ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE DE L’UNIVERSITE FRANÇOIS RABELAIS DE TOURS Spécialité Aménagement et environnement 35 allée Ferdinand de Lesseps 37200 TOURS, France Tél +33 (0)247.361.450 www.polytech-univ-tours.fr Master Thesis 2015 Research Master Planning and Sustainability: Urban and Regional Planning Public Spaces under Threat: Scenes from Amman KHAWAJA, Hadeel Prof. HAMDOUCH, Abdel-Illah Acknowledgment I would like to express my very great appreciation to the whole administrative committee of Polytech Tours- Planning Department, Région Centre and CITERES Research Laboratory for their assistance and financial support. Also, I would like to offer my special thanks to the director of the Research Master Planning and Sustainability Professor Hamdouch and the distinctive academic committee for sharing their valuable knowledge and experience throughout the academic year of the Master program, offering me the chance to improve my cognizance and promote my knowledge. This Master Thesis would not have been possible without the help, support and valuable guidance of my supervisor Professor Abdel-Illah Hamdouch, and to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude for his guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. Finally, I wish to offer my grateful thanks my dearest mother, brothers and sisters for their support and encouragement throughout my study, and to my beloved companion and comrade for his longanimity and constructive observations. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgment ...................................................................................................................... 1 List of Figures and Tables .......................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter One: Space 1.1 How to read a Space ...................................................................................................... 8 1.2 How to read Public Space ............................................................................................ 12 1.3 Public Space under Threat ........................................................................................... 17 Chapter Two: Introducing Amman 2.1 Amman, the City and the People ................................................................................ 23 2.2 The Production of Space and the Transformation to Neoliberal Developments .. ..... 31 Chapter Three: Scenes of Exploiting Amman Public Space 3.1 Squares and the Notion of Public Spheres and Democracy ....................................... 50 3.2 The Market Space and the Freedom of Accessibility .................................................. 55 3.3 The Paths and the Deflecting of Public Space ............................................................. 64 3.4 Public Parks and Privatizing the Public Space ............................................................. 73 Chapter Four: Experiencing Amman Public Space 4.1 The Perception of ‘True’ Public on Amman Public Spaces ......................................... 78 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 91 Notes ....................................................................................................................................... 93 References ............................................................................................................................... 98 2 List of Figures Chapter One Figure 1: Key words of the Triad Theories of Space Figure 2: Types of public Space Figure 3: Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution, Cairo, July 2013. Source: BBC news Figure 4: Tahrir Square in a normal day, Cairo, Nov 2013. Source: hamodia.com Figure 5: Sana’a market. Source: magx.com Figure 6: Marrakech market, source: thesun.com Figure 7: Damascus market. Source: atravelerslibrary.com Figure 8: Dubai downtown path Figure 9: Marrakesh downtown path Figure 10: Park in Masqat, Oman. Source: Omantalks.com Figure 11: Hara in Baghdad hosting a social activity during feast. Source: nytimes.com Figure 12: Hara in Cairo. Women, children and men share the space freely. Source: almasryalyoum.com Figure 13: Effect of each Space over one another. The characteristics of those spaces are explained in part one. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 14: the power of capitalism and the state on urban planners enforcing changes in the forms of public spaces to enhance full control on the social movements. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 15: The dual power of capitalism and the state over the market to insure wealth and power, through planning approaches, consumption life-style… etc. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 16: the dual power of capitalism and the state over urban planning approaches to attain real- estate profit, social segregation and power through planning approaches and public behaviour. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 17: Dense of beneficiaries in case of public or private landownership. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 18: the dual power of capitalism and the state to privatise the lands and seize the open and free accessibility to public lands and resources. Graphics: Khawaja Chapter Two Figure 19: Amman city in the early 1950's. Source: flicker.com Figure 20: Amman population from 1940- 2013. Data source: (Samha, 1996) and (DOS, 2013). Graphics: Khawaja Figure 21: Amman expansion according to satellite images and aerial photographs. Source: (Ababsa, 2013) Figure 22: Mapping social disparities in Amman. Source: (Ababsa, 2010) Figure 23: Map shows density of population per district, Data source: (DOS, 2013) and GAM, Graphics: Khawaja Figure 24: Density of population for the Capital district in Amman particularly. Data source: (DOS, 2013) and GAM, Graphics: Khawaja Figure 25: Zoning plans for the 4 types of the ordinary residential areas in Amman. Source: (Potter R., Darmame K., Barhamb N. & Nortcliff S., 2009). Approximate line between the ‘two Ammans’ is suggested by (Ababsa, 2010). Figure 26: Areas A, B and C in Amman Master Plan. Source: (GAM, Interim Growth Strategy (HDMU) Development Manual, 2007) Figure 27: Time line for the major investments taking place In Amman since the 21st Century. Data 3 Source: (Al-Faqih, 2009, pp. 135-146) Graphics: Khawaja Figure 28: The major mega projects taking place in Amman since the 2004. Graphic: Khawaja Figure 29: Abdali Psc current status; on-hold construction work for the towers. Source: (Abdali, 2004) Figure 30: Jordan Gate current status; the whole project is on-hold, cranes and building materials remain in the site. Source: (CCJO, 2011) Figure 31: The Living Wall Project, current status; the whole project is on-hold, massive excavation. Source: (googleMaps) Figure 32: Sanaya Amman Project, current status; the whole project is on-hold, massive excavation. Source: (M. Razem 2009) Figure 33: The Royal Village Project, current status; the whole project is on-hold, fenced lands. Source: Khawaja Figure 34: Proposal of Abdali Psc, Arial view. Source: (Abdali, 2004) Figure 35: Zoning Plan showing the proposed land use for Baytona project. Source (GAM, 2015) Figure 36: Baytona site and Mega Mall, constructions on-hold. Source: Khawaja Figure 37: Location map showing Amman Downtown, Abdali Psc and Baytona projects. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 38: Locations of HUDC Housing Compounds and the Gated Communities in Amman. Data Source: Projects Official website. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 39: Andalusia Project plot, Source (Taameer, 2005) Figure 40: Princess Iman Project Plot. Source (HUDC, 2014) Figure 41: The spaces producing a Gated Community. Graphics: Khawaja Chapter Three Figure 42: Illustration demonstrates examples of public, private and semi-public spaces within Amman urban fabric. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 43: Graphics by Nidal Khairi demonstrates the event of fencing the 4th circle in Amman in the 2012. The graphics says: “You fence a Circle, but You don’t fence ideas”. (Khairi, 2012) Figure 44: The six studied shopping malls are aligned on a 6.5 km spine with total population of 282,500 people (the population refers only to the areas each shopping mall belongs to). Population Data source: (DOS, 2014). Graphics: Khawaja Figure 45: Wakalat Street location, parking lots and the three shopping malls in the neighbourhood. Graphics: Khawaja Figure 46: Wakalat Street initial design presenting the lockouts. Source: (Aljafari, 2014) Figure 47: Wakalat Street under reconstructions, opening one lane for cars and removing all benches. Source: (Alghad newspaper, 2014) Figure 48: Major Street in East Amman. No sidewalks or street furniture. Source: Khawaja Figure 49: Major Street in West Amman. Availability of sidewalks and street furniture. Source: Khawaja Figure 50: Major Street in Elite-West Amman area. Well maintained sidewalks and street furniture. Source: Khawaja Figure 51: Comparison between Common Side-walk in East/west Amman successively. Source: Khawaja Figure 52: Examples of sidewalks within the same neighbourhood in west Amman demonstrating the mal maintenance, obstacles and individuality in design and construction materials. Source: Khawaja 4 Figure 53: Abdoun cable-stayed Bridge. The sidewalks are completely absent from the design and walking the bridge is risky. Source: Khawaja Figure 54: Bus waiting area in east Amman. Lacks Bus stop features; canopy, bench, signs... etc. Source: Khawaja Figure 55: Al Mahata bus terminal. Entrances