Wafa AL-Ghatam studies the principles and constraints that govern the generation of built form and its social, cultural and economical functions. Her work includes the development methods and measures for the analysis of built space at the scale of buildings and urban areas. Her research explores the socio-economic implications of urban fabric of the villages absorbed by cities in Bahrain Supervisors: Bill Hillier and Alan Penn Address: Manama, Manama, Bahrain
This paper sets out to investigate the key spatial characteristics in the way the villages' space... more This paper sets out to investigate the key spatial characteristics in the way the villages' spaces are embedded in the urban context. The aim is to clarify how absorbed villages' layout of space related to the surrounding urban context? And does this spatial embedding pattern of the village within the surrounding urban context have a meaning? Are these absorbed villages part from the surrounding urban space in which to guide movement and make space intelligible to people or are they discrete space and out of sight? The tested hypothesis in this paper is that the absorbed village space will operate in at least at two distinct modes: one conservative and the other generative. The conservative mode will reduce the encounter between local space of the village and the surrounding context space in order to reproduce cultural patterns, therefore the configuration here is relatively localised and restrictive space. While the generative mode will maximise the encounter in order to optimise the material conditions of everyday life (Hillier, 1996), thus the arrangement of the village space is integrated locally and globally. The research used high-normalised integration and high-normalised choice (10%) measurement at different radius, besides their standard score of the mean and maximum values. This study, explore villages' spatial layout as independent variables and assess its consequences in terms of observable movement patterns and space used for spatial living. Thus, with the use of the outcomes of the first section as guiding hypothesis for the second, it is argued that if certain properties are shown to be critical in urban spatial patterning as dependent variables, then they may also be related to the way in which spatial layout acts as an independent variable. The study appear to be morphologically differentiated at local; radius. However, the combination of the local structure with a high degree of overlap within a global space network defines the nature of the village embedding within the whole urban system. This relation between the parts and the whole, and the relations of the parts themselves is that account for the configurational properties of space and the way in which society and culture are embedded in space. The main findings in this paper are: the absorbed villages with high pedestrian density, widely spread in the space, accommodate most of the synergy space pattern of the integration. On the other hand the villages with low density of pedestrian and mostly spreading in the inner paces are accommodating the local integration core only or sometime located in most segregation space. Furthermore, the more the villages integrated the higher it is dominated by men and non-local movement and the in villages which less integrated we can see women and Bahraini movement increasing. This gives an indication that the strong embedded of the village within the urban context, inviting more people from the surrounding, but at the same time this disturbed women to appear on the public.
This thesis investigates the configuration of urban villages in Bahrain. Specifically, it examine... more This thesis investigates the configuration of urban villages in Bahrain. Specifically, it examines the villages absorbed by the cities of Manama and Muharraq and asks the following question: How do village layouts get embedded within their surrounding urban context and what are their effects? The research hypothesizes that the evolution of the urban village layout has enabled a spatial relationship with the surrounding urban context, where people’s movement, economic activities, and face-to-face encounters have been maximized. To explore this hypothesis, the study examines the villages and their surrounding context at multi-distance catchments in terms of layout space, block size, and street segment density. Based on space syntax theories and methods, this study focuses on quantitative and graphical analyses of urban villages’ configuration and the generic structures of their foreground and background networks’ impact across the scale, including the evolution of the two cities, the patterns of change, and their impact on villages’ intelligibility. The study’s results reveal that a high degree of urbanity of village networks can be attributed to the distribution of probabilities within a somewhat more extensive continuous system. It lies in the fact that the village blocks, size, and density are consistent with the surrounding environments due to interdependence. This homogeneous pattern of block size and arrangement in an urban village’s context can preserve its local structures and penetrate beyond the local context. Moreover, this study is able to distinguish a generative urban village layout that aims to produce everyday activities with diverse people instead of reproducing the same social ties. The study concludes that spatiotemporal structures are perhaps the most critical factors in the social nature of an urban village. Neglecting generic structures as a key urban element is to neglect the forms of life in the city and their social existence.
This paper sets out to investigate the key spatial characteristics in the way the villages' space... more This paper sets out to investigate the key spatial characteristics in the way the villages' spaces are embedded in the urban context. The aim is to clarify how absorbed villages' layout of space related to the surrounding urban context? And does this spatial embedding pattern of the village within the surrounding urban context have a meaning? Are these absorbed villages part from the surrounding urban space in which to guide movement and make space intelligible to people or are they discrete space and out of sight? The tested hypothesis in this paper is that the absorbed village space will operate in at least at two distinct modes: one conservative and the other generative. The conservative mode will reduce the encounter between local space of the village and the surrounding context space in order to reproduce cultural patterns, therefore the configuration here is relatively localised and restrictive space. While the generative mode will maximise the encounter in order to optimise the material conditions of everyday life (Hillier, 1996), thus the arrangement of the village space is integrated locally and globally. The research used high-normalised integration and high-normalised choice (10%) measurement at different radius, besides their standard score of the mean and maximum values. This study, explore villages' spatial layout as independent variables and assess its consequences in terms of observable movement patterns and space used for spatial living. Thus, with the use of the outcomes of the first section as guiding hypothesis for the second, it is argued that if certain properties are shown to be critical in urban spatial patterning as dependent variables, then they may also be related to the way in which spatial layout acts as an independent variable. The study appear to be morphologically differentiated at local; radius. However, the combination of the local structure with a high degree of overlap within a global space network defines the nature of the village embedding within the whole urban system. This relation between the parts and the whole, and the relations of the parts themselves is that account for the configurational properties of space and the way in which society and culture are embedded in space. The main findings in this paper are: the absorbed villages with high pedestrian density, widely spread in the space, accommodate most of the synergy space pattern of the integration. On the other hand the villages with low density of pedestrian and mostly spreading in the inner paces are accommodating the local integration core only or sometime located in most segregation space. Furthermore, the more the villages integrated the higher it is dominated by men and non-local movement and the in villages which less integrated we can see women and Bahraini movement increasing. This gives an indication that the strong embedded of the village within the urban context, inviting more people from the surrounding, but at the same time this disturbed women to appear on the public.
This thesis investigates the configuration of urban villages in Bahrain. Specifically, it examine... more This thesis investigates the configuration of urban villages in Bahrain. Specifically, it examines the villages absorbed by the cities of Manama and Muharraq and asks the following question: How do village layouts get embedded within their surrounding urban context and what are their effects? The research hypothesizes that the evolution of the urban village layout has enabled a spatial relationship with the surrounding urban context, where people’s movement, economic activities, and face-to-face encounters have been maximized. To explore this hypothesis, the study examines the villages and their surrounding context at multi-distance catchments in terms of layout space, block size, and street segment density. Based on space syntax theories and methods, this study focuses on quantitative and graphical analyses of urban villages’ configuration and the generic structures of their foreground and background networks’ impact across the scale, including the evolution of the two cities, the patterns of change, and their impact on villages’ intelligibility. The study’s results reveal that a high degree of urbanity of village networks can be attributed to the distribution of probabilities within a somewhat more extensive continuous system. It lies in the fact that the village blocks, size, and density are consistent with the surrounding environments due to interdependence. This homogeneous pattern of block size and arrangement in an urban village’s context can preserve its local structures and penetrate beyond the local context. Moreover, this study is able to distinguish a generative urban village layout that aims to produce everyday activities with diverse people instead of reproducing the same social ties. The study concludes that spatiotemporal structures are perhaps the most critical factors in the social nature of an urban village. Neglecting generic structures as a key urban element is to neglect the forms of life in the city and their social existence.
Uploads
Papers by Wafa AL-Ghatam
Thesis Chapters by Wafa AL-Ghatam