Diversity in the Public Space of A Traditional City - Zaria, Nigeria

Diversity is embedded in the concept of cities and the urban way of life, and is an important issue in the planning and management of urban development. Urban diversity is usually manifested in Public space. This paper examines patterns of diversity in the public space of a traditional city, Zaria, with the goal of identifying general lessons for city design. The paper starts with a review on the application of diversity to public space, and then moves on to introduces Zaria's public space and historically explore patterns to arrive at findings regarding diversity. Material for the paper has been derived from a detailed study of Zaria's public space, in which a variety of methods and techniques was used (Garba, 2007). The paper in concluding notes that diversity is connected with centrality, and identifies three issues that facilitate the quest for urban diversity; place attractiveness, appropriateness of development scale and embedded settings for activities, and regime of access and participation. The paper notes that the study findings reinforce existing knowledge in the literature and points to the need for re-evaluating the system of urban production to better use available knowledge in the quest for urban diversity.