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Information Flow in Flawed Historic Core:
Towards a Sustainable Development
By Ziad Aazam / Friday, 6th July 2012 / Capitalism, Community,
Digital Empowerment,Digital Possibilities, Historic City, Life
Architecture, Network, Regeneration, Social Cohesion,Sustainable
Development / Leave a comment /The issue of historic cores
livability may be tackled from the spatial and networkingviewpoint.
The process of regeneration is not only physical rehabilitation but
also human andsocial restoration. Essentially, the problem of any
sustainable development, includingregeneration and revitalization
of decaying historic cores or slums, relates to social cohesionand
economic prosperity in relation to the strata of the society. The
built (artificial) and naturalenvironments, which are simply
integrated contexts, catalysts, settings, containers andphysical
forms for humans and their social system (society), are secondary
problems to that ofsocio-economic issues of any sustainable
development.
The approach and methodology for any sustainable development has
to envision a socio-economic systems sitting within physical
(artificial and natural) systems. All thesecomponents of society,
economy and artificial/natural environments work together
inintegrated flow. For example, take the historic core of Jeddah,
there is an evident flow butupon close examination you will realize
unpleasant flaws. To realize these existing
flows/flaws in Al-Balad, one needs to start with human component
applies within a particularcontext, whether environmental
(artificial and natural), social milieu or economic; i.e. the
flowis Human/Context based. To understand this coupled human-led
approach to perceivingflows, consider the following examples: Flow
of pedestrians/pavements (human/physical-built) is flawed physical
condition. Flow of spirit/architectural aesthetics is flawed
visualcondition. Flow of health/utilities is flawed hygienic
condition. Flow ofconsumers/commercial clusters is actually not
flawed, as this is the only striking livabilitycondition we have in
Al-Balad, but upon examination you will find that it is not a
balancedmix and disconnected from historical continuity, making it
a flawed social condition.
The flow we are concerned with here is Information Flow. The
view is to approach thesustainable development, which is in this
case a regeneration or revitalization of a historiccore of any
city, from an information flow perspective. The information flow in
this case isabout people activities that sit within four contexts
made possible by digital possibilities.
The first context for information flow relates to peoples
experience and intentions in relationto historic core, their
aspirations by mere presence and interaction with the physical
(artificialand natural) environments. Capitalizing on this context
means creating incentives,communicated digitally through websites
and social networks that develop sustainable
presence in the minds and hearts of real people. Real people
here refer to those who perceive,conceive and live with their true
human faculty, not driven by greed and power basedfinancial
capitalism.
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The second context for information flow is about cultural values
and collective harnessing ofpast, present and future material and
non-materials continuity. This is usually approachedsuperficially
in terms of restoration activities, heritage components such
museums and shops.However, information flow is key in
reconstructing continuity in the minds and hearts usingdigital
possibilities, such as interactive GPS-based maps on digital
devices, where informationflows directly and instantly to the
people, as they interact with space-time in the historic core.
The third context for information flow is the material objects
of the digital possibilities whereinformation flow through well
established communication infrastructure and utilities, such asfree
Wi-Fi hotspot zones made possible by developers to increase
commercial values of thearea and render it more attractive to
smaller investors in coffee shops, etc. that attractsdifferent
demographics such the youth.
The fourth context for information flow relates to how other
systems flows are potentiallypossible to integrate with information
flow. Ecosystems, social and economic systems are thethree main
systems that, if worked together in harmonious flow, sustainability
appears at itsbest riding on the arrow of time to future
generations. The information system can potentially
become the base and connector for all other three systems. Take
for example, our modest effortof Jeddahs Heart on Facebook
initiated 10 moths ago aimed at bringing Jeddahs Heart to ourhearts
and visit Al-Balad frequently to make our presence known. This
social movement effortis based on utilizing digital possibilities
through social networks to make an impact on therevitalization
development effort. It has works and we are recognized by SCTA and
the mediain ways were not imagined a decade ago. We have attracted
other efforts such as global LandArt Generator Initiative:
Renewable Energy can be Beautiful. This Social information
flowintegrating with Ecosystem devised art/instruments solutions
can create links with oldnatural environmental sustainable
solutions and bring out more technologically progressive
solutions, where digital possibility can be an integrated part.
The overall publicity of suchactivities, projects, short and long
term plans to bring together integrated flows of these threemain
systems can bring about and accelerate sustainable regeneration and
revitalization ofhistoric core. This approach is in fact inclusive
of both top-down and bottom-up approaches topush for sustainable
development.
Tags: AL-Balad
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Network
Society(http://spacewriting.wordpress.com/tag/network-society/)
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