The Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) and the Amman Institute for Urban Development (Ai) hosted a lecture entitled, “From Documentation to Policy-Making: Managing Old Aleppo’s Built Heritage” by Dr. Luna Khirfan, Visiting Fellow at CUMERC’s Institute for Scholars, Ai Fellow, and Assistant Professor at the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. The well-attended lecture was held at CUMERC on Wednesday February 16, 2011. http://www.ammaninstitute.com/blog/columbia-university-middle-east-research-center-and-amman-institute-urban-development-host-lect

1. Dr. Luna Khirfan
CUMERC, Visiting Fellow 2011
Assistant Professor
The University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
© Luna Khirfan

2. © Luna Khirfan

3. 1. High Fixed Costs
¨ Tools ¨ Strategies
¡ Marketing ¡ Unique Selling Preposition
¡ Infrastructure ¡ Place-as-Product
¡ Urban design ¡ Historic Preservation
Consequences
• Prioritizing the economy
• Prioritizing tourists needs
• Excluding local reisdents
© Luna Khirfan

4. 2. Global Demand / Local Products
¨ Tools ¨ Strategies
¡ Disneyfication ¡ Homogenization
ú Standardization
ú Quality control
¡ Legitimization ¡ Commodification
¡ Staging
Consequences
• Deterioration of tourist experience
• Disapproval & alienation of locals
• Loss of distinctiveness
• Threat to sustainability
© Luna Khirfan

5. © Luna Khirfan

6. Current Planning
Place-as-Product
Planners
Unique Selling Proposition
=
Distinctiveness
Place experience • Planning?
• Sustainability?
Residents
Practice
• Needs & interests Place experience
• Choices Tourists
• Empowerment
Distinctive cultural
Reality experience
Theory
© Luna Khirfan

7. © Luna Khirfan

8. Aleppo
© Luna Khirfan

9. © Luna Khirfan

10. World Heritage List
Selection Criteria
Criterion Criterion details
iii Unique testimony to a cultural tradition / civilization
iv Outstanding example that illustrates a significant
historical stage
© Luna Khirfan

11. © Luna Khirfan

12. Sampling & Recruitment
Local residents
• Live / work
• Every 10th unit
• In person
3 groups of
respondents
Foreign tourists Planners
• > 1 year • Planning
• English-speaking • Implementation
• In person • Pre-contacted
• In-person
© Luna Khirfan

13. Participants
Planners 8 In-depth interviews
Tourists 41 Structured interviews
Structured interviews
Residents 36
© Luna Khirfan

14. Residents Tourists Planners Place
Tactics
Qualitative Interviews X X X
Observations X X X
Participant-determined X X
Open-ended X X X
Text, images, crafts X X
Cognitive mapping X X X
Verbal descriptions X X X
Documents & archives X X
Correlational Survey X X
Close-ended X X
Score-oriented X X
© Luna Khirfan

15. © Luna Khirfan

16. The Project for the Rehabilitation
of the Old City of Aleppo
© Luna Khirfan http://www.gtz-aleppo.org/urban_management.htm

17. Objectives
¨ Social sustainability
¨ Residents’ quality of life
“… we gave as all of our objectives to the
living conditions and not strictly for tourism
purposes, so we thought that once it is
comfortable to live here people will stay
here and it will become a vital place, a vivid
place, a living place and becomes good,
interesting for tourism”
Aleppo planner
© Luna Khirfan

18. Strategy
¨ Urban design
¨ Historic preservation
© Luna Khirfan

19. Documentation
¨ Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Existing Proposed
© Luna Khirfan Source: Development Plan, Old City Directorate, Aleppo

20. Tools
¨ Regulations
¡ Land use & zoning
¡ Building codes
“A strict policy of control”
© Luna Khirfan

21. Tools
¨ Standardization
© Luna Khirfan

22. Tools
¨ Infrastructure
“The first step to execute
the project’s works in the
Old City was changing the
infrastructure.”
Aleppo planner
“In my personal opinion, the change of the infrastructure in the Old
City was the best thing that took place … the sewerage network
and the water network that were changed and of course some
maintenance of the streets.” Aleppo planner
© Luna Khirfan

23. © Luna Khirfan

24. © Luna Khirfan

25. Local residents’ needs
Local residents are able to include their needs
in the historic preservation and tourism
development projects
Agree / Neutral Strongly disagree /
Strongly agree Disagree
8.8% 0 91.2%
Aleppo s
Economic activities
© Luna Khirfan

26. Local residents’ interests
Level of local authority sharing
Did you participate in the project in any way?
No Yes
86% 14%
Digging went on for months.
They came, dug, and left,
without asking anyone …
Aleppo resident
© Luna Khirfan

27. Planners’ interpretation of what
participation is…
“…we started to build data that is specific to the Old City on
the basis of local residents’ perceptions to a level you might
say 60% technical analyses… the stone … the structure… the
infrastructure…
…they are the ones living in the Old City and know where the
blockage happens and know where all issues are….
…you are unable to build data that is if you don’t take this
information from them this thing will cost you much more
time.” Aleppo planner
© Luna Khirfan

28. © Luna Khirfan

29. Struggles
¨ Displacement
“The trend that is documented was that the
Action Areas of the project are the areas
that witnessed the heaviest exchange of
property rights in 2002 and… the heaviest in
Bab Qinnasrin and Jdeideh and continues to
be so.” Aleppo planner
© Luna Khirfan

30. Struggles
¨ Tourism gentrification
“…and most of the real estate being exchanged is
being exchanged for tourist purposes.” Aleppo planner
© Luna Khirfan

31. Struggles
¨ Socio-economic exclusion
Planners Discount tourism Resisting tourism development
Residents Interested in tourism Excluded from tourism benefits
© Luna Khirfan

32. Struggles
¨ Socio-economic exclusion
“…one of the things that seem to be worrisome over the
long run is that by providing supply side rather than
demand side subsidies or than supporting the
rehabilitation process, [planners] have pushed the lower
end users of the spectrum in favor of people who can
afford to speculate in those properties…” Aleppo planner
© Luna Khirfan

33. Struggles
q Loss of distinctiveness –homogenization
© Luna Khirfan

34. Struggles
q Threat to physical sustainability
– homogenization
© Luna Khirfan

35. Local
participation Needs
Identities
Residents as a Technocrats Homogenization:
data resource assess needs standardization &
quality control
Selectivity “by No response to Suppressing local
invitation” local needs identities
Informing not Supply-side
empowering development
Choices
Intermittent Minimal choices
engagement
© Luna Khirfan

36. Levels of participation
8. Citizen control
7. Delegated power Citizen power
6. Partnership
5. Placation
4. Consultation Tokenism
Aleppo 3. Informing
2. Therapy
Nonparticipation
1. Manipulation
© Luna Khirfan

37. Current Planning
Place-as-Product
Planners
Unique Selling Proposition
=
Distinctiveness
Place experience • Planning?
• Sustainability?
Residents
Practice
• Needs & interests Place experience
• Choices Tourists
• Empowerment
Distinctive cultural
Reality experience
Theory
© Luna Khirfan

38. Proposed Model
Means
Collaborative Planning
Preserves
• Balancing needs
• Local identities
Tourists
Residents • Choices Distinctive
Inclusion
the life Place
Experience
within
Planners
Place-as-Product
Unique Selling Preposition
Urban rehabilitation
© Luna Khirfan

39. © Luna Khirfan