ABSTRACT
The paper aims to introduce research that is under investigation by an international and multidisciplinary group at the University of Pavia. The primary purposes are specifically addressed to the city of Makkah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Key objectives of the research are related to the transportation city plan, sustainable mobility organization, pedestrian paths and spaces, urban spaces design, and crowd management. What makes the case of Makkah interesting is the coexistence of different characteristics of the city and different typologies of people who live in, for long or short periods, according to the big events that occur yearly. Therefore, starting from the necessity to have a coordination between the ordinary city life and the high density of occasional but assured city users, the research seeks to recognize the opportunities of urban design that the fluxes and crowd distribution optimization can propose. As the first step of a larger investigation, the authors will focus on the structure of the research and the first results.
