Urban Form and Life in Tripoli, Libya: Maintaining Cultural Heritage

This book charts the city of Tripoli’s rapid economic, environmental, and physical transformation, investigating how these new developments have failed to incorporate the cultural and historic values of the urban fabric. As a result, the city is juxtaposed between traditional and modern urban forms. Urban Form and Life in Tripoli, Libya: Maintaining Cultural Heritage seeks to address this imbalance and argues for greater understanding of local culture and heritage and how this can be enhanced and preserved in future city developments. It explores the challenges of enabling growth and development to accommodate an increasing population and their changing requirements, whilst sustaining the unique cultural and individual characteristics of place. It traces the evolution of urban form and evaluates street quality and life within the city centre of Tripoli, which represents one of the most central, valued and iconic environments in Libya. It interprets the early urban structure, covering the traditional old town and the colonial urban developments, which includes the Italian Quarter and the Garden City. Through the case study city, the book presents a wider approach for understanding how design can be informed by a deeper knowledge of the structural mechanisms of evolution and change in built form. It will appeal to academics, researchers and students interested in urban history, Islamic architecture, and cultural studies.