Urban Planning and Housing: A Comparative Analysis of Traditional and Modern Approaches

Mental Image:
- The concept of a "house" varies greatly among individuals.
- Even mental images of a house have significantly changed over the past century.
Mental Blueprint:
- Shared mental plans lead to similar-looking neighborhoods.
- Mental plans are not drawn on paper but exist mentally.
- These plans have evolved over the last 100 years.
- Architectural mental plans differ from those of people in slums due to different sociocultural contexts.

Two models: A priori (before) and A posteriori (after).
Traditional Medina (pre-20th century):
- Grew organically based on sociocultural rules.
Colonization Impact:
- Froze the Medina in time.
- Organic processes ceased; building patterns changed.
A Posteriori View:
- Looking at the Medina now provides only the result, making it hard to understand its origins.
A Priori Model:
- Focuses on understanding how people used to think about their houses, neighborhoods, and cities.
Behavioral Model:
- Tries to understand why people imagine places the way they do.
- Explores the values, principles, and logic behind these imaginations.
- Considers socioeconomic pressures and cultural identity as influencing factors.

Irregular form.
Hierarchy of streets (main streets, cul-de-sacs).
- Constant cul-de-sac ratio of around 35% in North African Medinas, higher than in European cities.
Absence of written urban regulations but presence of religious rules (Islamic law) for managing conduct and succession.
- Social, economic, and legal factors influence urban form.
Environmental Factors:
- Mediterranean climate influences courtyard design for temperature regulation (passive solar design).
Emphasis on Privacy:
- Cul-de-sacs, absence of windows, introverted housing designs.
Defense:
- Convoluted streets for hiding from enemies and protecting neighborhoods.

Historical Building (Bottom-Up):
- Each house is different and grows as desired.
- $Consensus$ dictates overall structure.
- Meta-principles: Shared cultural norms.
- Individual decision-making is decentralized; homeowners can make their own decisions if they don't harm neighbors.
Modern Planning:
- Central authority (municipality) enforces norms.
- Decision-making is centralized with a limited number of planners and politicians.
- Modern urban planning, centralized decision making.

Prohibitive Rule:
- Freedom to do anything as long as no harm is caused.
- High adaptability.
Prescriptive Rule:
- Fixed and less adaptable.
- Requires permission from central authority for changes.
Static Norms:
- Set by central authority.
Sensitive Process:
- Local level decision-making.

Organic features. Spontaneous and based on patterns.
Compact and low-rise.
Decentralized with no central authority.
Multiple centralities (e.g., around mosques or markets).
Capacity for self-organization due to bottom-up processes and prescriptive rules.
Emphasis on privacy with defensible spaces and introverted spaces.

Based on how individuals imagine their houses and buildings.
Reconstructing this collective image is challenging.
Frameworks:
- Complexity Science:
  - Complexity Science: A field dealing with systems that are uncertain, complex, chaotic, and ambiguous (VUCA).
Self-Organizing Systems:
- Self-governance, self-coordination, self-building.
Adaptive:
- Attractive, small scale, long construction time.
Customs:
- Common customs are based on individual rights and communal responsibilities.
- Example: Medina doesn't need a plan. Local customs such as street width should be at least the width of two horses.
Enforcement of Authority:
- Checks and balances to ensure no harm is caused or principles are disrespected.

Dominant Courtyard House:
- Common in Morocco and the Southern Mediterranean.
- Prevalent even in pre-modern and post-colonization periods.
Rural Areas:
- Courtyard typology exists in rural areas with different proportions.
Basic Unit: Room (Bit):
- Rooms around a courtyard.
Nomadic Tent:
- Became more solid, evolving into rural houses and then courtyard houses.
Basic Cell: Room:
- Rooms as cells that form a house, which acts as a living organism.
  Growing and evolving.
  Incremental Planning
Cities happen incrementally, step by step.
Rooms aggregate and form tissue.
Makes it organic.

Example: Douar Doum (near Rabat).
- Slum created in the 1920s and expanded in the 1960s.
- People built tents and noualas, sharing a common a priori model.
- Used local materials like reed, wood, and tin.
Transition to Concrete:
- After independence, people started using more durable materials.
- Maintained the structure of bits (rooms) and a courtyard house.
House Grows:
- The house grows with people to become a living space.
Issues:
- Houses became five floors high.
- Caused dysfunction due to lack of sun exposure.

Medina:
- Medina is designed to correct what can be viewed as harmful.
Huardom (Poverty and Marginalization):
- In the context of poverty and marginalization, there is no such system in place.
- Building five stories provides extra revenue.

More adaptivity.
- Prohibitive roles.
- Small scale design.
  From Environment to Recommendation
  Traditional --> Informal --> Concept --> Theories --> Principles to Design Recommendations.

Emergence:
- Simple building rules.
- Result in order, logic and order in the city.
Organic Features:
- Modern contemporary city that has organic patterns like that of the Medina.
- Amoeba Like: Cells come together to create a bigger organism.
  *Experiment showed mold created a structure similar to transport system
New city rebuilt 1945.
Absence of one central plan, and zoning laws.
Local projects.
Flexibility is important.

Participatory, collaborative approach to urban planning.
Implemented after World War II.
Neighborhood associations communicate with the government about regulations.
Mix of formal and informal consensus mechanism.
Consensus with Medina and Housing.
Blended with spontaneous development and formal regulation creates a good and big city with organic features.

*Flexibility gives:
**Organic Growth
**Mixed use zoning
**Incrementality and small scale.