nU , F

Received 29 March 2014; revised 17

Available online 23 September 2014

Umran;

Ibn Khalduns theory;

Civilizationments neither a city nor town. Finally, the paper proves that Umran Design is not opposite to

urban design. This gets a recommendation to make urban design works in cities/town as well as

projects for the Arabic expression to work on communities hold a variety of types.

this term engaged with the design process is used as same as

related to the professional practice of building/developingliterature tracesneers in the eldarning in t

st centuryscientic

hand, although there are many types of human settlements inEgypt, there is no explicit design process for the modern way

of life in those communities. The design process needs to beaddressed concisely for each human settlement.

1.1. Methodology

The primary objective of the current paper is to disengageand delineate the terms in professional practices and academic

* Tel.: +20 1006501774.

E-mail address: abeer.elshater@eng.asu.edu.eg.

Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.

Production and hosting by Elsevier

Ain Shams Engineering Journal (2015) 6, 2539

Ain Shams

Ain Shams Engin

www.elsevier.cowww.science[1]. It describes the Arabic word Umran which translated into

human development in some English literatures. Additionally,

building cities is primary whether urban design works in other

types of settlements that are not cities or towns. On the otherThe motive of writing the current paper is based on a note con-cerning the Arabic world. There are two terms used to describethe art of building the cities and towns; Umran Design and

urban design in the level of professional practice community.This motivation leads to study an ancient Arabic manuscript

human settlements in Egypt. Historically, thethe issues for some of the most respected pioof the art of cities and towns as a branch of le

demic eld, starting from the middle of the lapresent. The quandary in urban design as ahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.08.004

2090-4479 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Ain Shams University.he aca-

to theart for1. Introduction what urban design does. This problematic issue of terms also 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Ain Shams University.provides experts who are aware of the national context with opportunities to follow the design pro-

cess other types of human settlements. The disengagement can give a room in applicable researchKEYWORDS

Urban design;

Paradigm shift;

Human settlements;

taculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, 1 Saryat Street, Abassyia, Cairo 11517, Egypt

August 2014; accepted 18 August 2014

Abstract Implicitly, Arabic literatures address the notions of Umran and urban design. In Egypt,

there are two terms used to describe the art of cities. This paper aims to disengage and delineate the

terminologies in the eld of building human settlements. The research starts with a thoroughly

inductive analysis of the concept of urban design theories and discourse. The exploratory-descrip-

ive approach follows some development projects that use urban design for several types of settle-rban Planning and Design Dept.ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING

Urban design redux: Redenipractice of specialization

Abeer M. Elshater *g a professional

University

eering Journal

m/locate/asejdirect.com

ment in English [2], needs to be adapted and developed by the

26 A.M. Elshaterword design to agree with its literal meaning in the practicaleld. Furthermore, this manuscript uses the term Umran

Design to convey all of the types of human settlement as aprofessional practice. The Arabic word Umran implies inits meaning for urban, rural and Bedouin settlements. In addi-

tion, it has no counterpart in the English language.This paper explores the issues described above through an

in-depth introduction to the history of thought in the eld of

urban design. This is followed by addressing the crucial ques-tion of what is the historical sequence and development ofunderstanding in the urban design discipline. This reviewmay explore, as a proof, the need for new terminology that

is adapted to all types of human settlement. The change intasks keys of urban design is reviewed in comparison withselected case study in Fayoum Governorate, Egypt. The

papers method follows the exploratory-descriptive approach(Fig. 1) to investigate two evidences as a proof: the origin ofurban designs eld of work (historically) and the proper/

improper use of it in Egyptian context. In addition, theresearchs tool adapts the content analysis, literature review,and questionnaire to verify the research justication.

The present paper provides a contemporary review of all ofthe types of human settlement by deriving an Arabic phrase asan umbrella term for all of the citys architecture. The articlebegins with a thorough analysis of the concept of urban design

paradigms. It extends to a review of the general tasks of urbandesign to ll in the gaps in its practices that occur for differenttypes of settlements. This paper contributes to discovering

whether the idea of deriving/redening a new term for modernprofessional practice can appropriately address all types ofcommunities: city, town, countryside or Bedouin. Finally, the

research concludes with a new model for urban design and aproposed Umran design. Both Umran and Urban, whenattached with design process perform comprehensive tasks.

1.2. On concept: the problematic issue of terms

Since the beginning of human life, human settlements havetaken various forms of the primitive communities, transform-

ing into the collective pattern of activities and living in smallsettlements. Currently, it appears in the world in Bedouin,rural, town, and city architecture. In the early start of these

human settlements, there was no science that encompassedall types of human settlements. In addition, many countriessuffer from the phenomena of informal settlements.

The question is what paradigm and terminology of profes-sional practice can address them. The following addresses thescene in the eld of building human settlements. This disen-gagement makes urban design focus on the city and the townas well as provides design experts who are aware of the

national context with the opportunities to design other typesof human settlements or for citizens to build by themselves.In addition, many metropolitan cities in developing countries

contain within their administrative boundaries other types ofhuman settlements, such as rural, Bedouin and informal settle-ments, rather than urbanized. This phenomenon of mixed-type

settlements requires a new umbrella term for the professionalpractice of designing these settlements. Thus, this paper sug-gests a new term Umran for this professional practice. TheArabic expression of Umran, which denotes human develop-basic concepts of terminologies and denitions in the eld ofhuman settlements; Umran, urban/rural, urban design, urban-ism. As a fact of history, in the ancient Ibn Khalduns manu-

script, the world is a story of social relations where theprotability of the world exists [1]. As the Islamic worlddeclined in the 14th century, Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddi-

mah, which literary as Introduction, a massive philosophicalwork in which he sought scientic grounds for a universalanalysis of human beings and settlements [3]. The human set-

tlements, which is known as civilization/human development,converges with a term known as Umran. Umran is coexis-tence and residency in an intimate place with an intimate part-ner and meets the needs and demands for the collaboration

temperament on the pension. Umran in Arabic languagemeans various types of human settlements, such as the Bedou-ins in the suburbs, mountains, wilderness, deserts and sandy

areas. In addition, it represents the human community in theregions, villages, towns and cities either it/they are plannedor not [4, pp. 6673]. Implicitly, the concept of the word

Umran carries the meaning of a multitude of people in anyplace on earth doing any persons activity [5, pp. 282283].At the same level, Wirth [6] denes Umran as a relatively

large and dense permanent localization of socially diverseindividuals.

The denition of Umran indicates the practice of all of theactivities of life, such as agriculture, industry, business, and

any other of the activities of life (human settlement) [7]; [2,p. 839]. In contrast, savagery, destruction, and chaos, if foundin any area, are incompatible with the meaning of Umran [1].

Ibn Khaldun put a theory in the eld of social science and eco-nomics addressed as Umran theory. Based on his theory,Umran is concerned with the planning and design of communi-

ties for both the physical and social settings [4]. Being a hiddenmeaning, the word Umran carries the process of civilizationthat concerns using civilian tools, but does not necessarily

implying the superiority of urbanization as a mental actionor a philosophical approach to individuals or communities[2]. Therefore, Umran can be concerned with the meeting ofpeople in place; it carries connotations of the meanings of civ-

ilians and urbanization whether in urban or rural areas andBedouins in both humanitarian and structural terms. Ibn-Khaldun discussed the issues of Umran and culture in an inte-

grated approach as humanities phenomena. That the conceptof Umran, in Ibn Khalduns theory, is not a concept purelyphysically, but it is the effect of the power of science and values

and the depth of awareness of civilization [4]. Ibn Khaldun dis-cussed in the theory of Umran or Human Development in gen-eral, indicating the impact of the environment in the life andbehavior of human beings, which enters and currently known

in the science of Anthologies and Anthropology. He addressedthe types of population depending on the lifestyle of humansand their tools and methods [6].

Traditionally, rural and urban are opposites. In urbanareas, the economy is dominant in the secondary and tertiarysectors [8, pp. 46]. The word urban is apart from the fact

that it originates in the Latin word urbs, meaning city andits characteristics [9, pp. 590596; [10, p. 649], has containedsignicant added value since Lewis Wirth rst wrote his

legendary paper, Urbanism as a way of life, in 1938 [11, p.9]; [12]; [13]. In The Urban Question, Castells proceeds toredene the idea of the urban. Experts must understand citiesas a source of capitalism through manifestations of power and

Urban design redux: Redening a professional practice of specialization 27production [14, p. 3]. Correspondingly, the term metropolismeans mother city or mother of cities [15, p. 27]. A metro-politan area is a region inhabited by a high-density populationin the urban core and is little populated on the periphery [16].

On a parallel trend, urbanism is a term concerns the spatialrelations, design approach, theory, strategy and a way of life toimprove the living standard in cities [12, pp. 692693]. It was

found in various specializations. The rst uses by archaeolo-gists as a word to describe the process that drives people to livein cities was by Le Corbusier in 1942 [13]. Le Corbusier

describes the term as a set of spatial relations by politiciansto clarify the means (methods) of production in town or cities.It is geographic, economic, political, social and cultural con-text studies of the cities, and considerateness the impact of

the forces on the built environment. Urbanism holdsapproaches such as an urban design especially when respectthe human needs responding with empathy to town and city

morphologies. It is a way to deal with the city and includes aphilosophy that seeks to explain town and city relations [17];[18, pp. 14.114.8]. It aims of civilized people live in cities

adapting their resources and technologically advancing for

Figure 1 Graphical abstract of the reseaachieving good quality of life; quality, beauty, enjoyment,equality and satisfaction [19, pp. 1620,48].

1.3. Research justication: content analysis and questionnaireresults

In Egypt, there is what might be called state of affairsrepresented in a degree of confusion between the meanings of

the vocabularies circulating in the area of specialization ofdesigning the human settlements. This research claries theproblematic issue of terminology using the content analysis

and questionnaire. The content analysis of some literaturespublished online nd out that in Egypt the word urban andurbanism both are translated in Arabic langue to Umran[20], or use the term urban to describe all types of human set-

tlement whether in the city, informal community or rural [21];[22]. This common translation appears in both professionalpractice of some projects as well as the academic eld through

schools of architecture. The question goes around the accuracyof using Arabic word Umran that led to a kind of miscommu-nication with Western society, as well as an efcient use of

rch methodology. Source: the author.

principles of science related to the other interface conceptsillustrated in (Fig. 1). On the other side, the word Umranattached with the word describing the design process,

Tasmeem, lettered as Tasmeem Umrani is, also, commonlyused in Egypt [23]; [24]. The literature review of some manu-script in the eld of social science Umran is translation to the

term human development to describe the notion of civilization[4]; [2]; [7, p. 2]; [4, p. 859].

On the convenience side, a questioner was designed to

follow the concept and denition of terms related to the eld

of Architecture as whole and urban design especially. The

questionnaire was launched equally, to experts in the eld of

specialization, academic professors, and fresh graduates

(Fig. 2). The author collected the data from 210 responses

during three days. The outcomes concluded from analyzing

the questionnaire consecutively are:

The common side of the professional participant (52%)whether they are fresh graduates or experts use the term

urban design; Tasmeem Umrani, to describe the arrange-

ment, appearance and function of our suburbs, towns and

cities. The common side (48%) use urban design; Tasmeem

Haderi to describe that process. On the other side, a small

ration (5%) uses the two terms for the same action.

Most responders (80%) suggested that the urban design canbe used to create or reclaim all types of human settlements.

The meaning of urban design moves around two word;Tasmeem Umrani and Tasmeem Haderi with a propor-

tion, sequentially, 45% and 55%.

words can be described to deal with all human settlements

(3348%). Most responders (45%) mentioned that the term of urbandesign, in concept, equals to urbanism. A relatively high

ratio (20%) uses the word to describe all listed words.

The concept of the word Umran represents the cities but isalso descriptive of all of the types of areas where there is

human life on earth. The content analysis and questionnaireshow that, there is a range of conict and interference in termi-nologies and its translation to Arabic Language. In some

cases, the same professional participants use different termi-nologies to describe the same action. Additionally, there is akind of inaccuracy in translation. Therefore, the following

section aims to understand the history of thought of one ofthe most respected specialties in the eld of architecture. Thecontribution of the current research is to clarify the need forseparation between the two terms of urban design, littered in

Arabic as Tasmeem Haderi, and Tasmeem Umrani.

2. The urban design thought: the rst proof

Historically, urban design (UD) is the art of the city, but thisdenition had not resonated since the mid-sixties, when urbandesign became a scientic art taught in American universities

[25]. Consequently, it achieved the level of a profession thatnot only aimed to rehabilitate and reclaim deteriorated areas,but also to create and envision new development projects,

particularly in existing built environments that are then linked

s th

28 A.M. Elshater From Question four and ve, most responders use the wordTasmeem Umrani and Tasmeem Haderi with the meaningto design or reclaim the urban setting. Both of the two

Figure 2 The questionnaire results. The numbers on chart repres

repose on .to the public realm of the city [26, p. 17]. Throughout history,the building of cities has passed through elementary and sec-

ondary transformative shifts. The followings show some of

e percent of interviewees viewpoint. Source: author analyzed the

the distinctive paradigms that began in 1800s. The transforma-tion includes two paradigm shifts.

2.1. Urban design paradigm: twelve notions do not come for allhuman settlements

This section aims at reviewing the urban design paradigms to

clarify the imbedded notion (Fig. 3). Before 1950s, urbandesign, UD, did not exist in its current form but rather withinthe elds of Townscape and town/city planning. It passed

through several stages (Table 1). At the end of the 19th cen-tury, Sitte published one of the earliest writings on the UD spe-cialization in which the ideology of the humanization of cities

prevailed, according to his strong admiration for the contem-porary/modern forms of medieval and Renaissance towns[26, p. 17]. He focused attention on the aesthetic aspects ofpublic spaces to occupy a unique place in the UD timeline.

coherence of the visual environment as a core need. Regardingwhat the modernist architects contributed toward the error ofseparating the urban form from its content; form and content

must not be separated from each other, or the physical envi-ronmental requirements cannot be met. In the 1950s, Cullendeveloped the argument that the relevant environment should

be dealt within the practice of town planning [31, p. 199]. Cul-len described all of these changes according to the UD conceptin the list of the historical essences of the city. Additionally,

understanding the possibility that the Townscape concept sur-really describes the process of moving through the urbanspaces and records the results of this sequence using drawingsand photographs. Cullen called it the art of relationship [33,

p. 13]; [34, p. 64]. In the trend of urban planning, Lynch is therst pioneer to argue that the greatest value of any city lies inthe characteristics of its spatial form. According to Lynch [35,

p. 1]; [36], inhabitants have long associations with some parts

ara

Urban design redux: Redening a professional practice of specialization 29His focus is on space rather than on building. In his book,City Planning According to Artistic Principles in 1889, theseideas had a tremendous inuence on the development. The

book focuses on plazas and squares as important areas of cit-ies, as well as enclosed spaces constructed to serve as indepen-dent (outdoor) rooms [27].

The rst use of the word Townscape was in 1880, but its usein the traditional sense was in 1889. Hissey mentions: At theeighteenth-century, by analogy with a similar design practicedimprover of land, it might be christened Townscape [27, p.

263]. Thomas Sharp in 1948 used the traditional meaning ofTownscape noted above, when launching the development ofnew cities [28]; [29]. Ivor De Wolfe in 1949 shows Townscape

to be a visual art of town planning [30]. According to theschool of landscape architecture design, Townscape is anextension of the English picturesque [29]; [31].

In modernism, public spaces are abstract spaces and avacancy between buildings. In 1940, Cullen shifted his atten-tion, considering the case that dealing with these spaces pro-

duces adverse effects in these modern spaces. Thus, itbecomes a problem in the practices process [31]. The coreprinciple of the UD picturesque, but the difference is in thescale, and the detail; whereas the modernist organization was

based on the drawing board or in the model, the picturesqueapproach was based on the perception at street level [32, p. 21].

By the early 1950s, the Townscape theme focused on design

ideas satisfying human needs and requirements in cities andtowns [31]. It becomes an issue as the UD emphasizes the

Figure 3 Urban design pof the city. They imagine it as a place permeated with memo-ries and meanings [36]. He coined the words image-ability, way

nding, and Legibility [37, pp. 4690]; [35, p. 6], [38, pp. 372390], [39, p. 32], [40].

During the sixties, there was a signicant architectural

movement that aimed to overturn the trend that takes intoaccount residents social lives [41]. It discussed abandoningthe traditional methods of dividing the city into different areasand domains by either rigid or exible planning grids. This

approach leads to the necessity of examining the traditionalurban centers that expected human life to be dictated by thesurrounding environmental conditions (the context). This

was synchronous with many of the European specialistsinvolved in the rebuilding of entire towns that were nearlydemolished in the Second World War to meet their popula-

tions current requirements. These ideas were established inurban design process that was clearly emerging in building cit-ies with a signicant consideration of Contextualism [42, pp.

676679]; [42]; [43]. According to Shane (1971), architecturemust match and respond to the surroundings. It can eithercomplete a pattern implicit in a roads layout or introduce anew one. Crucial to this study of urban patterns is the gestalt

double-image of the Figure/Ground [42, p. 676], [43].Since the beginning of the seventies, urban design has

bridged the different specializations in the eld of architecture

planning and design, showing the interrelationship between thespatial dimensions on the one hand and the morphologicaldimensions on the other hand (Fig. 4). These interrelationships

digm complied by author.

Table 1 The twelve notions, the urban design paradigms and paradigm shifts. Source: author.

30 A.M. Elshater

gather the urban habitats quality and vitality, beginning withthe traditional and continuing up to the newly developing cit-

During this period, various theories and approaches emerged,such as the semantic theory, the pattern language theory, and

Figure 4 The four key dimensions and six derivatives.

Urban design redux: Redening a professional practice of specialization 31ies [44]. During this period, urban design progressed throughdifferent theoretical ideas, which are presented in the litera-

ture. Colin Rowe (1975) [45] put forth his own theory of theurban Architecture of cities in America in 1975 with the twoideas of urban inll and Collage City.

Krier (1979) discusses the latest urban perceptions onrebuilding traditional cities through the meaning of the place[46]. Synchronizing what is happening in America and Europe,

the Krier brothers (Robert and Leon) address city urbandesign through an understanding of the context [47]. Throughanalyzing the way of lifestyle and attitude of the public placesin European cities, they understood the ideological and eco-

nomic forces that led to the deformation of the urban fabric.Krier [46, p. 207] respects negative spaces and the revitaliza-tion/revival of the public buildings and historical monuments

of their land. This gives meaning to architectural metropolitancities. The morphology and typology created different urbanforms in the distinct urban spaces of city building instead of

in vacant Land [43].In the eighties, urban design took on other dimensions,

including becoming interested in the relationship between

human beings and their contexts [48]. In this point of view,the urban designer becomes an architect of groups [19]. Hecan respond to the issue of public participation through anawareness that the city has related serial events relevant to

human behavior, as a way to understand cultural communities.Figure 5 The principle of responsive envthe structured behavioral approach [44]. Urban design dealswith a group of people interacting in a built environment in cit-

ies and towns. The urban designers tasks are to understandthe needs and aspirations of the client group. ChristopherAlexander adopted a method to activate the behavioral con-

cept and the relationships between people and places to visual-ize the city and to rebuild it, creating a new urban designconcept [44, pp. 4749].

In the nineties, urban designers interests in a certain eldinclude topics such as sustainability and environmental com-patibility/responsive (Fig. 5). Additionally, UD includes envi-ronmental impact assessment and climatic change, air

quality, energy independence; renewable energy, fuel use andtransportation; water resources, water sanitation and manage-ment; and livable cities [48]. Sustainable urban design (SUD)

[49] is . . . A process whereby all the actors involved national,regional and local authorities, citizens, community-based orga-nizations, NGOs, academics and enterprises work together to

integrate functional, environmental and quality considerationsto design and plan a built environment. . . [50].

In the early of the second millennium, urban design focuses

on environmental compatibility and sustainability, includingenergy, climatic change and taking advantage of passive solarenergy. Passive solar energy can provide up to 20% of theannual space heating required for a well-insulated building in

cities [51, p. 40]. Incompatibility way, UD specializationsironments. Source: based on [48, p. 9].

exhibit New Urbanism principles [52], through creating awalkable community Post-Urbanism, or what is also calledthe Generic city, emerges with Koolhaas [53], to walking every

day in new neighborhood units. New Urbanism aims atreclaiming the built environment and improving its lifetimevalue by creating better places for peoples lives [18].

2.2. Paradigm shifts

Urban design passes through three paradigms and two para-

digm shifts [41], [25]; (Table 1). The rst-paradigm shift iscalled the art of cities. It moves from town planning to thedesign process and is the beginning of the art and science of

building cities. It emerged at the end of the eighteenth century

2.3. Concluded remark from urban design thought

The previous review concludes that the urban design comes toestablishing and repairing cities and towns, it has specic keys;tasks, paradigm, dimensions and principles illustrated in

Table 2. In this point of view, the built environment incorpo-rates the design of cities, town and neighborhood units. Fromone side, the UD repairs and rebuilds the cities and promotescompact cities and towns. It posits that the good design can

have a signicant positive impact on an individuals sense ofplace and community. On the other side, other types of settle-ments do not appear through the history of urban design as a

scientic professorial practice. The paradigm shifts, previouslyin Table 1, arise with no contribution from the design process

ensi

32 A.M. Elshaterin the eld of architecture known as Townscape. This eld wasestablished according to artistic principles that were estab-lished by Camillo Sitte. Otto Wagner followed in the American

City Beautiful Movement (19011903). This movement, led bythe most respected urban design pioneers at this point, CharlesMulford Robinson, lasted until the Second World War, when

the CIAM organization and Team X appeared [25].The second-paradigm shift starts with the overlap between

urban planning and urban design, which began in 1950 with

experts revealing their ideas, such as Contextualism, by Alisonand Peter Smithson 19491952. In one point of view, the levelof its morphological relationships enhances the strength of thecomponents of the citys structure. The pioneers of this view-

point are Colin Rowe (Collage City) 19611979, Stuart Cohen(Contextualism as an Empirical Theory) 1961, Thomas L.Schumacher 1971, David Graham Shane (Contextualism)

1976, Roger Trancik (nding lost space approach) [43] 1966,and Robert and Leon Krier (the urban quarter theory) 1979[46]. In another point of view, the priority in the eld of archi-

tecture emerges as a new approach called Urbanism in 1943by Le Corbusier [54]; [47]. It was followed by the Metabolismmovement in 1960, with its pioneers Kenzo Tange and Kisho

Kurokawa. In addition, the Mega-structure and Archigrammovement emerged in 1974 with Peter Cook [55]. The 1960swere the roots of using the dimensions of visual and humanperception in the eld of architecture, with Kevin Lynch in

1960 [37]; [35] and Gordon Cullen in 1961 [31]. At the sametime, Rossi (1984) [39] arrived from Europe with new ideasabout UD. He asserted that the architecture should be under-

stood as building typologies that persist long after their origi-nal functions have changed [39]. In sync with these beliefs, inthe sixties and seventies, but in a different manner, Rossi devel-

ops the urban morphology and the urban context factors [39];[54]; [45, p. 75].

Table 2 Urban design keys; the compiled tasks, paradigm, dim

Tasks Paradigm

Livable Cities Quality of Life Repulsiveness Environment

Ideology Movement Trend School _ism Theories Approach Methodbut through other types of human settlements, with a primary

focus on cities and towns.

3. Egyptian context toward a second proof

The process of analysis aims at verifying the types of humansettlement in Egypt (Table 3) as a general overview. Afterward,the analysis focused in Fayoum Governorate. Fayoum is taken

as a case study because of it holds several types of human set-tlement inside its administrative boundaries. Some develop-ment projects in these human settlements were taken as keyprojects in Egypt. The research follows and analyzes the liter-

atures that they discussed the urban design and human devel-opment projects [5661]. Generally speaking, the surveydepends on an analysis of the Egyptian built environment

for two categories: people and places. The validity of thedesign principles/guidelines of these two categories is notapplicable. These new development processes neglect the view-

point of typology; people and places. This process of develop-ment adapts the principles of architecture, urban planning andeven urban design.

3.1. Fayoum: content analysis

Fayoum Governorate lies in the Western desert, in the WesternSouth of Cairo governorate (Fig. 6). It is bordered in the West

by 6th of October City and in the South East by Bani Swaif.Fayoum governorate is approximately 6068 km2 and repre-sents nearly 6% of the total area of Egypt [60].

Fayoum governorate has a population of 2.48 million,according to the census of January 2005. It extends to sixtowns, 160-agricultural/shing villages units and to 1883

Ezbat [71, p. 6]. The analytical process aims at categorizing

on and principles of urban design, source: author.

Dimensions Principles

Perceptual Dimension Morphological Dimension Behavioral Dimension Functional Dimension Temporal Dimension Environmental Dimension

Permeability Variety Legibility Richness Robustness Appropriateness Personalization

Table 3 Typology of places and people in different Egyptian settlements [56,6170]. Source: author.

Typology of Places Typology of People

Citie

s

Source: [61]

Oas

is The Fortress of Shelli at the Siwa

oasis, source: [62] ]46[:ecruoS]36[:ecruoS

Source: [65] ]76[:ecruoS]66[:ecruoS

Info

rmal

Se

lem

ent,

Ash

wa

yyat

e,

Squa

er

s

Asshwayat form , Source: author

Source: [56] ]86[:ecruoS

Rura

l Vill

age

Source: [69] Rural women in Egypt, source: [70]

Urban design redux: Redening a professional practice of specialization 33

34 A.M. Elshaterthe typology of the human settlements in Fayoum governor-

ate according to the functional base. In addition, it attemptsto discover if the disciplines in Fayoum are using urbandesign term as an umbrella term for several types of

settlements. The content analysis considers some of theactions plans to be created in the governorate towardimproving the usage of urban design in the constructive

environment.

3.2. Concluded remarks: not all Egyptian settlements are citiesor towns to adapt urban design in their professional practice

Human settlements in Fayoum take several forms, which canbe summarized as the following types. Tables 3, 4, and 5 showsome photos and description. The two tables analysis shows

the action plans related to some previous Egyptian develop-ment projects that take place in Fayoum Governorate [60].All these projects give reports that hold three level of develop-

ment; urban planning, urban design and architecture level. The

Figure 6 Top right: a locational map of Egypt- source: [60], top left:

Down, distribution of rural community in Fayoum.concluding remarks and arguments about development

projects are analyzed in the following points (Fig. 7).

Although Fayoum Governorate holds several types ofhuman settlements; cities, rural, Bedouin, informal, thetwo proposed task for the new paradigm are achieved onlyon cities and resorts as well as the informal settlements. The

informal settlements in the governorate were targeted toimprove the quality of life by providing for the infrastruc-ture network and solving the environmental issues.

Achieving the task responsive environments was not takenin consideration in any developing process through the lastfew years.

Mostly, in Egypt, the governorates hold no action plan toimprove the Bedouin settlements. The Egyptian manpowerin nomads communities has many opportunities towardtourism development. In addition, no actions were taken

toward Umran unless by remove and reload into an urbancommunity in Fayoum city or surrounding villages.

a detailed geographical map of Fayoum governorate, source: [57].

Table 4 The types of human settlement in Fayoum Governorate, (continued) source: compiled by the author [75, p. 43].

Urban design redux: Redening a professional practice of specialization 35

Table 5 Types of human settlement in Fayoum Governorate, (completed). Source: compiled by the author.

36 A.M. Elshater

In the rural communities, the living structures and buildingsare located close together, but the action plans have no feed

bake on the social dimension. The convergence between

people through a compact built environment can empower

the local society. The derived paradigms from urban designjust focused on the trends and methods and neglect othertypes of paradigms. The missing paradigms such as move-

ments and approaches may add to that development. Inaddition, the action plan neglects most of the principles.

The key element of urban design was used in its un-suitableplaces to accommodate the constructed environments. In

the resorts that built as water development in Fayoum Lakedepends on the Quality of Life; QoL [60]. The objectives ofthe QoL where that projects adapted moves toward envi-

ronment impact assessment not to put a strategy toimprovement human settlements.

Although all developing projects use urban design as a toolto develop, but they do not achieve most of the urbandesign keys in most types of human settlements.

The previous arguments give a clear proof about using UD

to rebuild/repair all types of human settlements in Egypt arenot adapted. The urban design discipline needs a wide rangeof theorizing to put the place and people in his consideration.

On the other side, Egyptian experts can follow the same histor-ical literatures about designing human settlements that writtenin the fourth century. The Introduction [1] is one of the

ancient manuscripts about sociology that gives an Arabic termUmran to cover, in the description, all types of human settle-ments in North Africa.

Figure 7 The assessment of developing projects in Fayoum

Governorate based on the urban design key complied in (Table 2).

Urban design redux: Redening a professional practice of specialization 37Figure 8 The proposed paradigm; Umran Design can come with three

environments. Source: author.main tasks to achieve a quality of life, livable place and responsive

38 A.M. Elshater4. Conclusion: the new intellectual paradigm Umran Design vs.

Urban Design

Different manuscripts represent the theories in the eld ofbuilding the human settlements from the middle of the last cen-tury. They focus on cities, and there is no mention of the coun-tryside or Bedouin areas. Throughout this time, the history ofUD thought includes and presents several different theoreticalparadigms. These paradigms can be altered to the concept ofUmran Design. The primary interest is in people and places.It involves the theoretical background, movements, trends,schools, approaches, theories, and methods. The proposed par-adigm of UmranDesign has three main tasks to achieve: qualityof life, livable places and responsive environments (Fig. 8). Italso can derive principles from urban design for various areas,including cities, towns, Bedouin, rural and informal settlements.These principles are permeability, variety, vitality, legibility,robustness, richness, personalization and appropriateness.Consequently, Umran Design works with four general dimen-sions: cognitive, formational, sociocultural and environmental.

In conclusion, the paper supposed that driving the Arabicterm engaged with the design process as an umbrella for manytypes of human settlements can come over problems of termi-nologies through dealing with Arabian settlements, which holdsuch variety of community types within a certain context.Although a theoretical review study in the current paper indi-cates that the urban design is both a science and professionalpractice for cities and towns, in Egypt, it is applied in placesthat are neither.

This paper recommends using the term Umran Design asan umbrella term to cover designing different types of human

settlements. This includes townscape, landscape architecture,site planning, site design, community design, streetscape signs,sustainability (green architecture), environmental design and

urban design. While the term Urban Design only deals withthe metropolitan areas, the term Umran Design is concernedwith all of the urban, rural and Bedouin areas on earth. This

problematic issue of terms was proved using an exploratory-descriptive approach through two evidences, the thought ofurban design and applicable project in Fayoum governorate.

The Urban Design discipline is used to indicate the historicalcenters in traditional cities as key elements of urban form, thedevelopment and reclamation of cities at three levels (individualbuildings, districts and regions) and at three scales (small, med-

ium and large). In conclusion, the addressed assumption, basedon the interface between terminologies, was claried throughputting the interest of urban design in cities and town and get-

ting the spirit of Umran design from Ibn Khalduns theory.The contribution of this paper is, rst, delaminate the inter-

ference between terminologies; urban and Umran. Second, it

claries the need for separation between the two terms ofUrban Design, littered in Arabic as Tasmeem Haderi, andUmran Design, Tasmeem Umrani. Third, it submits a redun-dancy of urban design and Ibn Khalduns Umran in an exper-

imental benet from the assets of urban design paradigms thatare accompanied with urbanism movements. This redundancycan cover the gap that urban design cannot ll through all

human settlements. It provides an opportunity to expand touse the Arabic word; Umran, in all patterns of humandevelopment. The paper, also, recommends future studies of

current local communities for the benet of the paradigm. Itrewrites segments of the intellectual paradigm that are closelyrelated to each other. It aims to test the principles and guide-lines for both people and places for creating the architecture ofcities (human and stone) using Umran Design.

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