Diriyah in Riyadh (KSA): Smart urban expansion?

A critical debate in urbanism is related to what are the right approaches to manage urban growth. Globally, metropolitan cities suffer the aftermath of massive sprawling, extending horizontally almost without limits, in a fragmented way, demanding enormous energy resource in road networks and water and sanitation pipelines; as well as daily commute of private cars to remote locations, where people settled in gated communities looking for some peace and space, escaping from crowded, congested and costly metropolitan areas. Early, in XX centuries capital towns expand rapidly thanks to railways, initially, followed by highways later, water and sanitation infrastructure and energy gridlines transforming humble towns and villages into metropolis and megalopolis. Such incredible physical change implies also the historical change of people lifestyle, passing from one-story self-build houses to multifamiliar apartments done by real estate developers, walking and cycling to car-dominated traffic; urban expansion according to the availability of water to free-electrically pumped water, etc. All these factors shape metropolis as sophisticated engines very difficult to manage.

Realizing these facts, several cities in the world start to design and implement different schemes to deal with urban growth. Green belt was one of the first strategies to control urban expansion creating regional parks surrounding cities that works in some cases, but in many cases it doesn't work. Another well tested approach are different schemes around urban renewal, that means targeting decay neighborhoods to increase their densities to make them more vital and appealing, and more affordable as well. This is happening in many cities in Europe, the US and the Global South. Another scheme consists in planning urban expansion aligned with major transport line, like the famous case of Curitiba (Brasil) whose Transport Oriented Development (TOD) was pioneer in transforming cities worldwide. The IXX century legacy in the scheme of "New Towns" designed and planned around metropolitan cities influence XX century as well repackage on different initiatives to create new settlements from scratch, once again, depending on the country and the particular circumstances achieving very different results.

Riyad, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia adopts a very modernistic approach that transform the historical city framed according to vernacular principles of architecture and urbanism, built around water wells, into a sophisticated metropolis. Such metropolis was planned on the basis of a highway network system that divided the city in urban polygons where similar patterns of low-income neighborhoods were repeated infinitely. The supply of water and the boom of the economy associated to the oil business attract real estate investors developing commercial axis along the main avenues followed by gate neighborhoods, encouraging sprawling. Congestion, contamination and urban decay in several areas set the alarm of the national and local government to introduce strategic changes to recapture the urban livability intervening on public spaces and approaching differently housing projects. The National Transformation plan push for the diversification of the economy, but also for the beautification and re-humanization of cities, pursuing improving the quality of urban life.

In this context, KSA is carrying out an ambitious project called Diriyah focussing in developing a cultural preservation and tourist attraction just in the outskirt of the metropolis. The project target cultural national values associated to the restoration of Al-Turaif, the historical site built in mud blocks where the Kingdom was born. happened, just 20 minutes from the city center but actually located in an area surrounded by desert. The museum preserving the historical heritage kick off a commercial development just in front, imitating the architecture and urban pattern of the archeological site, designed as a place for visitors where to perform various recreational activities, including coffee shops, child playgrounds and, restaurants with vivo music performance, art galleries, among other entertainments. All of these using traditional architecture styles and vernacular materials that are energy efficient, in addition of preserving cultural values associated to organic settlements adapted to the climate and natural topography promoting walkability and community engagement.

Diriyah project was inaugurated at the end of 2018 highlighting national cultural values associated to historical events that gave birth to the nation. The enthusiasm around what the project may imply in terms of tourism attraction give place to a second phase of the project, to be built just adjacent to the historical site, focusing on a real estate development replicating architecture and urban bioclimatic historical design and planning, providing accommodation for tourists and people with interest to experiment a different lifestyle. The project has an evident experimental profile, seeking to open an opportunity to test how much the vernacular architecture and urbanism have a demand within the sophisticated real estate business development environment of the Kingdom rich capital. The findings of this experiment are not minor, because if that works attracting a significant market of visitors, users and residents, then, it will be possible to consider it as a real urban development option. Even, how it was designed on the edge of the metropolis, if it doesn't work as a real estate development success and only have results in terms of commercial activities associated to cultural preservation, still it contributes to establish a landmark and limit to urban growth and diversify real estate options, very much limited to the same kind of offers at the moment.

Cities worldwide need to reinvent themselves based on a common understanding of historical values that root citizen identities. In the case of the Saudis it is obvious how their culture is still very present and driven daily life of people, independently of their social status and resources, and for this reason, Diriyah results a relevant case to be study carefully as it combines several goals influencing key urbanization drivers. What it will be the final outcome and outputs of the project is important to be alert to evaluate them properly and report on lessons learnt that can be captured and incorporated into KSA national urban policy.