Planning & designing for rapidly urbanising cities Ecobuild, London Dr Kayvan Karimi Architectural & urban designer

Planning & designing for rapidly urbanising cities Ideas & tools for spatial sustainability Dr Kayvan Karimi Architectural & urban designer Ecobuild, London 5th March 2009

Global accessibility

How is increased global accessibility manifesting itself physically & spatially in the form of our cities? What are the costs associated with it? How can the shortcomings of over-global accessibility be addressed? In doing so, what are the likely benefits: socially, economically & environmentally? Presentation themes

الرؤية تراث تاريخي عريق Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Historic centre, late 1940s

51 km Jeddah Today - rapid urban expansion

Suppressed movement economy. Enhanced movement economy. Main street, mixing global & local movement. Fast highways, separating global & local movement. The cost of access Fast highways not “Main Streets”

Modern planning Zoned land uses, creating longer journeys Historic planning Mixed land uses, minimising journey lengths The cost of access The zoning of land uses

Suppressed movement economy. Enhanced movement economy. Urban building, active frontage, street dependent. Anti-urban building, blank frontage, car dependent. The cost of access Anti-urban buildings

Main street with urban buildings, active frontages, mixing global & local movement. Enhanced movement economy. Fast highway with anti-urban buildings, blank frontages, separating global & local movement.. Suppressed movement economy. Summary Urbanism has been replaced by transport

The separation of local communties, land uses & individual buildings has created the “commuting society” and, with it, very significant costs on time, energy & health. The loss of local movement economies has social and economic, as well as environmental, costs in terms of property crime, personal attack & social isolation. The costs of imbalanced accessibility

The quest for access pervades Highways Planning, Town Planning & Architecture. These are the disciplines that manifest social, economic & environmental policy in physical and spatial form. This is where the disconnect between policy aspiration and practical delivery occurs. Led by UKplc on an international stage. Global access - systemic pervasion

Urban movement is a balance between movement at different scales: local as well as global movement. It is about multi-scale activity transacting within a common set of spaces. This is the process of economic & social trade that gives cities their purpose. Modern cities have lost the balance between global and local and become too oriented towards large-scale movement. Objective - balanced accessibility

We must not stop thinking globally. But, most importantly, we must remember the middle ground. We must continue to think locally. Objective - balanced accessibility

We must not stop thinking globally. But, most importantly, we must remember the middle ground. We must continue to think locally. Objective - balanced accessibility

Macro Meso Micro Objective - balanced accessibility

الرؤية تراث تاريخي عريق Jeddah Global location

التحديات معاناة المشاة Jeddah Weaknesses

The old Jeddah Plan More highways, more local sevarance New plan, following Space Syntax’s advice

Old local plan The initial city plan proposed the construction of more urban motorways, cloverleaf junctions, flyovers and tunnels. The result: further separation between global and local movement a single, north-south, highly congested commuting spine. Centre-less suburbs The old Jeddah Plan Over global, unsustainable

Party walls Privacy/shading screens Continuous facades Shading structures/ privacy screen Shared surface/ Pedestrian priority Building height ranges Vertical land use distribution Accessible roof space Plot coverage ranges On street parking Infrastructure routed below parking areas Active frontages Ground floor setback for shade Overlooking uses Floor to floor heights Plot widths The new Jeddah Plan Recreating the art of street-building

Jeddah Planning Code Primary boulevards

The new Jeddah Plan Urban movement hierarchy Macro Meso Micro

Old local plan The Jeddah Plan Creation of a local movement economy Space Syntax’s produced a new plan, based on re-creating Jeddah’s main streets and building new public spaces. The result: a network of urban boulevards, with all movement at-grade, allowing transaction between global and local activity. Urban & suburban centres

Jeddah Central Urban Area Development of vibrant, mixed-use sustainable communities الأفكار الرئيسية وسط مدينة متنوع الاستخدامات يلائم جميع فئات المجتمع بشكل مستمر City Area Local Neighbourhood District Area 200m 2,000m 600m Primary Care Friday Mosque Eid Mosque College Police Station High School Local Clinic Shops School 1,000m Mosque Femalework Female club

The Jeddah Plan Creation of a local movement economy

Elephant & Castle

Elephant & Castle Strategic location

Elephant & Castle Area layout framework

Elephant & Castle Proof of concept – linkage modelling

Elephant & Castle Civic Square

Elephant & Castle Southern Crossing

Elephant & Castle Southern Crossing

Urban movement is a balance between movement at different scales: local as well as global movement. It is about multi-scale activity transacting within a common set of spaces. Modern cities have lost the balance and become too oriented towards large-scale movement. New urban planning should be about rebalancing places towards local movement. Summary - balanced accessibility

Dr Kayvan Karimi Director Space Syntax k.karimi@spacesyntax.com www.spacesyntax.com