Planning of Urban Quarters, Districts and Neighbourhoods in Islam’s Holiest City: A Comparative Analytical Study

Global experiences of planning urban areas are characterised by adopting hierarchical structures from large to small structures, i.e. residential quarter (large residential area), residential district and then residential neighbourhood. Each structure is characterised according to the area, the number of people and the services required for targeting a sustainable urban environment. This concept is a milestone in urban planning in Saudi Arabia. The research attempted to discuss the general trend of planning housing projects in Saudi Arabia and the extent of applying the hierarchal concept. Three models were chosen randomly in Makkah, showing such planning hierarchy. These are Al Shawqiyyah, Al Sharaie and Al Rabwah. These projects were planned four decades ago and became a reality. Through comparative analytical methods, findings revealed ambiguity of the hierarchal planning concept in these projects. Further, the traditional neighbourhood concept was prevalent in most neighbourhoods characterised by low-density development in planning but medium and high densities in reality. The problem is getting worse as cities grow horizontally and vertically. Consistent scientific analysis based on practice and continuous meta-analysis was used. The paper calls for the need to change the current premises of housing plans and reorganise the accumulated problems according to global experiences and local standards.

InclusiVaart: (Re)defining shared neighbourhood spaces

Cities and dense urban areas are dynamic environments, always adapting to changing circumstances and shocks, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Vaartkom, a neighbourhood in Leuven, provides an interesting case-study, having undergone a drastic transformation in the past two decades, from dilapidated industrial zone to residential quarter and cultural hot-spot. This has introduced a demographic shift, which inevitably influences the use of public and private space in the neighbourhood, creating new areas for inclusion and exclusion. Our research focuses on how the use of public space has changed under COVID-19, and how community members envision their neighbourhood in a post-COVID context. We employed various methods – such as interviews, site visits, stakeholder and physical mapping exercises – and worked with the community to identify the different areas of in-and exclusivity. Some findings relate to the conflicting expectations about the use and future of public space and the link between the location of public engagement and the level of inclusiveness. This illustrates the magnitude and consciousness of the effort required to be truly inclusive. Above all, our own understanding of inclusivity broadened significantly over the duration of the project, illustrating the clear advantage of using a transdisciplinary approach in research. Our findings have been summarised in a small video.

Non-Invasive Approach to Investigate the Mineralogy and Production Technology of the Mosaic tesserae from the Roman domus of Villa San Pancrazio (Taormina, Italy)

The archaeological excavations at Villa San Pancrazio (Taormina, Italy) are bringing to light a vast Roman-Imperial residential quarter featuring luxurious dwellings decorated with wall paintings and mosaic floors, pointing it out as one of the most significant archaeological sites of the city. The polychrome and black and white mosaics recovered date back to the middle Imperial period, during the 2nd century AD. This work deals with the first archaeometric investigations of the materials employed for the tesserae production with the aim of elucidating the mineralogical composition and obtaining analytical evidence that can contribute to extracting information related to their production technology. For that purpose, a non-invasive methodology, based on micro energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (μ-EDXRF) spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy, was used to characterize a wide selection of stone, ceramic and glass tesserae. Chemometric tools were exploited to manage the large set of elemental data collected on black and white lithic samples, providing essential clues for the subsequent investigations. The results evidenced the employment of natural lithotypes (calcareous sedimentary, dolomitic and volcanic) local and imported, and also artificial materials, such as ceramic made firing magnesium-rich clays, soda-lime-silica glasses made with different opacifying and coloring agents (such as calcium antimoniate, cobalt and copper).

ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF COMFORT OF HOUSING COMPLEXES (DEVELOPMENT STUDIES IN WESTERN UKRAINE)

Architects and urban planners in the process of designing residential areas use building codes that consider the comfort of living only in terms of safety, sanitation and environmental performance. This article highlights the problem of taking into account a number of additional social parameters of comfort that affect the characteristics of living comfort. The structure of a comprehensive analysis of housing is formed by assessing the elements of living comfort. The presented research algorithm includes the consistent use of methods of sociological survey, evaluation and modeling. Having identified socio-psychological factors of comfort of a residential district at different levels of urban assessment (in the context of location in the city system, formation of the surrounding area, spatial and architectural-planning level), 3 residential development projects of Ivano-Frankivsk were assessed. For a comparative analysis, the architectural and planning solutions of residential quarters "Lemkivsky", "Club town 12", "Vidensky" were used, the construction of which began in 2017. This took into account not only the quantitative technical and economic indicators of individual elements of the project, but also qualitative indicators, the measurement of which in normal conditions is a resource-intensive process. As a result of the analysis and the carried-out estimation the graphic model of the complex analysis of a residential quarter is formed that allows to carry out comparison of various design decisions irrespective of size of a site of quantity of housing sections, etc. Using the method of movement to the ideal, a comprehensive analysis of various residential complexes was carried out. The obtained results allow, both at the stage of designing residential neighborhoods and the analysis of operated facilities to assess them in accordance with the needs of people, as well as to balance the indicators of comfort by applying the proposed architectural and planning techniques.

Preliminary Results of the Research of Anthropological Material from Tomb I of an Aisleless Quarter Church at Eski-Kermen Plateau

In 2018, the joint expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Crimea of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the History and Archaeology of the Crimea Research Centre of the V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University continued the long-term systematic excavations of a residential quarter of the mediaeval town located atop of Eski-Kermen plateau. The regular research uncovered new rooms in the previously excavated mediaeval buildings with adjacent areas of the main and streets and a wall of a previously unknown church with tomb I annexed to it. The researchers of Crimean medieval Christian monuments have paid attention to a great variety of burial traditions connected with constructions of burials and the ways of using them. As a rule, the majority of mediaeval burial constructions at Eski-Kermen plateau were continuously used throughout a long period. The given paper examines the material obtained from tomb I annexed to the wall of an aisleless church. In the tomb under study, there are skeletons of some of the buried persons laying in anatomic order. All the bones of the individuals buried in the tomb occurred within this burial construction. The preservation of bone remains can be evaluated as satisfactory. In the course of work, quantitative and sex-age-related characteristics of the buried persons have been determined; the analysis of palaeopathological conditions has been made; a number of non-metric features has been documented. Epigenetic features more often appeared on the cranium bones; it is possibly connected with the preservation of the bones of postcranial skeletons. Among pathological developments, diseases related with teeth-maxillary apparatus are most common. Diseases of locomotor apparatus have been documented on the bones of vertebral column and big joints of long bones of arms and legs of all sexually mature individuals. Some changes typical of the Forestier disease have been recorded at the backbone of one of the buried male individuals. Pathological changes caused by iron-deficient conditions, inflammatory processes, and changes of osseous tissues connected with physical overexertion of osseous apparatus caused by extreme physical burden have been recorded among those who were buried in tomb 1. Only one traumatic lesion has been documented at the new material.

The branch and bound method applied to the construction of residential quarters

Introduction. When construction works are scheduled within the framework of a project that encompasses the construction of civil or industrial facilities representing a residential quarter, the focus is placed on the continuous operation of particular specialized construction departments, subject to the adherence to applicable technologies and compliance with standard deadlines that apply to the construction of buildings. The relevance of this problem stems from the complexity of coordination of works to be performed by contractors and subcontractors, involved in the development of a quarter and responsible to the general contractor. The purpose of this research is to analyze and apply the branch and bound method to the problems arising in the course of scheduling the construction of a quarter using special methods of the scheduling theory. Materials and methods. The article addresses the problem of continuous operation of special-focus construction departments subject to the adherence to applicable technologies and compliance with standard deadlines set for the construction of individual structures when scheduling the construction of residential quarters. Results. The solution, based on the branch and bound method, is proposed. The construction of eight buildings, that comprise a residential quarter, is taken as an example. Matrices, representing continuous workflows for different methods of work organization, were obtained; principal parameters of integrated workflows, encompassing the construction of the quarter structures, were calculated with regard for the commencement and completion time for each specialized workflow at each individual structure. A displacement matrix was used to consolidate all eight structures. Two principal methods of reorganizing the integrated quarterly workflow are considered. Conclusions. The branch and bound method is used to compare original and optimized matrices; calculation results are presented. The strengths and weaknesses of the critical path/continuous resource employment method are illustrated by the project that encompasses the construction of eight facilities in a residential quarter.

Methodology for creating a residential three-rayed space-planning structure

Problem statement. The purpose of this study is to create a methodology for designing a residential three-rayed space-planning structure for small and medium-rise buildings. The methodology was created for the central and southern insolation zones of Russia in the conditions of sanitary standards of 2017. The methodology is applicable in countries located in both hemispheres of our planet with mirrored conditions of the Russian insolation standards. Results. A methodology has been developed that creates many types of «daughter» residential sections based on a single «T-shaped» three-rayed residential section, which is called the «maternal». The applied result of the research was of 27 planimetric methods of architectural combinatorics and kinetics, as well as two patents. The presented methods are implemented in brick structures during the reconstruction of the residential quarter No. 75 in the historical center of the Russian city of Menzelinsk in the Republic of Tatarstan. Conclusions. The significance of the results obtained for architecture lies in energy-efficient design, expressed in a reduction design time and an increase the types of «daughter» residential sections. The methodology was created for the future computer program for the design of multi-rayed structures of residential buildings of various storeys.