Sahil Jain (MSc), Yasaman Mousavi (MArch with Distinction), Fatemeh Nasseri (MArch with Distinction)
The Middle East has experienced a dramatic rise in population as compared to
other parts of the developing countries in the world since the 1970's. This has led to a disproportionate rise in the urban population called the urban drift, causing a huge strain on the already struggling urban infrastructure, water availability, employment and so on. The new Middle East would be inevitably a veritable mix of culture, language, food and most importantly identities, this potent mixture of rapid globablisation points towards potential socio-cultural challenges arising with the surging tide of urbanisation.
On the other hand, the region has wide variatinos in relation to climate conditions with 90% of its land classified as hot and arid. The crisis of global warming seen in many parts of the world should be accompanied to plan the future cities in response to such an issue.
To sustain the need of population growth, there has been a rapid application of western urban developments which are perceived to be inefficient in their responsiveness to climate and cultural roots; the traditional urban fabric has been replaced by a modern urban order, where once there were terraces, squares
and courtyards.
The research explores new computational techniques to develop a bio-climatic strategy for urban developments at specific culture. Following the studies on vernacular morphologies, the algorithm is addressing three key points, responding to new demographics and social structure within the context of hot and arid climate.
