Urban quality of life (QOL) is a complex and multidimensional concept. A wide range of urban QOL assessment tools has been developed worldwide to measure and monitor the quality of urban life taking into account the particular conditions of cities/regions and the needs of their residents. This study aims to develop an urban QOL assessment tool appropriate for the context of Saudi Arabia (SA). For this purpose, this study developed and used a structured approach that consists of an in-depth analysis of 21 urban QOL assessment tools in use worldwide, combined with focus group analysis and feedback from a panel of experts. The results revealed that there is a lack of consensus among the existing tools regarding the usage of QOL indicators and domains, and that the majority of the tools demonstrate a lack of proper coverage of QOL subdomains. The results also show wide variations in the number of indicators used and that most of the examined tools are using objective measurable indicators. This study has identified 67 indicators distributed across 13 domains that constitute the core criteria of the proposed QOL assessment tool. The selected indicators and domains cover all the attributes of urban QOL and are evaluated by experts as important criteria to assess/measure QOL. Moreover, the results demonstrate the advantage of the developed framework and comprehensive list of criteria (CLC) as a structured and efficient approach to design better QOL assessment tools.

The paper examines the various aspects involved in contextualizing and measuring quality of life (QOL) in urban areas. The paper reports on an on-going research project that aims to establish multi-dimensional assessment system to measure QOL in Saudi Arabian cities. To develop a localized QOL measure that capture local aspects of QOL without losing the potential to compare data between different cities or regions, the paper critically analyzed and examined a wide range of conceptual and methodological issues related to QOL assessment and measurement. The study pointed out the need to adopt a multi-dimensional integrated approach that uses both a top-down and a bottom-up approach and incorporate secondary/objective data as well as primary data obtained through self-report surveys. An integrated framework to contextualize, operationalize and measure QOL in the Saudi context has been developed based on critical analysis of literature.

The paper develops and uses a structured coverage analysis approach to examine the usage of indicators and their ability to assess various quality of life (QOL) attributes in 15 urban QOL assessment tools. The results reveal a lack of consensus not only on the type and the optimal number of indicators for a tool, but also on the methods used to select and develop them. The results show that most of the tools tend to use almost incompatible sets of indicators. They also show that, in general, most of the examined tools reflect severe lack of representative coverage, which indicates that large portion of important sub-domains is not covered by any indicator, except for the economic-related domains. In addition, most of the tools reflect low-to-moderate comprehensive coverage, except for the economic dimension, which reflects the highest comprehensive coverage. The findings also suggest some conditions that can improve the process of selecting and developing a contextualised set of indicators. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the usefulness of using the proposed coverage analysis techniques as a structured approach to benchmark with best QOL assessment tools to improve the process of developing sets of QOL indicators for a particular urban context.

This article examines the impact of digital media on architectural design education based on teaching experience in the e-studio. The primary goal of the estudio is to teach students how to think and design using digital media as the only design medium. The article reports on e-studio practices, discusses the pedagogical implications of the studio and contributes to understanding the relationship between digital media, design practices and education. It reveals that digital media as used in the e-studio can bring important changes to the architectural design process, the design studio praxis, the design outcome and the way in which students envision and describe architecture. The article highlights the ambivalent nature of digital media as design tools and shows the need to reconsider our traditional understanding of the design studio culture.