21st Century (2000–present)

Amman Metropolitan Growth Plan

2008 · Jordan · Middle East & Turkey · Regional & polycentric planning · Planned by Greater Amman Municipality
Amman Metropolitan Growth Plan: primary growth areas (settlement built-up and expansion, metropolitan corridors and growth centres) against limited- and no-growth natural, agricultural and heritage areas
Amman Metropolitan Growth Plan: primary growth areas (settlement built-up and expansion, metropolitan corridors and growth centres) against limited- and no-growth natural, agricultural and heritage areas · © Greater Amman Municipality — used with credit · Greater Amman Municipality, Metropolitan Growth Plan (2008), reproduced in Abu Al Haija & Potter (2013), University of Reading CentAUR

Core idea

Hilltop polycentric structure

Why it matters

Guides rapid growth amid topographic limits

Description

The Amman Metropolitan Growth Plan of 2008, prepared by the Greater Amman Municipality with an international advisory team, is a growth-management framework for the Jordanian capital. Responding to rapid expansion driven by regional migration and investment pressure, it proposes a polycentric structure adapted to Amman's hilltop topography, defines growth corridors and intensification areas, introduces interim growth boundaries, and sets rules for high-rise development that had begun to appear unplanned across the city.

Significance

The plan is a notable Middle Eastern example of strategic growth management undertaken by a municipality rather than a national ministry, produced quickly in response to a speculative building boom. It is discussed as an attempt to reconcile rapid capital-city growth with topographic constraint and urban character, and as a case of internationally assisted planning capacity-building in the Arab world.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.