Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

In a bid to catch up with the vast and rapid Urban Neoliberal Developments that hit the Middle East, Amman’s authorities and developers have initiated one of the most ambitious urban restructuring and spatial transformations of Amman’s image and urban topography. Al-Abdali regeneration project; the New Downtown Business District is conceived as an avant-garde high-end project that would not only reorient Amman’s socioeconomic compass, but also redirect its environmental spatial coordinates. This paper examines to what extent adopting Beirut (SOLIDERE) interactive modern-regional urbanism and simulating Dubai hyper images influence Amman’s Image-ability. Furthermore, whether Amman city and society are elevating from that outstanding development and whether those developments took into consideration the sustainable urban design theories and applications. Above all, what kind of development impacts, influences, and challenges have been generated in both Amman’s old-conservative and new-liberal image-ability. Using an image-ability measurement criterion, this research evaluates the impact of Al-Abdali’s new design as a parameter in changing the identity of its context. Thus, this paper aims to clarify the role of the visual properties in defining, changing, and transforming the identity of the city.