Land reconversion strategy for Kabul urban development

Abstract

Since 2001 after the fall of Taliban around 6 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, who have chosen to move to the large cities of Afghanistan, particularly to Kabul. The massive waves of returnees and inflows of social-economic migrants have made Kabul the fastest growing city in the world, which creates various problems for the city to deal with. (Feenstra, 2010) The formal sector, which includes the ministries, municipality and international assistance communities, is suffering from intergovernmental conflicts. More importantly the formal planning, Master plan 1978, fails to provide the inhabitants with basic needs, such as adequate shelter, urban utilities and security. Therefore the big Warlords are partially fulfilling these needs and hence seizing more power and territory within the city through land grabbing and illegal urban development. The proposal of the graduation project is to develop sites in cooperation with public and private stakeholders. The development of Strategic sites promotes an adaptable, inclusive and non-rigid approach, which is a tool toward local development aiming to improve overall quality of life, as well as economic and social prosperity. This new way of thinking will provide ground to address the complex and interwoven issues of Kabul in a more comprehensible and small way, rather than one expensive blueprint such as master plan, which does not incorporate the changes and stakeholders into the planning process.