URBAN PERMEABILITY IN LARGE-SCALE DEVELOPMENTS TO ENHANCE SPATIAL NAVIGATION: THE CASE OF EDUCATION CITY IN QATAR

Abstract

Many large-scale urban developments in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) were initially built for cars, giving less priority to human scale and their perception of the space around them. Sustainable environmental and social initiatives try to mitigate such decisions by overlaying and prioritizing walkable routes in the city. This study focuses on Education City in Qatar since this development has the potential to implement mitigation techniques to make the city more user-friendly in various aspects, including enhancing the experience of walkability, spatial navigation, and sense of place. The procedure and methods used to conduct this study involve post-occupancy urban evaluation of Education City using checklists, site visits, conference attendance, interviews, and producing visual representations and cognitive maps. The results of this study propose a design intervention that incorporates urban pockets within the urban fabric to make the campus barrier-free with blurred boundaries and thus achieve a more permeable design. The design intervention is visualized using a 3D digital model via SketchUp software. The research concludes by showing the significance of qualitative research in addressing critical challenges faced in this urban design intervention.