This research discusses the urban design of the waterfront, which means the lands adjacent to water bodies or water ways. Although many cities compete in the development of such areas, policies of waterfront development in Egypt suffer from some shortcomings. Because there are no sufficient regulations that control its urban development. Thus, this research seeks to develop a system of guidelines that ensure the efficiency of river front urban design, and achieve the best functional and visual benefit from their potentialities. To attain this objective, the research is divided into four parts. The first and the second parts contain the theoretical study, the third part contains the case study, and finally the fourth part contains the conclusion and the recommendations.
The first part deals with the basic concepts of waterfront development. It explicates the potentialities of those regions, and explains their development methods in the past and modern eras, and compared between them. It detected that there are five approaches to develop such areas, the first is the urban approach, the second is the morphological, the third is the environmental, the fourth is the legislative and the fifth is the social development.
The second part explains the principles of the urban design of waterfronts, at the level of spaces and structures. It indicates five design guidelines for waterfront spaces. The first identifies the most appropriate uses of those spaces. The Second principle is concerned with the ratio of public spaces among them (i.e. the area of public promenades, plazas and gardens). The third principle is concerned with the accessibility to the river from the town, at the level of both pedestrians and vehicles. The fourth principle pertains to the visibility of water along the river front spaces. Finally, the fifth principle is concerned with the efficiency of landscape elements to achieve the requirements of recreational activities.
The design guidelines of waterfront buildings also contain five principles. The first one indicates the suitable uses of those buildings. The second is concerned with the character quality of waterfront collective facade. The third pertains to the homogeneity of its skyline. The fourth is concerned with its landmarks, and the quality of their form, location, height, exposure and symbolic meaning. Finally, the fifth pertains to permeability among buildings, and connectivity through the urban tissue.
The third part deals with the applied study, which is an analysis of the Nile river front in Greater Cairo (from the 15th of May Bridge at the north, to Abbas Bridge at the south), according to the previous guidelines. The most important shortcoming that has been noted in the river front spaces is the lack of public spaces adjacent directly to the river, and their limited area, due to the spread of private uses along the Nile berm. Also the vehicles ways parallel to the river isolate it from the town, and threaten pedestrians and recreational activities along it. Also, high structures of the berm and tall fences of private uses block the river view from the public spaces in the bank. As for waterfront buildings, the most widespread problems are their negative character, lack of landmarks and weakness of its visual image. These disadvantages are resulted from visual pollution aspects, and inadequacy of urban legislations, especially associated with character and sky line.
The fourth part contains the conclusion of the study, and it indicates the priorities and recommendations of Nile River front development, at the level of spaces, as well as the level of buildings, and the level of legislations. |
