Case Study developed by UN Habitat’s Urban Lab (2022).

As an extension of the Buraidah City Profile, the demonstration project applied the UN-Habitat principles for sustainable neighbourhood planning, applicable to the Saudi context. One of the primary goals of the project was to demonstrate how to implement possible solutions for shifting urbanisation in Saudi to a sustainable development track, without adopting heterotopic models. Instead, it intends to develop locally rooted traditions and culture and the design components. Also, the project was developed alongside the Strategic Vision for Buraidah, tapping into the four strategic recommendations, and spatially analysing them at the neighbourhood scale. The project focused on the establishment of a comfortable urban environment with a variety of housing typologies and diverse public spaces, exemplifying a different approach to neighbourhood development, which includes contextual characters, local climate and cultural peculiarities, all the while meeting the needs for a more compact, integrated, inclusive, and sustainable urban development model.

Key actors and partners

The project was a part of the Future Saudi Cities Programme, a joint programme developed by the Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MoMRA) and UN-Habitat, implemented in close cooperation with the municipalities of 17 major Saudi cities.  The demonstration project served as a pragmatic explication of the integrated approach, that included feasibility studies, that should later be transformed into implementation plans. Such implementation plans are projected to be undertaken by the Ministry, in collaboration with other partners in the Kingdom.

In order to facilitate the programme development, a joint “FSCP Urban Lab” was created as a vehicle to strengthen endogenous capacities and to develop tailored tools, and instruments. The Lab, composed of international expertise from the planning, legal and economy branches of UN-Habitat Nairobi office, has been working with Saudi-based staff in the UN-Habitat Riyadh office to enhance knowledge exchange and to apply a “learning-by-doing” method.

Project Overview

The demonstration project targeted problematic issues that are widespread in the Saudi urban context, setting an example of how to address and respond to the challenges represented by urban sprawl and the monotonous urban environment typical for many Saudi cities. The project intended to set a positive reference model for neighbourhood planning in Saudi Arabia by focusing on a diversified housing offer, linked to public transport and to a variety of social and public facilities distributed within a consistent system of green networks, resulting in a mixed-use neighbourhood. In addition, the project contributed to an articulation of appropriate urban development models for planned city extensions in Saudi Arabia.

More specifically, the main project’s objectives were:

• Foster sustainable urban planning and design through adequate densification and mixed-use;

• Provide design solutions rooted in traditional culture and the local context;

• Provide an example of how urban design projects are generated; building on what is already existing on site (natural elements, landmarks, etc.);

• Provide an example of neighbourhood planning based on the three-pronged approach (design, legislation, and finance).

The project site is located in close proximity to the urban core of the city of Buraidah, giving an opportunity to demonstrate, through a practical example, how to implement densification and connectivity strategies, within the existing city. One of the goals of the demonstration project was to show how an accurate design approach can connect to the existing and proposed situation, becoming a tool for re-aligning the two, maintaining the linkages with an overall urban green network, system of green infrastructures and supporting the functional organization within the considered area (Fig. 1).

Urban sprawl in Buraidah is characterised by the emergence of low and medium density neighbourhoods, often referring to Doxiadis schemes, who developed urban design strategies, and guidelines for managing urban growth and change within the master plan for Riyadh, (undertaken between 1968 and 1972). That model provided a new neighbourhood development schemes that are based on modernistic, rational approaches, and are not particularly suitable for the context either climatically, socially, or culturally. The demonstration project attempted to combine some aspects of the regular modernistic schemes and vernacular urban pattern, bringing together the concepts of high-density and vibrant mixed-use neighbourhoods and to adapt the UN-Habitat’s five principles (UN-Habitat, 2014) to something comfortable and familiar to the local context (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3).

The guiding principle used in setting up the structural patterns for the new neighbourhood was a replication of some aspects characterising the typical patterns of the historic Islamic city in a contemporary fashion, from the initial thought process to the choice of associating pedestrian patterns with an articulated hierarchy of roads and the public transport system. As part of the structural elements, the project proposes a networked system of public spaces of various sizes, with different roles and characters. Most of the open green spaces, including the linear green pathways, were designed starting from the existing fragments of wetlands and residual patches of vegetation. The design of the public space network emerged from connecting and revitalising these scattered fragments, with the purpose of upgrading and reconnecting the neglected existing green infrastructure system, linking it to the overall system of public spaces along the main pedestrian avenues (Fig. 4).

In addition, the project explored how the Saudi concept of villas can be transformed into a typology that follows UN-Habitat’s recommended density levels, responding to the general need for densification, without disregarding cultural preferences. This design decision aimed at introducing a model for mixed-use urban fabric in residential areas (Fig.5 and Fig. 6).

As illustrated in Fig. 7 the land use distribution, the residential, and the commercial density, as well as the number of public services and facilities, are consistently higher in the demonstration project in comparison with the fragment of the current regular urban pattern, notwithstanding the higher quantity of open public and green spaces, indicating on the better performance of the vernacular urban pattern in terms of land use efficiency.

The intention of rooting the planning and design of the new neighbourhood in an ecosystemic approach was done by exploring the implementation methods of socio-ecological infrastructure at the neighbourhood scale, making use of green infrastructure, and nature-based solutions for improved climatic performance, as well as stormwater management, where possible. The project green spaces are designed to protect and restore the natural hydrology of the site, capturing stormwater through the use of engineered systems that mimic natural hydrologic ones, recharging the existing water table, and making possible the har-vesting and storing of excess rain and stormwater.

While the demonstration project was developed at the master plan feasibility study stage, some conceptual ideas are shown at the scale of the buildings. For example, as it is shown in Fig. 8, the rainwater collection systems are in fact thought as complementing the buildings, by installing rainwater collection tanks on the buildings’ rooftop. During the rainy season,  water should be collected in the water tanks, designed in a typical Islamic wind-catchers style. Collected water flows to a water-tank system hosted in a technical space underground through a special shaft. Water can then be pumped or re-leased (depending on the topography), to irrigate pedestrian vegetated alleys, public parks, gardens, and the adjacent internal courtyards. Internal courtyards can, in turn, generate a cool microclimate influencing the climactic performance of the buildings.

Process Overview

The project included economic and financial feasibility analysis of UN-Habitat’s proposal to test the viability of the demonstration project by simulating the various scenarios under different sets of assumptions and cost-recovery options that focused on alternative funding sources and private sector engagement through public-private partnerships. One of the goals of the project was to attract investment into real estate, provide guidance on urban development strategies, and show the value of sustainable urbanization that  attracts private sector. In addition, the study explored  fiscal instruments to ensure the capability of  public sector to collect sufficient revenue for the development of the project. As a result, the financial feasibility analysis tested different tax instruments (such as betterment levies, parking fees, and property taxes) that would improve the public sector’s ability to recover capital expenditures in addition to operation and maintenance costs. In general, the recommended policies aimed to:

• Identify own-source revenue potential based on an approach that integrates urban planning and municipal finance

• Estimate the impact of the demonstration project on land value in order to estimate revenue from land value capture own-source revenue mechanisms

• Introduce land value capture mechanisms as part of the annual municipal revenue stream. (e.g. Medellin, Colombia)

• Generate a diverse portfolio of income stream, implementing different fiscal instruments.

Results

Developed as a detailed component to the Buraidah City Profile, the project tapped into the Strategic Vision for the city and demonstrated how the conceptual strategies can be concretised into design guidelines and implementable projects. Following the four strategic recommendations, the project provided a detailed description of the conceptual strategies, including their interpretation and translation into specific neighbourhood design principles and recommendations to ensure sustainable implementation.

The recommendations provided in the feasibility study supported the introduction of the tax instruments which would significantly improve local government capacity and, ultimately, leading to the achievement of National Transformation Program. The demonstration project became a good practice among various practitioners  on how to adapt design principles, taking into account local characters, climate and cultural peculiarities.

Conclusion

Apart from being integrated into the city-wide development agendas and promoting spatial and environmental integration with the environment, the demonstration project provides an example of multi-sectoral approach, that includes design, legislation, and financial components. These three components aimed to be analyzed and considered simultaneously to ensure guidance for practical implementation and capacity to retrofit changes to the local implementation mechanisms (through development or revision of the design codes, development of the new normative products, etc.).  Such process facilitated inclusive participatory planning by providing a common ground (through technical workshops) for different professionals of different backgrounds to develop targeted and appropriate solutions contextualized to places, while taking into account technical and management capacity, local political strength and commitment, inclusiveness, and financial resources.