LAUSR

The urban form of cities plays a key role in achieving high-quality urban environments. Recently, Form-Based Code has been gaining popularity and has become a travelling and universal concept. This paper explores the adaptability of FBC as a universal concept to the local socio-cultural context by analysing the Wadi Hanifa Urban Code. Three methods were used to triangulate the sources of data include review of policy documents, semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis. This paper identifies four key socio-cultural factors that play a significant role in urban and social context of Riyadh: privacy, safety and security, sociability, and architectural character. They play a key role in forming the code at multiple layers, including the transect zoning, regulating plan, and code standards. The process of drafting the code was conducted through a top-down approach with no ‘public engagement’ process, which represents the planning culture and practices in Saudi Arabia. Hence, the adaptation of FBC to the socio-cultural context relied on municipal stakeholders’ and experts’ opinions during workshops and charrettes. However, the paper shows that a hybrid approach to seek public feedback was practiced through the Code Studio, which functioned as a testing phase at a later stage of the code development.