1. Revalidating Organic Unity
Introducing the ‘Organic Gated Community’ development process

2. Introduction 1

3. Typical shortcomings of Gated Communities in Egypt :
Gated community = a cluster of housing units surrounded by walls and closed off by gates from adjacent streets. An inner network of streets connects the Gated Communities from within and prevents the entry of passing traffic
Typical shortcomings of Gated Communities in Egypt :
The tendency to omit basic /vital services and activities
Physical isolation from the surrounding urban fabric
A resultant fragmented urban fabric
Low population densities +large buildings / segregated services that are out of walking distances=increased costs and diminished sense of place
Social seclusion and provocation
Much research is needed to investigate urban design theories and practices that can bring a halt to the rise of these shortcomings in new Gated Communities (under development) in the country.`

4. -Rehumanize the shape and circumstances of the act of living
In relevance to this subject, a concept highly worthy of investigation is Organic Unity. Organic Unity is the quality of cohesion and wholeness found between different yet interdependent parts within an object.
Aristotle elaborated on Organic Unity as the process of originating a common ‘thread’ that keeps a theme from becoming broken and disjointed
Why is Organic Unity a promising solution for the shortcomings of Gated Communities?
The ability of Organic Unity as a quality that can be originated through a process to:
-Rehumanize the shape and circumstances of the act of living
-Healing and Reknitting the urban fabric into an Organic whole that is greater than a group of individual /different parts
Bill Hillier
Jane Jacobs
Christopher Alexander
Daniel Kemmis
Fueled by these potential benefits, Organic Unity shows a promising potential to Combat the derogatory triad of: Isolation/ Fragmentation/ Placelessness

5. The aim of this paper is formulate and apply a process of Organic Unity that governs the development of Gated Communities in Egypt while combating typical shortcomings.
The ensuing goal is to custom-tailor a process of Organic Unity that fits the current Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technologic, Ecologic and Legal (PESTEL) circumstances
This goal is especially designed to demonstrate, test and, if needed, revalidate the ability of Organic Unity to overcome the typical shortcomings associated with Gated Communities in the country

6. Organic Unity as an urban design process: noted attempts2

7. More explicit insights about Organic Unity as a process?
Examining noted attempts to originate Organic Unity (as a process) is a logical starting point for meeting this quest
More explicit insights about Organic Unity
as a process?
Several contemporary urban design practices have the tendency to originate a quality of Organic Unity in urban developments.
Jane Jacobs: Addressing problems of organized complexity in modern cities through dealing simultaneously with a sizeable number of factors which are interrelated into an organic whole
Exuberant diversity four conditions:
The district must serve more than one primary function
Most blocks must be short
The district must mingle buildings that vary in age and condition
There must be a sufficiently dense concentration of people.
Ensuing questions?
How to start implementing the four conditions, in which urban fabrics ,under what circumstances and on what scale.
Responsiveness
Placemaking
New Urbanism
The four conditions of exuberant diversity stand as an important milestone on the route to originate Organic Unity through deliberate processes

8. Seven rules of organic unity: Piecemeal growth
Three decades later, Christopher Alexander dogmatized Organic Unity as a process in ‘A New Theory of Urban Design’
Alexander sought a process that has the creation of wholeness as its overriding purpose, and in which every increment of construction, no matter how small, is devoted to this purpose. He stipulated that every new act of construction has just one basic obligation: it must create a continuous structure of wholes around itself
Seven rules of organic unity:
Piecemeal growth
The growth of larger wholes
Visions
Positive urban space
Layout of large buildings
Construction
Formation of centers
A design proposal for an area of approx. thirty acres on San Francisco waterfront
The proposal fueled the injection of 89 design projects (including warehouses, hotels, fishing piers, a music hall and a public square) into the site
Three decades later, Christopher Alexander dogmatized Organic Unity as a process in ‘A New Theory of Urban Design’

9. The growth scenario proceeded:
Alexander introduced Organic Unity as a process mimics the growth scenarios of ‘natural / traditional cities
Site before development
The growth scenario proceeded:
In a seemingly free manner, as an adaptive generative process , without abiding to plot lines or common zoning /municipal codes, without a predetermined urban plan ,
Site after development
In order to provide a sound logic for this growth scenario, the students participating in the proposal were asked to hypothetically imagine themselves as developers and representatives of community groups. On the other hand, Alexander (along with other professors) took the role of an evaluation committee responsible for guiding the growth process.

11. According to Alexander: Participation will create chaos
it was Alexander himself who admitted in the introduction to ‘A New Theory of Urban Design’ that his process of Organic Unity is “full of holes and incomplete.”
One of the major holes is negligence to include the public in the decision making process.
According to Alexander: Participation will create chaos
A further investigation of the logic behind this growth scenario revealed that The entire team was attentive to the specificity of the urban fabric and the proper design tools
However, no explicit attentiveness or awareness was paid to other important realistic circumstances: designated density ratios, economic feasibility of the projects ,environmental behavior.
seven rules of Organic Unity are quite significant to the aim of this paper because they were explicitly formulated to originate Organic Unity, as a quality, through deliberate processes which are applicable to new developments under initiation.

12. Understanding the Organic Unity-Gated Communities discrepancy3

13. Security and defense purposes Tight communal unit
While attempting to formulate and apply a more realistic/participatory process of Organic Unity in Egyptian Gated Communities, Siwa presented itself as a worthy case of investigation.
The ancient fortress of Siwa, known as the Shali Ghadi (Shali being the name of the town, and Ghadi meaning remote) was built upon a natural rock (an inselberg).
The Shali town exhibits a unified fabric of buildings and spaces that do not abide to clear cut land plots or zoning lines.
however, several realistic circumstances guided the growth scenario of this very early model (dating back to 1206) of Gated Communities in Egypt:
Security and defense purposes
Tight communal unit
High fluxes of solar radiation
Marsh land and inadequate drainage
All of these factors lead to construction of The town as a fortress surrounded by A girdle wall with one entrance while Enclosing streets that are narrow and meandering

14. The organic growth scenario of the Shali fortress is not an easily replicable process. In the real world
The question facing the desire to originate Organic Unity under realistic circumstances is how to define, design and position spaces and buildings (the main constituents of the urban fabric) in a manner that ‘ frees’ them to grow cohesively into each other while giving rise to an organic whole.

15. There is a discrepancy associated with this question because contemporary Gated Communities commonly play on privatization as a means of increasing the selling potential, achieving social supremacy and providing dwellers with a sense of security
Gated Communities commonly employ rectilinear or curvilinear urban grids and street networks. Surrounded by high impenetrable walls, these grids and street patterns are forcefully inserted into the urban fabric only to decrease connectedness and result in the fragmentation of towns and cities.
On the opposite front, and by definition, Open Communities ideally attempt to establish connections with the broader city fabric. In doing so, Open Communities call upon radial/treed grids and street patterns that augment connectivity and integration with the urban fabric.

16. Discussion of Procedure
Introducing the Organic Gated Community (OGC) process 4

17. How to start the Organic Unity process?
The main aim of this paper is to employ Organic Unity as a process that can govern the development and eliminate the shortcomings of Gated Communities in Egypt.
However, from the discussions made so far, it is deducible that this paper’s aim can be faced by serious questions:
How to start the Organic Unity process?
Where to apply it ? And on what scale of urban developments?
How to overcome the discrepancy of applying Organic Unity in a genre of development that is based on privatization (or in other words:)
How to maintain a sense of privatization (in order to increase the selling potential of Gated Communities) without hindering the ability of Organic Unity to add coherence and wholeness to the urban fabric.
The following section attempts to revalidate the abilities of Organic Unity to overcome the typical shortcomings of Gated Communities in Egypt through a custom tailored process that is specially designed for implementation in the country.

18. It might be useful to start with ‘dissecting’ new Gated Communities under development in Egypt into smaller scale developments.
As Jacobs argues, smaller building blocks are relatively more apt to result in exuberant diversity
Similarly, Alexander rules of piecemeal growth and larger wholes imply the presence of smaller centers
However, the desire to free the urban fabric to grow without well defined land plots is highly unrealistic in a country like Egypt.
Not abiding by land plots amplifies the difficulty of obtaining construction/buying licenses and the unwillingness of investors and buyers to give up the allure of privatization.

19. Based on these arguments, the paper is encouraged to introduce the Organic Gated Communities (hence forward referred to as OGC) development process.
The idea of this process is to delineate a small number of houses and services inside a larger Open Community
The process recommends :
mixing different grids and
allotting different land plot dimensions.
This way the OGCs can manage to:
preserve the integrity and openness of urban fabrics
maintain a harmless sense of privatization and socio-economic supremacy
facilitate the process of obtaining construction licenses
facilitate the process of investing and selling development projects
The endeavor to parametrically define the OGC characteristics into rigid numbers is obsolete in this growth scenario as the communities are freed to be shaped under realistic circumstances.

20. Site before development
Site after development

21. The OGC is intended as the basic building block which will give rise to the neighbourhood and eventually the district.
An organically unified OGC+ An organically unified OGC + An organically unified OGC= An organically unified neighbourhood.
Similarly:
An organically unified neighbourhood+ An organically unified neighbourhood + An organically unified neighbourhood =An organically unified district

22. These circumstances include: The location of the Gated Community
The circumstances which should be allowed to influence the growth of OGCs can be quite diverse as they extend over different PESTEL fronts to represent the forces which actually shape life in contemporary cities.
These circumstances include:
The location of the Gated Community
The nature of designated users
Available funds and investment scenarios
The architectural style of the surrounding built environment
The diversity of these circumstances and the particularity of each single circumstance is what would originate OGCs of different physical, economic and socio-cultural characteristics.
OGCs of different characteristics should be interconnected together while giving rise to an urban fabric of closely packed buildings and spaces that lead to one another and while achieving the cohesion and wholeness stipulated by the pursuit of Organic Unity

23. However, in real life implementation scenarios, it is not always an easy task to prioritize the realistic circumstances
The diversity of realistic circumstances can be misleading/unclear in terms of the resultant quality of living in the OGCs.
When developed only in relevance to the particular needs of each OGC, services and activities can still get neglected or segregated
Leaving the growth process to develop without any sort of cost estimations or calculations can lead to higher living expenses and massive initial investments.
Developing OGCs under realistic forces without any aesthetic or physical considerations can lead to identity-less urban fabrics or, even worse, urban fabrics with mutated or visually unpleasing/chaotic physical identities.
Realistic circumstances should be allowed to exert their influences on the growth process of the OGCs while freeing buildings and spaces to grow into an organic whole yet without jeopardizing the quality of living, inducing more costs or leading to chaotic growth patterns.

24. Considerations for implementing the OGC development process5

25. Achieving ecologic and economic sustainability
Aspects of ecologic and economic sustainability are especially important in Egypt n light of the high pollution levels and increased costs of living in the country.
Achieving ecologic and economic sustainability
In Egypt, closely packed buildings:
have a better chance of thermal regulation
can stimulate wind currents for further climatic control
mean better chances of rain water harvesting for domestic uses
All of these benefits result in lesser dependencies on non renewable energy resources , reduced pollutants emission as well as more economic savings.

26. Allowing modifiability along time
An important aspect of economic sustainability is allowing modifiability along time
Allowing modifiability along time
Organic Unity processes should allow changes (modifications) along time
Buildings and spaces of the OGCs should be allowed to vertically and horizontally expand in the future
A valuable guideline is to always consider leaving room for horizontal and vertical expansion at the initiation phase of the OGC.
These are quite important aspects of ecologic and economic sustainability in Egypt especially in light of the high pollution levels and increased costs of living in the country.

27. Finding the right horizontal expansion/density correlation
On the urban design level , (which is the main scope of this paper), the paper calls upon a number of considerations that are directly associated with the PESTEL conditions in Egypt.
Finding the right horizontal expansion/density correlation
OGCs can be strategically placed) on the outskirts of cities (cheaper land areas) as a nucleus for future urban development
The real advantage in this development scenario is stimulating horizontal expansion (a counter measure against urban sprawl).
However, stimulating horizontal expansions lowers the population densities.
Lower densities are also a hindrance to Organic Unity. Jane Jacobs argue that ‘there must be a sufficiently dense concentration of people’ in order to stimulate exuberant diversity and achieve Organic Unity.

28. In Egypt, the density recommended by master planning authorities of new settlements is commonly around 200 persons per acre.
 A mix of single family houses and high rise apartments buildings can help achieve high concentrations of people in relatively small surface areas .
Insisting on finding the right horizontal expansion/density correlation (through a mix of high rise apartment buildings and low rise blocks) is a countermeasure against low densities and negligence to include greenery in OGCs.
A valuable guide to achieve this quest is to consider the sustainable aspect of the developments.

29. Advocating privacy/security instead of privatization/ seclusion
In Egypt, privacy and security are major concerns for home occupants.
Advocating privacy/security instead of privatization/ seclusion
The ability to differentiate between the notions of privacy /security on one hand and privatization/seclusion on the other is the key to understand the discrepancy between the act of imprisoning people and the act of providing a high quality habitat.
A simple tactic would be to delineate the OGC using a short and visually accessible fence.
The underlying logic is that privacy and security are both achievable in urban fabrics without diminishing the sense of ownership, security or the zeal for socio-economic supremacy.

30. Variety and the right mix of uses:
There has been a long standing tendency in Egypt to invest in Gated Communities as housing congregations without adequate services.
Variety and the right mix of uses:
The OGC development process strives to include central service areas.
This brings to mind the small and discernible centers that are recommended d by New Urbanism.
By allowing the centers of the constituent OGCs to flow into the center of the neighbourhood, these services can be redistributed to leak into the boundaries of the surrounding OGCs.
This way the inhabitants of each OGC are invited to commute to other OGCs while enhancing the opportunities of social interaction and enhancing the economic vitality of the entire centre.

31. The decision making process
In Egypt, central to the protection of the newly nascent democracy is encouraging public involvement in decision making processes.
The decision making process
The decision making process
Omnipotence in decision making of designs should not normally be a challenge to projects which are seeking to employ the processes of Organic Unity.
The process of developing OGCs strive to offer a well-controlled yet democratic bottom–up redevelopment approach that is based on participatory democracy
The ensuing questions revolve around :
-what is meant by the public,
-to what extent should they be engaged and
-how to address them in a manner that is beneficial to the growth process of urban fabrics into organic wholes and can at the same time increase the selling potential of the OGCs

32. Several indicators insinuate that is possible
The claim that public participation would create chaos can be understood in light of several issues
The past few years have demonstrated how new technologies can allow an unprecedented number of people in countries like Egypt to collaborate
It is therefore logical to ask: Could these very technologies have an impact on the growth pattern of OGCs? Could they lead to a more democratic, bottom-up approach to urbanism?
Several indicators insinuate that is possible
Information /Communication Technology (ICT) as Real-time Information Technologies are making the general public participation possible to an unprecedented extent.

33. The clear-cut rungs of the Shelly Arnstein ladder are particularly beneficial in guiding and assessing the nature and degree of public participation achievable in the OGC process.
Rungs 3-5 should be the minimum requirements for initiating the OGC process.
Communication channels are one way to initiate public involvement (rung 3: Informing).
Engaging the public (rung 4: Consultation) is a further positive step.
Allowing the pubic to sit on planning boards (rung 5: Placation) can deepen and ramify the dialogue
The decision making process
The ultimate goal of the OGC process in Egypt is to reach rungs 6 to 8 where power is shared between the government, designers on one hand and citizens on the other.
This is achievable through equal representations on decision making boards (rung 6: Partnerships), assigning specific decision making tasks to the public (rung 7: Delegated Power) and the highest rung at which the public hold the final authority over decisions (rung 8: Citizen Control).

34. The decision making process
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