JO Magazine

Urban planning consultant Raed Kolaghassi discusses the housing crisis, the need for better neighborhoods, and the process of bringing new life to old buildings.

Interview by Laith Abou-Ragheb.

 

RAED KOLAGHASSI SPENT MORE than 10 years in the United States, working on historical regeneration projects in such places as Washington, DC. Today heʼs back in Amman as the managing director of 2K, a consulting firm that specializes in architecture, planning and engineering. Kolaghassi is a proponent of doing major redevelopment in the older parts of Amman, particularly Jabal Amman, and JO spoke to him about the potential for redevelopment of the cityʼs old neighborhoods.

 

HOW MUCH POTENTIAL IS THERE IN AMMAN FOR REDEVELOPING OLD STRUCTURES TO MEET NEW USES?

We’ve worked with private investors to study the Jabal Amman area, from First Circle to the Balad. Several studies were carried out to document buildings, to evaluate the potential reuse for the area and to see what possible development opportunities there are to enhance it. We found that

the area has great potential for redevelopment, and it’s been a real missed opportunity that it hasn’t happened so far.

Jordan’s experience of adaptive reuse has so far been very limited. Successful restoration projects have been carried out in places like Salt and Ma’an, but here in Amman it’s been a different story. Jabal Amman is not considered a historic destination. The area has been neglected for so long, yet it contains some of the most beautiful architecture the city has to offer. For most tourists, Amman is just West Amman.

If you want to encourage people to go back to Jabal Amman, then you have to provide something substantial there. You need to have residential and commercial buildings as well as attractions for both local and international visitors. The area has so much more potential. Besides Jabal Amman, there are other areas that are ripe for redevelopment, including the Balad, Jabal Al Weibdeh, Ras Al ‘Ein, Wadi Amman and parts of East Amman like the Zarqa Gateway, which could be transformed into something really beautiful.

WHAT EXAMPLES OF ADAPTIVE REUSE HAVE THERE BEEN SO FAR IN AMMAN?

There have been very few projects on a big scale. Some old villas have been renovated to be used as restaurants, with Fakhr El Din being a good example. It’s encouraging to see old, empty buildings used in this way, rather than letting them become run down. But an even better solution is to actually have people doing up these villas to live in, as we’ve started to see along Zahran Street. But there need to be guidelines for these homes, when renovating them, to preserve their architectural heritage. You can’t have people buy an old house and just allow them to rip up its original floors to lay down marble, for example. This isn’t what renovation is about.

SOME LARGER, INNER-CITY RENOVATION PROJECTS, SUCH AS BEIRUT’S CENTRAL DISTRICT, HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING GENTRIFIED BY DEVELOPERS. DO YOU THINK THERE IS A DANGER OF THIS HAPPENING IN PLACES LIKE JABAL AMMAN?

This is not what anyone wants. What I would like to see is people of all social backgrounds living and working in the area. But at the same time, I would like to see people come to the area from outside for things like entertainment and shopping. When visitors come to Amman, they need to witness something that makes the city special, unique and authentic. We believe if you work with the right developers, you can provide this authentic factor along with modern living and working conditions.

YOU SAY YOU WOULD LIKE ANY REDEVELOPMENT TO TARGET A BROAD SOCIAL MIX OF PEOPLE. BUT SURELY IT WILL HAVE TO TARGET RELATIVELY WEALTHY PEOPLE IF PRIVATE DEVELOPERS ARE BACKING THE PROJECT FINANCIALLY?

Not necessarily. It depends on how you choose to complete the projects. Typically around the world, the aim of regeneration projects has been to lift the living standards of an area. [Developers] tend to perform a lot of work, which ends up costing them money, and sometimes they need to remove the previous tenants from the area. Different cities have different solutions for that. In the West, a number of housing units are set aside for low-income families, which works very well.

HOW MUCH OF AMMAN'S HOUSING SHORTAGE CAN BE MET THROUGH THE ADAPTIVE REUSE OF OLD BUILDINGS?

Not much, to be frank. The housing needs of Amman and Jordan as a whole are huge. If we’re looking at the Jabal Amman and First Circle area, then [the stock of old buildings is] too small in scale to meet what’s required. I don’t think there’s an existing neighborhood in Amman that can provide the solution to the housing problem. You need major developments and planning for the city. If these were implemented, it would be great.

But the key is how to create new housing communities that are sustainable and socially responsible. I think we face a problem here. We’re looking to create mass, low-income housing. Are we doing something that will truly benefit [the projectsʼ] residents? Or are we just pushing them into a corner? We don’t want to create ghettos. In historical terms, many mass-housing projects have been unsuccessful. We have to be very careful not to make the same mistakes.

HOW HAVE CITIES TYPICALLY GONE ABOUT ADOPTING THE STRATEGY FOR REDEVELOPING THEIR OLDER AREAS?

There are two ways this can come about. First, the city authorities can create incentives for this to happen. In the United States and Europe, tax breaks are provided. Here, there’s no such thing. So unless they start implementing something like that, then people will be reluctant to go back and invest in these properties.

The other option is having a major developer turn up that understands the [cityʼs] vision and is willing to meet the cost because they’re not looking at an individual building, but rather an entire area. This becomes a more feasible alternative when you have a lack of legislation to encourage reconstruction or restoration. This has occurred in major cities like London, St. Petersburg and Barcelona, and on a smaller scale in parts of the Middle East like the Gulf.

When most cities realize they have the opportunity to regenerate an area, they start by providing a set of guidelines. For example, if the area they want to target was once purely commercial, regulations would be introduced to change its status to a mixed-use area. Furthermore, authorities would have to look at upgrading run-down utilities such as water and electricity systems. Accessibility to the site would have to be addressed, as the older parts of many cities have narrow roads that are not designed for heavy traffic. Turning them into pedestrian areas is one solution this, but there must be off-site parking and an efficient mass transport system in place at the same time. We don’t have either in Amman at the moment.

We must also remember that every city is unique—what works well in one city might not work well in another. We need to study other examples from elsewhere to see if we can adapt certain solutions to use here.