Saida Development

The old city of Saida is a city of layers; the layers of houses, commercial souks, monuments, cafes, etc.. These layers are overshadowed by the city’s crowd and density, both physically and demographically. Even though the city has a lot of physical activity, the disorganization and the poor living conditions create a sense of chaos and emptiness to the place. What happens inside the old city is introverted and disconnected from the rest of Saida, meaning outsiders are not aware of what happens in the old city, and people living in the historic district barely reach the edges of the city for their daily needs. We talk about extroverting the introvert, and we look at the city as a closed box, and our master plan will unfold this box and hence the layers of Saida, turning the old historic district into a porous connection with its edges and beyond. Entrances on the edges around the historic district will act as major connection points enhancing the porosity of the city. By extroverting, we mean getting people out of the city and bringing more people in. The unfolding process creates a series of expansions that host transitional spaces of complementary functions acting as focal nodes in the city. Each function extroverts the city in its own way, but also keeping the city and its functions connected. Since the city equals its people, then moving the people in, out and around the city will reactivate its spirit and open it up to the outside. The people who live in the old city create the city. The series of functions around the old city will connect functionally, socially and economically with the old urban fabric and also joining other functions inside the old city to create a perfect whole.