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Why Planning?
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Who we plan for?
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How do we design?
Why
Planning?
As soon as human beings decided to civilise they used planning for
their environment. We find ancient cities designed in regular
geometrical shapes such as circle, square, hexagon, etc. These
differences were due to cities’ natural restrictions or special
requirements of the communities.
As a result, design and planning in different fields of human needs were
shaped. There are many specialties within the planning field such as
transportation planning, housing and community development planning,
health and human services planning, and environmental planning, to
name a few.
On the other hand, humans are progressing. Things change and we
need to address these changes every now or then. Master plans are
usually designed for 20-30 years because many things change after 30
years and a fresh look at the city and its population in essential
in order to find out the pros and cons of the previous planning. A
Master Plan indicates where the best places are for houses,
apartments, stores, offices, factories, warehouses, parks,
playgrounds, farms, roads, bridges and sewer systems.
Today, the planning field is concerned with more than just how we
use our land. It also takes into consideration things like water
conservation, pollution, jobs, recycling, building codes, zoning
regulations, and traffic congestion. Therefore, we plan to offer the
highest possible comfort for the people and to enjoy and use their
surroundings in a city.
Who we plan
for?
Karbala is a city created and linked to Imam Hussain, the grandson
of the holy Prophet of Islam. He was martyred here alongside his
brother and other members of his family. It has become a focal point
for his followers who decide to stay there as well.
The first person visited Karbala was the companion of the Prophet,
Jaber ibn Abdullah Al Ansari and the first person to take this
location as a living place was Ibrahim al Mojab. The number of
dwellers increased year by year. Many scholars also decided to
reside in this city and its seminary has produced great scholars in
Shia history.
Whoever plans for this city should cater for the nature of its
residents and those who visit it as pilgrims with all their
differences in culture, tastes, and language. His goal should be
furnishing as much as possible sustainable solutions in their
material and spiritual needs. The city has many mosques, religious
centre known as Hussaynieh, and a good market place to provide
special goods for visitors. We tagged this market as “Religious
Trade Centre”
So, the design should act as a sponge to hold as many pilgrims as
possible when it is needed, and should keep the religious favour of
the city and maintains its unique culture. Moreover, one should not
forget the many people who resided in the newly developed parts of
the city and their urban needs.
In short, the Master Plan of the holy city of Karbala provides:
1)
The residents of the city with all amenities they need in
international standards.
2)
The visitors’ need considering their wide spectrum of tastes and
difference.
How do we
design?
Planner’s job is mainly to give a solution to the many conflicting
issues surrounding humans and their environment. It is a multi
disciplinary job that requires skills in design, architecture,
socio-economic sciences, policy making and at the same time should
have a common sense.
The recent trend in planning in Europe is called Spatial Planning.
In addition to land use, it emphasises on two extra elements of
public participation and sustainability of the design.
In this school, a planner has to do deal with three main elements of
(1) the city structure, (2) the socio-economic laws and (3)
continuous consultation with decision makers and public.
We look at the city to see how it is designed or formed. Where are
the facilities, work places, markets, natural resources, and what is
the main feature in it. Then we look at people in this city. How
they are distributed. Where do they go. What do they do, and so on.
This gives us the situation of the city as it is. In technical
terms, we use GIS to build polygons of all information required for
the next stage.
In the next step we use the techniques available to predict the
future. These techniques look at relationships between elements of
the city and predict how the future changes. These techniques are
called Models in GIS terms. We use Models to predict the future
trends in population, work place, transportation, environment, etc.
Models tell us how the city may change in the future.
But nothing changes if people of the city and other decision makers
do not want change. Here comes the role of politics. Without a sense
of direction on where the city should go, we will have little
change. But setting a proper objective or vision for the city gives
planners plenty of things to do. We need to know what decision
makers and people want in order to tell them how the city will
respond to their requirements. Sometimes there are conflicts on what
politicians want. For example, in order to expand rapidly, city
needs funds. If funds are not available then this is a conflict
between two requirements of expansion and lack of fund.
In short, we ask decision makers on what they want, apply the Models
to the data we have from the city and tell them the consequences. If
the results are the same as required, then we set up the policies on
how to proceed with that design. If not, we ask the decision makers
to modify their requirements. Policy makers draw the future scopes
of the city.
This plan indicates where the best places are for houses,
apartments, stores, offices, factories, warehouses, parks,
playgrounds, farms, roads, bridges and sewer systems.
Today, the planning field is concerned with more than just how we
use our land. It also takes into consideration things like water
conservation, pollution, jobs, recycling, building codes, zoning
regulations, and traffic congestion.
There are many specialties within the planning field such as
transportation planning, housing and community development planning,
health and human services planning, and environmental planning, to
name a few.
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