Urban Planning: Planned vs. Unplanned Cities

Urban Sprawl

• Greater Cairo is surrounded by:
• Qalyub
• Shubra al-Khema
• Matariya
• Ain Shams
• Masr el Gedida
• Kardasa
• Zamalek
• Mohandeseen
• Dokki Tahrir
• Medinet Nasr
• Rhoda
• Giza Sq
• Pyramid st.
• Giza Pyramids
• Old Cairo
• Maadi

Rise of the Informal City

• The unplanned city is often referred to as a slum.

Advantages of Unplanned cities

• These cities are built by the people and cater to their needs and financial capabilities
• They are considered vernacular architecture
• Compact planning allows walkability, and shaded streets.
• They are usually located close to the city centre

Disadvantages of Unplanned cities

• They have poor infrastructure
• Emergency services are not factored into planning
• Unregistered buildings mean less stability
• There are no building regulations
• The lack of building regulations means unsafe structures

Planned Cities or New Towns

• They are built on a site without any urban concentrations
• Large enough for self-dependence
• Provides individuals and families with commercial needs, education, social activities, culture institutions, industry, and a wide labour market".
• Self-contained
• A balanced Community
• Diverse land use
• Self governance
• Size

New City

• The United States introduced the term to describe an unconventionally sizeable town
• It may be newly developed or part of an existing urban centre
• This is coordinated by public, private and local government agencies
• It contributes to addressing housing demands, employment requirements for various levels of skill and income, diverse social classes, race and age groups
• Developing countries create new capital cities to adjust the public image and provide a government administrative centre

New Town In Town

• It is an urban extension to an existing large city
• It follows the main principles of the new town philosophy
• The site is selected based upon distinct urban features, including specialised shopping districts
• These shopping districts include artisans working on-site and unique architectural identity
• New town in-town presents a possible solution when there is an urgent need for an effective strategy to handle problems of large dominant cities through gradual rehabilitation.

Satellite Town

• These towns are not economically independent.
• They are located close to the city centre to allow rapid commuting.
• They can serve as dormitories for city dwellers.
• These are mainly young middle class married couples working in nearby urban centres.
• The town has its local government and separate identity from the central city.
• The population range is between 30,000 and 250,000 inhabitants.
• The town is usually surrounded by a green belt and connected to the greater metropolitan region with an efficient mass transit system.

Regional Growth Centre (RGC)

• Thie urban typology was designed to rectify urban and rural problems after World War II
• Rural areas lost vitality through low income, absence of a young workforce, failure to provide education, inadequate transport, and the scarcity of social facilities.
• This was addressed by setting up RGCs to service the region.
• New towns service only their residents while the RGCs service the entire region.
• Low technical intensity industries included in the RGCs provide different age groups with employment and diverse land use
• These industries also attract different socio-economic groups to the region

The October Working Paper

• "The New Map for Egypt" laid down the basis for Egypt’s urban development policy.
• Decentralisation of the economy and population and creating diverse economic and social environments in the desert beyond the Nile Valley are important.
• Priorities for urban development include the reconstruction of the Canal cities after the war devastation and decentralizing power from Cairo to strong local governments.
• New towns with an independent economic base were believed to be capable of attracting residents as strongly as the capital, while the government remained in Cairo.

New Town Generations

• First Generation new towns include several industrial city schemes that are labelled self-sufficient communities
• Tenth of Ramadan
• Sixth of October
• El-Sadat
• Fifteenth of May
• Second-generation cities emerged in the mid-1980s
• Al-Obour
• Al-Shorouq
• Al-Sheikh Zayed
• Badr
• The above are considered wealthy suburbs
• Third-generation new towns
• New Cairo
• New Thebes
• New Aswan
• New Minia
• Fourth generation new towns
• New Administrative Capital
• New 6 October
• New Zayed
• New Obour
• New Alamein
• New Mansoura
• There are 20 in total.