No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The aim of this research is to investigate meanings and concepts of children's drawings from cultural and gender perspectives using appropriate qualitative techniques and methods for interpreting drawing. This thesis discusses how children's concepts and preferences may differ from adults' thinking and planning. The study starts with a discussion of various issues of relating to children and urban planning and design in Johore Bahru, Malaysia. This is followed by a review of the psychology of children's drawings; the use of children's drawings in environmental research; the provision for and children's use of urban environments, and the state of Johore Bahru's urban environmental planning. Through the literature review, this research studies "Western" models from interdisciplinary perspectives. The children's drawings were used as a research tool to reveal their concepts of home landscape and activities they preferred in an ideal residential neighbourhood environment. Data from questionnaires and essays were used to check evidence found in drawings. In all, 114 Malay, Chinese and Indian children from seven primary schools in urban Johore Bahru completed the tasks. The findings of qualitative content analysis and interpretation of drawings showed similarities and differences across cultures and genders in environmental concepts and preferences which may indicate shortcomings in current urban planning. Children's drawings provide valuable information on the development of children's environmental concepts and preferences of ideal home landscape. The concepts are represented in the form of diverse, safe, colourful and accessible naturalistic environments for exploration, learning, play and socialising with peers. This finding will help future research projects by providing information indicating issues and problems in provision of open spaces within the urban planning system. The thesis concludes with a critical commentary on the likely use of children's drawing as research tool, children's environmental needs and preferences, together with the possibility of child participation in decision making, planning and design process within the urban planning system in Malaysia.

The term ‘diasporic urbanism’ addresses the difficulties of operating with diasporic space and of accommodating the material complexities of migrant lives. It proposes displacement and reterritorialisations as methodologies and ‘mapping otherwise’ as a tool for representing and working with migrant spatialities. Diasporic space is theorised as a relational space, whilst diasporic subjectivity is described as ‘nomadic consciousness’. The politics of the diaspora are addressed through the need to accommodate conflict (Mouffe) and through introducing ‘things’ and ‘matters of concern’ (Latour) into the democratic relationship. These concepts were tested in practice through my research which focuses examples of diasporic agencies in the everyday. From the Turkish and Kurdish kahve to a street whose physicality forces a certain visibility on to those who traverse it, to a park in East London that through being claimed by one diasporic group has come to symbolise wider notions of political representation. The mapping of these particular spaces has addressed the question: within the networked, global condition of the migrant, what objects, subjects and processes can play the role of mediation and translation that is required between ‘here and there’, or between the layers of this multiple subject? The need for such approaches is apparent in the increasing diversity of European cities. The everyday geographies of people’s lives can easily lose themselves in the enormity of the questions and the complexities of the issues surrounding migration. Yet, it is exactly the specificity of individual lives, the way that geo-political borders and territories inscribe themselves onto the intimate topology of migrant and diasporic bodies, half-here and half-there, that is so difficult to account for. This then is the challenge set down for ‘diasporic urbanism’—how to make the conditions necessary for those other than the privileged to participate in the imagining of our cities.

No description available.

No description available.

Due to the recent - and rather rapid - developments in Saudi Arabia, there is a serious lack of understanding and appreciation of the cultural landscape. This research discusses and develops a method of evaluating and understanding the cultural landscape in Saudi Arabia, based on the indigenous usage of the environment. The initial cause for this study is the conflict that emerged between new imported planning systems - brought about by the process of 'modernization' - and the culture and behaviour of the natives of Arabia. The major aim was to look at the problem from a different perspective, that of a native, towards the establishment of a more culturally-authentic model. In order to achieve the goals of this thesis, a series of studies were undertaken: first, the theoretical background related to the main issues of this study is reviewed and the issues defined according to Saudi Arabian beliefs, values and way of life. This is followed by the evaluation of a selected case-study - the 'Asir region as a potential cultural landscape site - through the course of its development. To conclude, a number of recommendations are put forward for the use of native landscape architects, environmental-preservation agencies, managers and policy makers as a planning tool. This reseach is mainly concerned with a very particular field of landscape architecture; that of cultural landscape. Accordingly, the organization of the research is aimed at handling a gradual introduction to the subject of cultural landscape as represented in chapter one. It discusses the problem as dealt with in the research, the aims and the reasons for selecting 'Asir region as a case-study and so forth. It also deals with one of the main models of cultural landscape assessment - Melnick's model - as a preliminary step towards identifying available assessment models and planning tools for the use of this research.

The thesis describes an investigation of the hypothesis that a number of characteristics of planning and design in Jeddah's recent villa and apartment developments violate established <i>shar=i'ah</i> principles and support socio-cultural consequences which conflict with Islamic tradition. To test this hypothesis, the principles established by the tradition of Islam to govern the social and physical environments of Muslims are analysed. The upholding or violation of these principles is then examined against the planning and design characteristics at the various scales - urban, neighbourhood, and house - of Jeddah's modern housing. The results support the hypothesis. In the course of the study, a set of matrices is constructed to link the degree of violation of principles at the various scales to the degree of obligation associated with each principle. These matrices are based on an analysis of traditional Islamic principles derived from basic <i>shar=i'ah</i> sources, such as the Qur'an and <i>sunnah</i>, and of the factors observed to violate them derived from the general conditions of a recent housing in Jeddah. Their validity as an operational tool for evaluating housing environments is tested for using two case studies of existing housing schemes. The outcome of these tests supports the validity of the matrices and their potential usefulness as an operational tool. Suggestions are made about the development, simplification and further testing of the matrices to enhance their practicality as a general tool for the evaluation of existing and proposed housing. In order to place the research in context, some background is given on <i>shar=i'ah</i> and its sources. The stand of Islam on modernity is explored and the process of the Saudi modernisation that has led to the emergence of Jeddah's new housing form is described.

The majority of city centres in Saudi Arabia were developed on what used to form the old cities. These centres lost through the cities development stages their dominance as most of their activities migrated and dispersed to the new sectors of the cities. The city of Arriyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, faced an exceptionally fast development. Consequently, most of the activities were decentralised from the city core, the Justice Palace District (JPD), causing it to fall into disrepair. Only limited commercial and administrative functions remained in the JPD maintaining it as the city's traditional heart. Despite the conditions of the JPD, the government insisted on continuing its presence there. The government has started major developments to assure its intentions to rejuvenate the area. However, the development of the JPD private areas is the challenging and critical part of the rejuvenation process. The private areas cover about 60% of the area with a complex ownership pattern. Chapter 1 of the thesis gives a historical background of the city. It addresses the special religious motivations in the central part of Saudi Arabia reviewing the different Islamic schools of thought. It then reviews the evolution of the Islamic City and discusses its traditional form and its main features. From there it presents the traditional urban fabric of the city of Arriyadh and the factors that shaped it. It emphasises the effect of religion on the Islamic City comparing Arriyadh with the city of Ghardaia in Algeria. The chapter finally discusses the status of the history of Arriyadh. The chapter aims to help understand the forces that governed the development of the city and to provide a feeling of the atmospheres in which political decisions are made to direct the future of the city. Chapter 2 reviews the development of a modern government structure in Saudi Arabia. It also addresses the development of planning in the Kingdom and the city of Arriyadh. It emphasises the role of the High Commission for the Development of the City of Arriyadh, the city's planning authority. After a review of Arriyadh Master Plans, the second chapter evaluates the status of planning in Saudi Arabia emphasising its distinct system. The chapter finally reviews the urban development phases of the city and its existing conditions.