Samaa Badawi
Mansoura University, Department of Architecture, Faculty Member
The urban qualities of historic streets enhance the place's vitality and provide people with a memorable urban experience. However, rapid urbanization has resulted in the loss of distinctive urban characteristics. Conservation processes,... more
The urban qualities of historic streets enhance the place's vitality and provide people with a memorable urban experience. However, rapid urbanization has resulted in the loss of distinctive urban characteristics. Conservation processes, meanwhile, have a main role in enhancing urban qualities regarding the community's experiences. This study aims to investigate how conservation policies and practices have contributed to the vitality and enhanced the users' experience at the Al-Balad Historical streets in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study combines the results of qualitative and quantitative methods, using the (Measuring Urban Qualities) technique, GIS Pro.2.8 software, and a users' survey. The results reveal that the historic Al-Balad streets have significant potential to improve the quality of urban experience. In contrast, conservation policies, although recognizing the urban environment as a main component of current practice, have not targeted qualitative urban improvement. In this regard, the evidence suggests that it is imperative to prioritize the conservation of historic streets if the future conservation of the Al-Balad historic site is to improve the user's perception when visiting the historic area.
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Saudi Arabia is one of the emerging economies that have great ambitions to transform its cities into smart ones. In line with the Saudi Vision 2030 objectives, Saudi authorities planned to start the implementation of the smart city... more
Saudi Arabia is one of the emerging economies that have great ambitions to transform its cities into smart ones. In line with the Saudi Vision 2030 objectives, Saudi authorities planned to start the implementation of the smart city project in 10 cities across the Kingdom. By 2020, this initiative will have targeted five Saudi cities, Makkah, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Madinah, and Al-Ahsa, respectively. This chapter reviews and assesses the smart city practices in Saudi Arabia with respect to the six dimensions of the smart city concept, with a focus on the five cities that started the implementation to address the question if and to what extent the Saudi vision reflects the smart city concept and dimensions The findings suggest that the Kingdom has a clear vision of how to manage the transformation of these cities into smart cities, while at the same ensuring that each of them retains its specificity.
The growing complexity in environmental degradation requires a serious action for adopting sustainable initiatives in the different institutions design and operation. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is the most... more
The growing complexity in environmental degradation requires a serious action for adopting sustainable initiatives in the different institutions design and operation. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is the most widely used green building rating system in the world that helps institutions to evaluate their current sustainable performance, and provides a concise guidance for identifying and implementing practical and measurable solutions. One of the important challenges to achieve sustainability, especially in hot dry climate region, such as Jeddah city, KSA, is the urban heat island effect that contributes to energy consumption. Effat University, Jeddah is striving towards convoying the sustainable trends in developing and designing its campus, in the light of Saudi 2030 vision, which targets reducing energy consumption. This research contributes to the knowledge of rating sustainability through measuring the level of sustainability at Effat University Campus w...
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Private cars contribute heavily to air pollution and significantly lower air quality in cities. The number of deaths because of pollution and car accidents is increasing on a global level; therefore, achieving sustainable mobility in... more
Private cars contribute heavily to air pollution and significantly lower air quality in cities. The number of deaths because of pollution and car accidents is increasing on a global level; therefore, achieving sustainable mobility in urban areas is essential. Hence, the transformation into a car-free model is not a marginal issue but rather a crucial need that should be a global trend. The biggest challenge in this transforming process is to minimize the dependency on private cars. This chapter reviews thoroughly some global practices of inspiring models of transforming into car-free cities around the world. This review aims to identify the success measures for the transformation of a car-free city through investigating the challenges that affected the adoption of the transformation process. This would potentially guide governments and policymakers to select the approach that copes effectively with the cultural, social, geographical, and economic characteristics of their countries.
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There is a considerable amount of interest among scholars and urban designers in assessing and fulfilling a shared desire for happiness that is expressed by users of open spaces. The scope of this paper is limited to user experience in a... more
There is a considerable amount of interest among scholars and urban designers in assessing and fulfilling a shared desire for happiness that is expressed by users of open spaces. The scope of this paper is limited to user experience in a university campus, and considerations around the impact of the setting and design of existing open spaces on stimulating positive feelings and happiness in students, and enhancing the all-round educational experience. The study is limited to young female students at the Effat University campus, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jeddah City. This paper aims to assess the students' level of happiness on a university campus by examining the impact of the open spaces design and setting on the students. A cognitive map analysis is used to investigate the students' emotional experience of the open spaces on campus. Also, a questionnaire is used to investigate the students' preferable open spaces and the reasons for their preferences, which valid...
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Since ancient times, art played a significant role in people's life. It fulfills their spiritual needs and represents their culture. Art is a powerful tool for shaping the spirits, minds, morality, and emotions of people. As with any... more
Since ancient times, art played a significant role in people's life. It fulfills their spiritual needs and represents their culture. Art is a powerful tool for shaping the spirits, minds, morality, and emotions of people. As with any other aspect of life, art has its periods of prosperity and crumble. Before, public art had been represented in art pieces displayed at museums, but then, the meaning extended to art in outdoor spaces. The scope of this research is public art installed in open spaces. The main aim of the study is to shed light on the lost role of public art in Egyptian cities in shaping the cultural and social life to help fighting this phenomenon and reviving the role of art in the community. The research revealed that the absence of having a comprehensive plan that controls the construction and installation of art pieces in open spaces and the ignorance of the artists' role in the community are the most important reasons behind the problem of randomness of art in public spaces.
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In the last century the rules governing land uses appeared, the first of these rules were the Housing laws of America in 1901, after that these laws were developed and were known as" Zoning Codes" which controlled land uses. Despite the... more
In the last century the rules governing land uses appeared, the first of these rules were the Housing laws of America in 1901, after that these laws were developed and were known as" Zoning Codes" which controlled land uses. Despite the success of these codes in solving many problems it created other problems such as the urban deformation, loss of identity, loss of social relationships, segregation between land uses, difficulty of movement. These challenges must be overcame for creating sustainable urbanism, but the zoning codes could not solve them so there is a need to search for innovative rules. At this point the "Form Based Code" appeared as a legislative tool which organizes urbanism in order to create sustainable urbanism. The research sheds the light on the form based code. The research aims to define the extent to which the concepts of form based code have been realized in the reality of downtown Mansoura as an example of the Egyptian cities. This can be a guide for future development plans, which helps in defining what concepts must be focused on. The research defines the sustainable urbanism, the form based code and explains the local area of the study. The conclusion of this research reveals that there is a poor existence for some concepts of the code, and there is a great absence of most of them which causes many of architectural and urban problems ending up with the creation of a non-sustainable environment. From here there is a need to support the concepts which have poor existence to be realized fully, and search for the reasons of why other concepts were not realized, and search for ways to achieve them.
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Due to the economic boom in the Saudi kingdom during the seventies, the urban area of the economic capital of the kingdom and its historic main port were subject to a lot of modifications and expansions. Later, during the eighties, the... more
Due to the economic boom in the Saudi kingdom during the seventies, the urban area of the economic capital of the kingdom and its historic main port were subject to a lot of modifications and expansions. Later, during the eighties, the city expanded dramatically to the north and the old city was deserted. During the nineties, preservation and conservation strategies were implemented to maintain the city's culture and heritage. Since then, governmental and civil society organisations have been engaged in maintaining and conserving the historic once-gated old city, known these days as Al-Balad District. Moreover, successful efforts have been made by the Saudi authorities to register the vast majority of the remains of this historic area as human race heritage through the United Nations Educational , Scientific and Culture Organization (UNICCO). Through this, practitioners and researchers spent a lot of effort in developing and adopting strategies and policies to revive and preserve this heritage urban area. This research, as part of these efforts, aims to evaluate the applied urban conservation strategies and policies for Al-Balad District, to test their success in preserving the heritage while maintaining socio-physical, socio-cultural, and environmental aspects of the local community. To do this, benchmark case studies for developing and conserving historic urban areas were analysed and compared to the applied strategies. The research concludes with recommended policies to achieve the most sustainable conservation strategies in this valuable area that will fulfil the recent needs of the local community.
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Streets are the most important element of the urban environment. They are where people go to work, walk and engage in social activities. Streets represent a significant component of users' mental image of their cities. Designing streets... more
Streets are the most important element of the urban environment. They are where people go to work, walk and engage in social activities. Streets represent a significant component of users' mental image of their cities. Designing streets to encourage walkability is a major topic in urban design discourse. Studies show that enhancing the urban environment may encourage walkability, especially in streets designed and built for cars. Many researchers have considered how to provide users with such memorable experiences. However, most studies have mainly evaluated gross qualities, such as neighborhood density, street connectivity, and the distance to parks. Individually, such gross qualities may not explain much about the experience of walking down a particular street. Specifically, they do not capture people’s overall perceptions of the street environment. Other urban studies point to subtler qualities that affect the perception of users and influence walkability, including “Imageability- Enclosure, and others". This research used a technique developed by The Active Living Research Program to study and evaluate five urban qualities in five mixed-use streets in the city of Jeddah.
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Throughout the history, the city of Jeddah acted as a main gate to the Holy cities, starting specifically in the era of the third Muslim Caliph Othman Bin Affan in 647 AC, when he ordered the city to be a port to welcome pilgrims coming... more
Throughout the history, the city of Jeddah acted as a main gate to the Holy cities, starting specifically in the era of the third Muslim Caliph Othman Bin Affan in 647 AC, when he ordered the city to be a port to welcome pilgrims coming for the Holy Pilgrimage. Since then and till now the city plays an important role as a main gateway. Regarding this importance many plans, initiatives and researches are being developed to enhance the city role to cope with potential challenges and requirements, especially focusing on renovating the city center and its connection with the city gates. Insights into gateways sustainable developments, demonstrates that Jeddah city incentives smart growth approach in terms of its important geographical location, heritage importance as well as connectivity to the Holy cities. This highlights the importance of elaborate urban management processes in terms of city future expansions, public activities as well as major functions including economic and business, knowledge, transport. A study of main urban solutions to support policy decisions strengthening sustainable smart growth of the Jeddah city. The methodology adopted in the research is focusing on presenting expected improvements on Jeddah master plan as well as adopted strategies in order to improve the liveability and quality of life in a community public activities. Explicit Contextual proposal is demonstrated to stimulate the regeneration of Jeddah gate arising from the city core centre area towards city's existing boundaries while diversifying activities and supporting economic growth, highlighting road networking and accessibility as well as transport infrastructures. The research presents sustainable scenario to maximize Jeddah Gateway potentials related to economic, cultural importance, in addition to maintaining its heritage and touristic approach.
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Building Information Modeling provides a solid ground for historical areas documentation, where a virtual experience of historic buildings is digitally constructed in order to maintain the built environment through its entire lifecycle.... more
Building Information Modeling provides a solid ground for historical areas documentation, where a virtual experience of historic buildings is digitally constructed in order to maintain the built environment through its entire lifecycle. Jeddah Old Balad area, especially "Old Hajj Road", is considered to be the core of heritage preservation. Therefore, this paper elaborates on a platform demonstrating the potential of combining big data for main corridor in Old Balad by using GIS server; In addition to people reflections within outdoor spaces via smart sensors while experiencing the variety of urban features of the area. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to give an overview of people responsiveness, as well as surveying and representation of spacious data in order to support the process of further integration between HBIM and GIS tools to maximize the use of built heritage resources used for creating, conserving, documenting, and managing information which has a great impact on touristic and commercial activities within the case of Qabel Street. The study aims to strengthen the relation between sustainable developments in this area within the explicit constraints of architectural heritage preservation.
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It could be claimed that children have a wealth of knowledge and experience regarding their school's buildings and open spaces, as they regularly spend a considerable amount of time interacting with their classmates in classes,... more
It could be claimed that children have a wealth of knowledge and experience regarding their school's buildings and open spaces, as they regularly spend a considerable amount of time interacting with their classmates in classes, playgrounds, libraries, and drama stage i. At a young age, children are susceptible to the spatial environment of their school, which may have a significant effect on their minds and perceptions, feelings, and attitudes towards school and education ii. Therefore, building better spatial environments that interact positively with young students could potentially lead to better-quality educational experiences iii. In this regard, an attractive design can help young students to create a sensory link with the school and its different areas, which therefore will increase students' interest in studying and other related activities, and make them prepared for learning and development across physical, cognitive, emotional, moral and spiritual aspects iv. The area of promoting an effective educational environment has attracted many scholars. However, they used to refer to the educational environment in abstract, behavioral, psychological, or connotative terms while neglecting the implications of the built environment of the school design. Factors such as building age, size, and condition, quality of maintenance, temperature, air quality, natural lighting, noise, and color can affect students' health, safety, sense of self, and psychological state. The built environment that considers these essential factors has the potential to make the school a more likable place for children and promote the time quality they spend there v. The current study's main objective is to assess the students' experiences in two different built environments of the elementary school to find how embedding open spaces in the built environment in the elementary school can affect students' perception of their school. The aim is to investigate the connection between healthy mindsets and open spaces through a cognitive approach. Investigating this connection could potentially help to determine what practical changes could be made to school design to improve mental wellbeing. Two case studies of elementary schools from Jeddah city, KSA are investigated. The two schools are significantly different in terms of the spatial environment. The cognitive mapping of students as users of education spaces are used to explore the students' perceptual patterns set in the relationship between the spatial elements and cognitive maps.
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The growing complexity in environmental degradation requires a serious action for adopting sustainable initiatives in the different institutions design and operation. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is the most... more
The growing complexity in environmental degradation requires a serious action for adopting sustainable initiatives in the different institutions design and operation. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is the most widely used green building rating system in the world that helps institutions to evaluate their current sustainable performance, and provides a concise guidance for identifying and implementing practical and measurable solutions. One of the important challenges to achieve sustainability, especially in hot dry climate region, such as Jeddah city, KSA, is the urban heat island effect that contributes to energy consumption. Effat University, Jeddah is striving towards convoying the sustainable trends in developing and designing its campus, in the light of Saudi 2030 vision, which targets reducing energy consumption. This research contributes to the knowledge of rating sustainability through measuring the level of sustainability at Effat University Campus with reference to the LEED v4 rating system (Operation and Maintenance). The research focuses on site selection category, Heat Island Reduction Credit, Option 1 Non-roof Surfaces. This was carried on through quantitative methodology that based on surveying the university campus landscape elements and materials, and interviewing maintenance key persons. The results of this research would potentially help Effat University to improve the campus environmental and energy performance through recommending a set of evidence-driven actions that can help in reducing heat island effect and enhance the efficiency of the university landscape sitting and material. This would also help in moving Effat University one-step forward to develop a green campus and being LEED Certified.
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تطور مفهوم التنمية المستدامة ليشمل البعد الاجتماعي منذ بداية الثمانينات فأصبحت التنمية المستدامة بمفهومها الشامل "البيئي، الاقتصادي، الاجتماعي" ضرورة حتمية فرضت نفسها علي الواقع العالمي لتحقيق تنمية أكثر توازنا، ومن هنا قامت العديد من... more
تطور مفهوم التنمية المستدامة ليشمل البعد الاجتماعي منذ بداية الثمانينات فأصبحت التنمية المستدامة بمفهومها الشامل "البيئي، الاقتصادي، الاجتماعي" ضرورة حتمية فرضت نفسها علي الواقع العالمي لتحقيق تنمية أكثر توازنا، ومن هنا قامت العديد من الدول بمحاولات لتحقيق الاستدامة الاجتماعية بمبادئها المختلفة في عمرانها، لذلك يقوم البحث بعرض مجموعة من التجارب العالمية والتي تهدف لتحقيق الاستدامة الاجتماعية في العمران والهدف من ذلك هو الخروج بمجموعة من المؤشرات وأدوات تحقيق هذه المبادئ لكي يتم مقارنتها بالمبادئ الاجتماعية المؤثرة على العمران الإسلامي ومن ثم الخروج بمجموعة من المبادئ المشتركة يتم اختبار مدى تحققها في تخطيط وتصميم دراسة الحالة المحلية وهي مدينة دمياط الجديدة، ومعرفة مدى قبول المجتمع المحلي لهذه المبادئ، والخروج بمجموعة من أدوات تحقيق هذه المبادئ والتي تتفق مع طبيعة المجتمع المحلي.
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Big Data has recently become a common term. Its applications penetrate every field from business and healthcare to education. Many of Big Data techniques are used to enhance the educational process through its different stages starting... more
Big Data has recently become a common term. Its applications penetrate every field from business and healthcare to education. Many of Big Data techniques are used to enhance the educational process through its different stages starting from the early stage and ending with the evaluation stage. In order to ensure the quality of learning process, keeping communication channels between students and their teachers open is an essential pillar. Big Data provides various techniques to support such channels. This research shows how the results of the course evaluation, which is one of the Big Data application systems, are the basic incentive to develop teaching strategy. The research compares between two different teaching strategies applied in two successive semesters based on the feedback received from the students. An obvious enhancement occurred in the students' performance after changing the teaching method. This indicates the importance of impeding Big Data techniques in teaching process development.
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There is a considerable amount of interest among scholars and urban designers in assessing and fulfilling a shared desire for happiness that is expressed by users of open spaces. The scope of this paper is limited to user experience in a... more
There is a considerable amount of interest among scholars and urban designers in assessing and fulfilling a shared desire for happiness that is expressed by users of open spaces. The scope of this paper is limited to user experience in a university campus, and considerations around the impact of the setting and design of existing open spaces on stimulating positive feelings and happiness in students, and enhancing the all-round educational experience. The study is limited to young female students at the Effat University campus, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jeddah City. This paper aims to assess the students' level of happiness on a university campus by examining the impact of the open spaces design and setting on the students. A cognitive map analysis is used to investigate the students' emotional experience of the open spaces on campus. Also, a questionnaire is used to investigate the students' preferable open spaces and the reasons for their preferences, which validate the results. The results showed that due to social and environmental conditions some decisions need to be made in response to outdoor temperatures and the spaces' settings in order to improve their design and make a significant positive impact on students' happiness. In addition, this could potentially result in a happier, healthier, and more efficient educational environment overall.
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Streets are the spine of cities. They connect places; provide access of movement. In addition, they act as open spaces for people to gather and enjoy. Unfortunately, nowadays the role of streets as open spaces has been ignored. Due to... more
Streets are the spine of cities. They connect places; provide access of movement. In addition, they act as open spaces for people to gather and enjoy. Unfortunately, nowadays the role of streets as open spaces has been ignored. Due to designing streets to be car oriented without safe zone for people, trespassing pedestrians' space by being used as parking or an extension of shops displaying zone. As a result, streets became unfriendly places for people. This happened for many reasons; one of them is the absence of regulations or the violation of laws or even the ignorance of creating appropriate regulations organizing the space of pedestrians. By realizing that, designing streets to be pedestrian friendly space is a basic pillar for sustainable communities. Many urban movements tried to find solutions to transform streets into attractive spaces. One of those movements is new urbanism. It suggested that the use of comprehensive, clear and easy to apply legislations would help achieving this goal. This comprehensive regulation is Form-Based Code. Therefore, the research aims to investigate the urban form of Port Saied Street, which affected by the current regulations and propose a Form-Based Code framework that deals with the current regulations shortcomings to transform the street into a model of attractive space.
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Each country all over the world has a history and a heritage which give this country its own identity and character and make each place a unique and differs from others. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as all Arabian countries has a rich... more
Each country all over the world has a history and a heritage which give this country its own identity and character and make each place a unique and differs from others. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as all Arabian countries has a rich history which inherited urban and architectural heritage deserves conservation for the coming generation. Conserving heritage has been one of the key principles of sustainability and sustainable urban and architectural movements. The efforts in the field of Historic conservation are in a continuous increase all over the world. One of the new trends in the field of conservation is the use of form based code. Form based code is a legislative tool for organizing the relationship between buildings and spaces in the urban environment. It was made by the pioneers of new urbanism in 1987 in the United States of America and since then it has been used in various projects inside and outside USA with varied scales from the design of a single building to the design of a whole community. So the main aim of this research is to provide a method to utilize form based code in the historic conservation of Khouzam Palace in Jeddah K.S.A. to be as an exemplary for using the code to conserve other historic buildings and areas. The research will display similar case studies for utilizing form based code in conservation and after that the research will suggest a guidelines for making a form based code designed for conserving Khouzam palace and it"s surrounding.
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Designing streets as successful public spaces represents the spine of all sustainable urban movements. As a part of the continuing efforts of Saudi Arabia in the field of urban development; the research aims to investigate one of the... more
Designing streets as successful public spaces represents the spine of all sustainable urban movements. As a part of the continuing efforts of Saudi Arabia in the field of urban development; the research aims to investigate one of the local streets of Jeddah city -Beit Al Maqdis Street- in terms of main functions and form of the surrounding buildings to identify problems and potentials of the street as a public space. The research will conclude in proposal for developing one of the mixed use streets in Jeddah, using sustainable streets’ strategies to be an exemplary model for sustainable, well-designed and pedestrian oriented streets.
For a long time streets provided people with public open spaces right outside their homes. They represent not only axis for movements but they are also places where people can stay in not just pass through. Of course the streets are... more
For a long time streets provided people with public open spaces right outside their homes. They represent not only axis for movements but they are also places where people can stay in not just pass through. Of course the streets are important as places for social interaction at all levels but they have a special importance when they represent part of the history and identity of the country. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as all Arabian countries has a rich history which inherited urban and architectural heritage distributed among its regions, and deserves conservation for the coming generation. One of these areas is old Jeddah district which represents the historic heart of the city and contains many distinctive streets, one of them is Qabel Street the local case study of the research. The efforts in the fields of Historic conservation and developing streets to make them spaces for different activities are in a continuous increase all over the world. One of the new trends in these fields is the use of form based code. Form based code is a legislative tool for organizing the relationship between buildings and spaces in the urban environment. It was made by the pioneers of new urbanism in 1987 in the United States of America and since then it has been used in various projects inside and outside USA with varied scales from the design of a single building to the design of a whole community.
So the main aim of this research is to provide a method to utilize form based code in developing and conserving one of the important historic streets in Jeddah K.S.A. "Qabel Street" to be as an exemplary for using the code in other projects with varied scales in the kingdom. The research will display similar case studies for utilizing form based code in conserving and developing streets and after that the research will suggest a guidelines for making a form based code designed for developing and conserving Kabel street and its surrounding.
So the main aim of this research is to provide a method to utilize form based code in developing and conserving one of the important historic streets in Jeddah K.S.A. "Qabel Street" to be as an exemplary for using the code in other projects with varied scales in the kingdom. The research will display similar case studies for utilizing form based code in conserving and developing streets and after that the research will suggest a guidelines for making a form based code designed for developing and conserving Kabel street and its surrounding.