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العربية
One group asks “Most of Kuwait’s land is empty, why don’t you build residential areas? Why don’t you build border cities?” Another group says “Cultivate the land, we don’t want ready-made houses!”
The attached maps show the natural urban and population expansion over decades for four countries with varying areas, population, geography, and economy:
– Bahrain
– Hong Kong
– China
– India
The common factors in all cases are:
– Urban expansion is gradual and interconnected
– Expansion occurs over many decades
– It happens in response to natural population growth, not due to imported labor
– Expansion is accompanied by economic developments, usually positive
– It’s not just for providing government housing
– Usually results in cities with integrated services, goals, and mixed uses
– Expansion doesn’t cause social disruption or generational fragmentation
– Travel times between residential and work areas remain reasonable for most residents (15 minutes)
– Expansion doesn’t strain state services and transportation, both private and public
– Strong public administration in all new phases
These expansion patterns and factors are constant for all countries worldwide, with Kuwait being the only exception. Those who tried to invent another approach failed (search for: ghost cities in China).
Most importantly, urban expansion isn’t just about building government residential welfare cities, where housing lands are distributed before everything else, followed immediately by a festival of profiteering and trading by some beneficiaries, preceded by contracting companies.
Kuwait’s areas and suburbs outside the wall that were established after the oil boom don’t follow what’s happening currently.
