for upgrading the old city was initiated and implemented in 1981. It consisted mainly of enlarging some selected streets that separated residential quarters, and improving mechanical accessibility due to the increase of car ownership. In parallel to the infra-structural projects, large public housing development projects were launched in the newly reclaimed land. In addition a new bridge was built between Manama and Muharraq in 1985. By 2000 central Manama is undergoing extensive urban development, featuring new banks, hotels, o±ces, and six- lane, divided highways on land reclaimed from the sea during the past 15 years. The fast urbanisation of Manama and Muharraq, especially if considered in the context of Bahrain's metropolitan growth, has considerably blurred the boundaries between urban, village and rural districts (Al-Najar, 1998). The urban expansion in Bahrain cities leads to the villages became as centres or parts of the cities (Jafar (edit), 1975). The next step is therefore to set out some detailed evidence of the sort of spatial changes that took place, using Manama and Muharraq villages as case studies to illustrate village's mechanism in the city. This study will examine the con¯guration of villages that have taken place in the city. It concentrates on the two levels of change from the global level of city spatial system to the local level of the villages' con¯guration, embedded in that system. Furthermore, it will look at how these two levels have relatively an impact on the villages' changes. 1.1. Global Level What is the mechanism of the villages' spatial con¯guration in the part-whole relationship system? Are they segregated or integrated in the city? Are there Spatial con¯gurations Do Villages' Shape our Cities? 683 Figure 290: ¯ve types models of the physical changes in Bahrain villages by (Al-Najar, 1998) from sociology study of Bahrain (The Sociological Society in Arabian Gulf Cities) 684 Wafa AL-Ghatam Figure 291: LEFT: Busaiteen Village in Local Level and Global Level a) Top image is for Busaiteen village in Muharraq IntRRad 7, 1998; b) Bottom Left image is Busaiteen Int Rn and Int R3 axial map; c) Bottom right is village with the urban grid axial linkage. RIGHT: Naim Village in Local Level and Global Level: a) Top image is for Naim village in Manama IntRRad 5, 1998; b) Bottom Left image is Naim Int Rn and Int R3 axial map; c) Bottom right is village with the urban grid axial linkage. having a similar behaviour in the two cities? This part starts by comparing the spatial structures and syntactical values in axial maps of the villages in the two cities at a Global Level (GL). The axial maps of Muharraq and Manama in 1998 were produce to study the spatial structure of the whole system of the cities. The Syntactical value of the villages in GL is de¯ned to compare di®erent spatial patterns in villages. The Synergy value which measures the degree of correlation between local integration (Mean Int. R3) and global integration (Mean Int Rn) across the villages provides a description of the topological position of the villages in the whole urban system. The Intelligibility value measures the predictability of the village into the entire system (Hillier, 1993), which is the degree of correlation between connectivity and global integration values (Int Rn). Figures 291, 292 & 294 show the Global Integration and Local Integration at the Global Level of the villages in Muharraq and Manama. These have not experienced the same degree of segregation or integration in the city system. There are villages having a high synergy and intelligibility values, others have a very low synergy and intelligibility and a third type exists that are in between these two. Table 34 shows all the syntactic measurements of the villages in GL. In Muharraq: Busaiteen village has the highest synergy (0.555) and intelligibility (0.349), then comes Galali whose synergy value is (0.371) and its intelligibility (0.309), then Semahej (synergy 0.279, intelligibility 0.213).and ¯nally Der (synergy 0.233, Intelli- Do Villages' Shape our Cities? 685 Table 34: Village syntactic values in Global Level (m = 5 in Manama, m = 7 in Muharraq) Village Village Synergy Intelligibility IntRn IntR3 Conn. IntRRadm name Axial system Naim 77 0.778 0.615 1.158 2.348 3.625 2.236 Mahooz 124 0.464 0.286 1.149 2.328 3.991 1.74 Helah 109 0.297 0.175 1.006 2.195 3.949 1.738 Je¯ar 104 0.293 0.172 0.969 2.19 3.622 1.595 Busaiteen 104 0.555 0.349 0.893 2.313 4.434 1.465 Arad 180 0.101 0.048 0.862 2.702 3.972 1.352 Galali 118 0.371 0.309 0.844 2.63 4.991 1.497 Semahej 150 0.279 0.213 0.74 2.301 4.027 1.359 Der 247 0.233 0.156 0.84 2.485 4.397 0.562 gibility 0.156).