Sketching a Sustainable Form Language for a Neighborhood

Historical, traditional and vernacular housing prototypes have been considered as inherently adapted to the constraints of the natural environment. Such a deterministic attitude has often led to the wrong conclusions regarding appropriate technologies and solutions in general, and in particular those relevant to low cost housing for developing countries. This paper analyses a number of generic types of housing common around the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and assesses their performance vis-à-vis different low-tech upgrade and retrofit strategies. A number of methods and techniques were employed, including monitoring, modeling, numerical analysis, simulation, and infrared thermography. Investigations included different building technologies and materials, morphologies and details, under different arid conditions typical of the Middle Eastern climatic regions.

Vernacular architecture is suffering all over the world and Egypt is one of the countries where the desert vernacular is facing a great risk of disappearance. The aim of the research is to introduce a methodological approach applying participatory action research (PAR) as a tool to help save the future of the currently deteriorating desert vernacular architecture. The aim was to help prevent further loss of desert vernacular architecture knowledge and to encourage vernacular know-how in becoming a living part of future building practices. To benefit from local know-how, a desert vernacular model house was constructed using PAR methods that engaged the local community throughout the design and building phases. The model house was constructed based on an understanding of desert vernacular architecture as well as of the urban fabric and building technology. The town of Balat in the Western Desert of Egypt was chosen as a location for this research work application. As this is an international problem the research developed several techniques within PAR, applied in a flexible way, giving the opportunity for further application in similar vernacular settlements suffering from similar problems.

2018

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, high-rise buildings could be considered as a hallmark of the contemporary cityscape, and a solution for the continuous urbanisation. Many benefits, such as preserving natural and green spaces in the city, and increasing the access to views, light, and air at height could be achieved. However, several impacts of such buildings could affect the social life of residents. The social dimension in recent developments has considerably less attention than economic and environmental dimensions. This research aims to develop a method for addressing the social aspect in the design of high-rise residential buildings, which could enhance the social life between neighbours, and improve the well-being qualities, such as privacy and security. Computation, as a tool for manipulating ideas, managing design parameters, and solving problems, is adopted to create synergies amongst a community’s cultural, social, and environmental aspects. Currently, the...

In the debate over what might constitute sustainable urban forms, three broad opinions have been expressed favouring the compact city, decentralised living or decentralised concentration. In this paper, I will argue that such a debate is not relevant to desert environments because desert environments have sensitive ecosystems and subsequently require sensitive human activity. In addition, their harshness requires the development of distinct urban forms that fully meet appropriate human needs. Following two years of research into the vernacular urban form of settlements in four Middle Eastern countries, a model of environmentally adaptive urban form design principles is suggested. The model suggests desert settlements be small in size; be built compactly; have integration between underground and aboveground spaces; and include interior courtyards, minimised spatial networks, buildings low in height, windbreaks and gates. They should maintain a balance between residential and non-residential uses; have dispersed services with a main linear centre; and utilise local materials. The paper would conclude that more consideration should be given to the nature of the environment to which a sustainable urban form is sought. Published in the 2004 First Conference, Sustainable Architectural and Urban Development, Department of Architecture, Cairo University, 24-26 February 2004.

“Sustainable Vernacular Architecture: The Case Of The Drâa Valley Ksur (Morocco)” Baglioni E. In “Sustainable Architecture & Urban Development” vol. IV, Amman, Giordania, CSAAR Press, 2010

The Drâa Valley is located in the south east of Morocco, near the Sahara desert and houses one of the greatest earthen architecture heritage in the World, consisting of ksur and kasbah. The built heritage of the Drâa Valley is an excellent example of how the local population and culture have succeed to respond in a sustainable way at the environmental challenge, starting from the environment characteristics and the construction materials availability. The materials used are available on site and are totally natural, so they are environmentally friendly, renewable, reusable and have very low production and processing costs. The ksur of the Drâa Valley are just one of countless examples of sustainable architecture in the traditional architectural heritage worldwide, but we have wanted to take as an example to reflect on vernacular architecture, considered in their complexity as a type of settlements, housing and construction techniques. In the sustainability building and housing response points of view, it seems interesting and necessary to reassess the traditional architectures, improve theme, where necessary, and adapting to the current life and cultural context. The same consideration should be done on earth, too often considered a poor and unworthy material, which instead offers many advantages as a building material. The different soil have a great adaptability for construction use, are easily available and have high thermal and acoustic performance, the earth mixture are easy to prepare, building techniques and the implementation doesn’t require specific technologies, so as to enable the self-construction.

2016

Traditional architectural and urban artefacts are showed over the centuries as a powerful imprint of human actions and practices and are being developed on the basis of concrete socio-cultural factors and environmental rationalities. Spatial and morphological patterns of traditional environments have exceedingly evolved to fulfill and accomplish the social and cultural needs of the populace in their dialectical interplay with the surrounding environment. This relationship conceptualises the man-made environment, as the repository of meaning, in users" reciprocal relation with the surrounding environment. In the context of history, the human tends to dwell when experiencing the built environment as meaningful. Traditional contexts are highlighted as physical and spatial interpretations of human activities, skills, thoughts and resources creating identifiable and meaningful realms related to space/place, time and society. The study uncovers the process of the formation of the house and mahalla in order to shed light on how the built environment responds to inhabitants" socio-cultural determinants and everyday lives. It unfolds how changes in the nature of Iraqi society and its priorities affect the architecture of home and mahalla by reference to the impact of modernity with all its alien socio-cultural principles. This thesis focuses on the architecture of home and mahalla within the traditional core of Kadhimiya city and similar Iraqi socio-cultural contexts. At the macro analytical level, the research investigates the spatial and physical formation of the mahalla as a whole through detecting the socio-spatial aspects of its realms, and how its spontaneous form has responded to the sociocultural aspects of the community in an integral pattern. At the micro level, the research will go deeper in the perception of the basic aspects of the individual and the family. It investigates how the traditional house reflects and satisfies the personal values of the individual, and achieves his socio-cultural beliefs and everyday life on the basis of inherent norms and conventions. In this vein, public, semi-public/private and private domains are investigated to highlight the mutual interplay between these spheres as key factors in understanding the architecture of the house and mahalla. The research discusses indigenous aspects and principles contained or embedded in the structure of the traditional environment, such as privacy, social solidarity and stability, neighbourliness and so on. It reveals insight into the male-female relationship in the social life of the traditional context, and how the position of women and their idle qualities impact the structure of the house and the hierarchical sequence and organisation of spaces. Identity, tradition, sustainability and everyday life are the main fields discussed with a specific end goal to outline and uncover the role of social factors, cultural beliefs and daily practices in the creation of this particular form. III Acknowledgement All praise and thanks be to Allah, Lord of all beings. for giving me the endurance and patience to complete this study During the years of my study in the University of Wolverhampton, I would like to express my grateful thanks and appreciation to Prof. Sabah Mushatat and Dr. Mohammed Gamal Abdelmonem for their help, continuous encouragement and understanding in the unfailing support and supervision during the period over which this study has been conducted. Their extensive knowledge, broad vision and creative thinking have been a source of inspiration for me. I want to extend my thanks to Miss Cecilia Beth Jones in the University of Wolverhampton for her valuable advices. I would like to thank my colleagues and fellow researchers and the Department of Architecture and Built Environment. Others who must be mentioned include my sponsor (the Ministry of Higher Education, University of Babylon) whose support helped me to acquire more knowledge and develop this piece of work. I also wish to thank Dr. Azhar Al-Thahab and Dr. Hassan Al-Guesbie in the University of Babylon-Iraq for their help and advice. And finally it is to everyone in the city of Kadhimiya, Hilla and Karbala who has helped along the way providing intellectual, physical, or emotional supports. I am profoundly grateful to all. My thanks also extend to my friends Mr. Ala"a Al-Bakri, Mr. Abdul Kareem Mousa and Rebwar Ibrahim Al-Jaf for their outstanding help in preparing information, gathering some of the material needed for this research and conducting some parts of the interviews. V Table of Contents CHAPTER I THE INTRODUCTION Preface …………………………………….………………………………………………………. 1.1. The Context of the Search …………………………………………………………… 1.2. Search Area ……………………………………………………………………………… 1.3. Research Problem ……………………………………………………………………… 1.4. Research Main Question ……………………………………………………………… 1.5. The Aim and Objectives of the Research ...………………………………………… 1.6. An Overview of the Research Methodology ………………………………………… 1.7. The Organisation and Structure of the Research …………………………………..

Landscape review, 1997

Israel is a new nation with ancient roots. Over the past century the Zionist return to the land and the building of a modern nation has had a counterpart in language: the revitalisation of Hebrew as spoken tongue. There is a design analogy with the immigrant process, learning Hebrew, and ulpan (language classes for new immigrants).' Designers too, have learned the basics of the landscape language, appreciated its character and nuance, and found out how to be expressive within its vocabulary and structure. For Israeli landscape architects there has been a conscious search for a language of landscape design. As a result of this quest, a palette of identifiable materials, forms, compositions, and functions has emerged, and these have been used to create a design narrative which speaks of Israel's complex national culture and identity. This paper explores the continuing process through a case study of one landscape space, the wadi/nahal.

2019

Supplemental material, Supplemental Material1 for Shape grammar, culture, and generation of vernacular houses (a practice on the villages adjacent to rice fields of Mazandaran, in the north of Iran) by Majid Yousefniapasha, Catherine Teeling, John Rollo and Dick Bunt in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science

What is meant by the term desert architecture? Why should buildings or towns in arid regions be conceived differently than they are anywhere else, and what would make such an architecture sustainable? This article discusses a number of ways that architectural design may be adapted to the opportunities and constraints of a desert climate, and in so doing allow for dramatic increase in the efficiency of energy consumption-which is perhaps the greatest challenge for long-term sustainability. A series of recent examples, taken from both research and application in the arid Negev region of Israel, is presented to illustrate some of the concrete possibilities for creating more sustainable patterns of desert architecture.

International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development, 2011

The aim of this paper is to review the created problems and failure of environmental design patterns in the designing process by designers. Not respectfully addressing the context of the environment during the designing process have resulted in a loss of quality of the environment, damage to both nature and essence of the environment as manifested in the case study area. The methodology of the research was based on qualitative methods, which includes content analysis (aerial photos, maps), observation of the environment, and documentation. Building styles and the general build environment were analyzed in both traditional and new forms styles. Findings of research have identified that the rate of morphological and geomorphology changes is relatively fast which physically resulted in a loss of the natural terrain forms. This process has also impacted the view and vista of the area and the beauty of the place. New forms of housing and villas have been built according to marketing demands although they may be in harmony and in congruence with the traditional form of housing and also the character of the existing environment. Conclusions of the research go toward establishing elements and components of the built environment as a basis for creating design guideline in designing the environment, which in this instance should be to produce a coherent and in connectivity with the environment via design. This guideline includes these issues: (a) form of building, (b) materials, (c) position and location of placement, (d) density and massing, (e) landform and harmony with the context, and (f) composition.