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This study reconceptualises the process of transition in order to understand the dynamics of urbanisation in a post-socialist context, with the focus on the process of transition from Soviet to post-Soviet Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Against the dominant, academic, and expert narrative of "demodernisation", or the reduction of the post-socialist transition to economic, political, and societal regression, this dissertation offers an alternative conceptualisation and methodology of urban change in Tashkent between 1966 and 2016. Based on the theory of Henri Lefebvre and its subsequent, critical appropriations, this dissertation conceptualises urban change as the process of reproduction of space. Reproduction of space is understood as the negotiation of continuities and ruptures between the multiple practices of space production, including material, representational, and quotidian. In particular, reproduction of space is studied by focusing on the changing, historically specific relationships between "Uzbek" and "Soviet" practices of space production in three major buildings constructed after 1966 in Tashkent, and their afterlives during the post-socialist period: the Poytakht Business Centre, the Zhemchug Apartment Building, and the Chorsu Bazaar. Besides contributing to the architectural and urban history of Tashkent, this dissertation makes three conceptual and methodological contributions. First, it offers a framework for the rethinking of urban transition to and within the post-socialist contexts, challenging both the vision of a homogenous, Soviet urbanism and that of its reversal after the end of the Soviet regime. Second, by using archival research and ethnographic methods, this study develops Lefebvre's "regressive-progressive method" which combines the analysis of the present condition and practices of architecture and its users with changes to the building over time. Third, it shows how architecture can be studied not as a reflection of societal and urban change but as an instrumental participant in them.

This thesis explores how modern urbanisation has been fathomed and projected in Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria. Focusing on three particular infrastructural projects, it excavates, behind the explosive and informal dynamics characterising Lagos' expansion today, the ambivalent trajectory of modernisation that, since the late nineteenth century, has informed its historical development. The first project this thesis examines is the railway built by the British colonial regime between 1880 and 1901. The second one is the large-scale housing project designed by the Greek office Doxiadis Associates between 1972 and 1980. The third one is the master plan sketched out by the Dutch Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in 2008, as part of the research project that Rem Koolhaas, its principal architect, has conducted there since 1996. Based on the original plans, correspondence and reports through which these projects were designed, and on extensive research done on Nigerian newspapers published in Lagos during these different periods, this research describes complex design trajectories, understood as different systems of relations between the means each project mobilised, the context in which they deployed, and the aims they pursued. Bound to Lagos' history, this analysis also provides entry points in the logic that historically informed modern planning. Analysed in relation to the programme that informed the construction of the Crystal Palace, in London, the same year as Lagos was conquered by the British Empire, in 1851, the three projects this thesis explores are ultimately understood as dynamic devices whose logic can be identified, through the successive although interrelated figures of the plough, the platform, and the plot, according to the progressive deepening of the way in which they interiorised contingency. By understanding Lagos as the mirror image of the Crystal Palace, it ultimately presents this city as a paradigmatic site providing resources to rethink what the disciplines of spatial design such as architecture, design, and planning can do in relation to urban dynamics that are today increasingly considered beyond their reach.

Built heritage sites, which symbolise, represent and reveal valuable parts of any nation, require special attention including a visionary policy covering regulations, legislation and so on. Built heritage conservation policy worldwide has developed in the last four decades towards using heritage sites for tourism development. This thesis attempts to explain the evolution of built heritage conservation policy in Saudi Arabia, from the first conservation efforts in the 1970s to 2015, through the case study of Historic Jeddah. Jeddah is an ancient costal city on the Red Sea. Considered the main gateway to the holy cities of Makkah and Al-Medina since the 7th century, it has grown and developed with notable Islamic influence. The defensive wall which stood from 1509 to 1947 preserved the ancient city to the present day, where the remainder of the historic walled city is called Historic Jeddah. This is the only historic urban centre in Saudi Arabia that remains inhabited with its urban and architectural authenticity. The thesis argues that its survival has been assured by three successive built heritage conservation policies: Matthew’s Policy (1970-2006), the SCTA Policy (2006-10) and the UNESCO Policy (2010-20). The research traces these three built heritage conservation policies by investigating in depth three analytical dimensions: the policy contents, the actors involved and the actual impacts (interventions and interactions) on the built environment of Historic Jeddah. The research is based on the hypothesis that the focus of built heritage conservation policy in Saudi Arabia has shifted from preserving national identity and legacy (mainly represented by structures of state power) towards using built heritage sites for the purpose of developing international tourism, especially after the recent attempts to inscribe a number of national heritage sites on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. The evidence used to test this hypothesis comes from the examination of a range of documents, archives and conservations projects since the 1970s, as well as interviews conducted with various Saudi heritage stakeholders.

Since the early 1960s the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has had several urban development strategies that have been designed to spearhead development through the deployment of internationally recognised architects and urban planners. The adoption of this strategy has opened debate on the paradigm shift away from restrictive planning regulations at both national and regional levels. The process has enabled foreign policies and ideas based on internationalisation to drive the new urban centre developments in Saudi cities including Riyadh and Dammam. In 2008, this key shift saw the traditional restrictive urban development strategies, which prescribed – among other things – the number of storeys a building could have, being replaced by a strategy permitting an unlimited number of storeys. This dissertation examines the role played by international firms of architects and developers in shaping how architecture is practised in the Kingdom. The process has led to the adoption of modern architectural styles and has advanced a modernised planning approach, whereby traditional architectural structures and the use of local materials have gradually been replaced by modern styles, high-tech buildings and the use of new foreign materials, causing the loss of historic buildings throughout the country. This is seen by many to constitute an injury to national culture and could lead to cultural conflicts that may be exacerbated by the possible importation of planning principles and regulations. A chronological review of internationalisation and how international architectural practices have been mobilised to work in the KSA reveals the impact of this process on the Kingdom’s urban development. While this may be desired by the authorities, it has been argued that the process does not seem to provide any clear strategy for the implementation of the desired sustainable urban centre development in the KSA. Hence, in the absence of clear directives, international architectural firms operate their own set of sustainability criteria to deliver the desired urban centres in the Kingdom. There has been little or no research into the mobilisation of international firms and foreign policies, nor into the impact of internationalisation on the development of planning codes, the modernisation of urban centres and the sustainability approach espoused by the KSA’s planning development strategy. This study investigates the impact of the participation of international firms in Saudi Arabia’s urban development. Government planning regulations and master plans are reviewed and a case study is conducted to identify the factors behind the engagement of international firms in the delivery of two capital projects: the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh and the Central Business District in Dammam. The study also explores the concept of sustainability and the engagement of foreign firms from the perspectives of various stakeholders through face-to-face interviews and a structured questionnaire. It establishes how the role of internationalisation as a driver of policy mobility has impacted on the new sustainable urban centres and in addition, how internationalisation has been operationalised through the notion of sustainability. Although planning codes and regulations may have been developed with good intent by the international firms concerned, their implementation has not yielded the desired result of delivering sustainable urban centres in the KSA. Thus, there is a conflict between a rapid urban development which seeks to integrate historical and traditional contexts on one hand, and the continual import and impact of globalised morphologies on the other. This leads to clear demarcations in urban evolution, making this conflict one of the key characteristics of emerging urban centres in the KSA.