Challenges of Maintaining Housing Structures in the Old City of Hebron (original) (raw)
Related papers
Architectural heritage in the city of Hebron and the rehabilitation of the historical centre
Ecology and the Environment, 2014
The entire Arab region is rich in history. Many civilizations lived in the area before and during the Islamic rule, the investigation laid to many evident signs of the past. The main objective of this paper is to highlight the cultural and urban heritage of the old city of Hebron in Palestine. It will also reveal the historical details, the rehabilitation works and also providing the essential needs and services for the area. Souq al wakala in the old city of Hebron has a unique Architecture, the style of this souq (market) is widespread throughout the whole region, testifying to the richness of its history. However, this site has its own characteristics that depend on its history and culture. This site also has its own special historical value, especially in Palestine, that is why "Hebron Rehabilitation Centre" (HRC), focused on rehabilitating and planning to reuse the building as a guest house to cover the HRC, needs to have a rest place for their guests. This paper focuses on restudying the Souq Al-wakala project, which contains many focal functions, such as; restaurant, cafeteria, entrance hall, lecture hall, bedrooms and other building utilities. The purpose of this paper is to prepare designs according to the international standards and requirements regarding the rehabilitation projects so that HRC can benefit.
Classification of Residential Buildings in the Old City of Hebron
2017
The architectural style of buildings in Hebron's Old City-Hebron, a Palestinian city-is the same as that of most Islamic world cities and takes the form of houses with internal backyards. This is a result of the conditions particular to Islamic society in which residential areas have narrow streets, covered markets, mosques surrounded by a safe zone, and stone-paved courtyards. Visitors to Hebron discover pleasing architectural vistas and associated aesthetics. They may be amazed at how Muslim architects have built constructions that match the environmental and psychological conditions to enable integration between dwellings and humans in a secure form that does not violate the environment. The principles of architecture were based on the welfare of the residents for whom the houses were built. Areas of privacy were made for the collective activities of extended families, with greater privacy for smaller families. Efforts were made to ensure comfort in the house. Thus, houses were constructed while taking the local environment into consideration to ensure the comfort of the residents. The fact that several houses shared the same external walls helped to make people living in Hebron feel safe. The buildings formed a type of wall around the Old City in which each house shaded the other and also provided shade to passers-by. These factors were all taken into account by the Muslim architect, who followed the rules of Islam on the principles of construction.
Housing conditions in the old city of Jerusalem: an empirical study
Habitat International, 2006
This paper adopts an empirical research approach to present a profile of the conditions of the built environment in the Palestinian quarters of the Old City based on documentary evidence, interviews and field research. The built environment in this context refers to the buildings, structures, utilities, and services that enable people to live, work and play, circulate and communicate. Physical condition is measured in terms of the provision of space for living, the aesthetic qualities of buildings, the construction materials used, and the provision of services and environmental conditions. The paper's main findings are that there is sufficient empirical evidence to support the premise in the literature of growing disrepair in the physical fabric of the Old City but that this not due to any one overarching reason but rather to many acting in unison. The paper identifies financial, technical, social, political and legislative obstacles that stand in the way of carrying out repair and improvement work in the Old City.
MEGARON / Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Architecture E-Journal, 2015
Bu makalenin amacı özgün işlevini sürdüren geleneksel konutlarda ortaya çıkan koruma sorunlarını araştırmak ve çözüm önerileri geliştirmektir. Bu doğrultuda Safranbolu Eski Çarşı Bölgesinde bulunan 826 tescilli yapı, kullanım türlerine göre sınıflanmıştır. Bu yapıların mevcut durumu ile geçmişten bu güne kadar görmüş olduğu uygulamalar arazi çalışmaları ve bu yapılara ilişkin kurum kayıtları dökülerek incelenmiştir. Böylece konut olarak kullanılan yapılar ile diğer yapıların mevcut durumları, bozulmuşluk/özgünlük durumları, proje durumları karşılaştırmalı olarak değerlendirilmiştir. This paper aims to evaluate the problems of traditional housing which have continued original function and to develop solution recommendations. Within Safranbolu Eski Çarşı District, 826 registered structures have been classified according to their type of utilization. The current condition of these structures along with their various treatments, land surveys and official registration documents have been analyzed. Thus, the structures used as housing have been compared and evaluated against the current condition of other structures in terms of their modification/authenticity and their project situations.
2016
This paper attempts to present, discuss the outcome of the results’ of the main different studies and projects carried out at Salt and at Irbid historic cores and focuses on the executed urban heritage projects’ undertaken mainly by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) of Jordan in the last two decades. These projects invested in the reuse of traditional buildings, the refurbishments of urban spaces, traditional buildings facades and street pavements at the urban cores. It discusses their different aspects by starting; to assess the loss and degradation of the cultural heritage assets of the two cities, the fragmentation and lack of connectivity between the modern and historic cores, issues of sustainability of architectural and urban heritage projects; i.e. tourism planning and conservation and reuse projects at the historic cores in relation to cultural, physical factors and development needs. It also addresses the behaviour and characteristics of the urban regeneration ...
(Un)covering the past: Levantine Houses in İzmir
Social changes, brings with it new human needs and activities in every era, so people build new spaces and structures according to these needs and activities, or re-function the existing ones. The constructions built with the needs and technology of the period, they may become out of the developmental period and may fail to respond to performance and needs. Due to many effects such as time-dependent wear, damage caused by climate and environment, abandonment, changing and developing technology, many historical buildings reflecting the cultures of societies are unavailable. Designing and using a new function of historical buildings provides protection of the building as well as preservation of social and cultural values. However, the new function that is designed may cause physical damage to the structure when it is passed to the application phase, or may cause the structure to change its identity and lose its original existence. Such problems are important when it comes to cultural heritage and historical buildings. Although the conservation consciousness is more widespread in monumental buildings, it is seen that the concept of protection is neglected in examples of civil architecture such as Izmir Levantine Houses. If the function doesn't match the identitiy of the building, it is possible to lose the original fiction and architectural elements in a way that is not recycled. The levantines have built many mansion, trade buildings and created many investments such as dock and railways in lzmir. In the period when the modernization movements of the Ottoman Empire, they have brought European tourism and architecture to this region which is far from the countries with the buildings they have built. Levantines have contributed to Bornova's attainment of a modern center. A large part of the Levantine, even if they have migrated for various reasons especially with the population exchange after the War of Independence, many years they lived in prosperity in Turkey. This article includes the adaptive reuse of historical buildings and the protection of the cultures through the İzmir Levantine Houses. Some of the historical Levantine structures that reflect the cultures of minorities continue to live in the direction of new functions and many of them are ruined by abuse or weariness of time. Constructions belonging to the Levantines, which are sometimes accepted, sometimes excluded and otherized, should be marginalized like these communities? In this article, interventions made with conservation principles without harming the identity of the building and tracing of the Levantine cultures, designing with new functions will be evaluated.
CONSERVING THE PALESTINIAN ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE
International Journal of Heritage Architecture, 2017
Despite the difficult situation in West bank, the Palestinians were able to, during the last three decades, preserve a huge part of their architectural heritage. This is mainly due to the notion that this issue was considered as an essential part of the struggle against occupation and necessary to preserve their identity. This paper will concentrate mainly on the conservation efforts and experience in West bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. It covers not only examples from major cities but also some important ones in the villages. Due to the special situation of being occupation, and the absence of a central authority responsible for heritage conservation, several entities were established and became involved in conservation, with diverse goals and approaches. Although it started during the last three decades, the Palestinian experience in conservation has received international recognition for some distinguished successful examples. It became in some cases a good reference for others outside Palestine. The main goal of this paper is to present the Palestinian experiment in conservation and to highlight the reasons behind the successful examples and find out the obstacles and difficulties in other cases. It shows that for the Palestinians preserving the architectural heritage became a part of their cultural resistance and efforts to maintain their national identity. This paper depends on a descriptive method based on publications and some site visits, in addition to direct contact with major institutions involved in heritage conservation in Palestine.
2024
The historic cores in the Middle East (after this referred to as "ME") region, a fragmented and thoroughly changed region during the 19th and 20th centuries, have many identities and authenticity challenges. Unfortunately, the rapid development rate, economic and rapid urbanisation, fast population increase, conflicts, lack of appreciation and awareness, and increasing market values gradually replace urban heritage buildings with newer, higher-density identity-less structures. This paper attempts to present the features, obstacles, challenges, and opportunities facing the urban built heritage at the historical cores and the neighbourhood within their physical, cultural and social life in the ME. It analyses questions for maintaining identity and authenticity, the future of traditional physical, technical and functional architectural elements paradigms and their contemporary reinterpretation and rethinking conservation from sustainable technical culture to socio-cultural sustainability. The paper investigates several issues related to the conservation concepts of the urban and architectural heritage in the ME. Special attention is given to the decision-making framework in the conservation practice, the destruction of the traditional urban heritage, and the destruction resulting from the ME region's political changes (modernisation). The focus is to identify, discuss and analyse how to deal with the challenges of maintaining the identity and authenticity of their historic urban cores. Finally, guidelines and framework recommendations are made for possible measures that may be taken for social sustainability.
Keywords Abstract urban heritage; documentation; integrated conservation approach; tourism planning and conservation; adaptive reuse; collective memory; modern use This paper attempts to present and discuss the outcome of the results of the key different studies and projects carried out at Salt and at Irbid historic cores. It focuses on the executed urban heritage projects undertaken mainly by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) of Jordan in the last two decades. It discusses their different aspects through initial assessment of the loss and degradation of the cultural heritage assets of the two cities; the fragmentation and lack of connectivity between the modern and historic cores; issues of sustainability of architectural and urban heritage projects i.e. tourism planning and conservation; and reuse projects at the historic cores in relation to cultural, physical factors and development needs. It also addresses the behaviour and characteristics of the urban regeneration process in those two historic cities, starting from their documentation to examination of the different aspects of the currently adopted urban practices and policies, and their impact on the existing urban heritage, depending on the specific identity of the respective historic cores. Finally, it aims to define the main constraints and challenges for the reuse of the existing heritage fabric including the local community quality of life, while building on sustainable heritage activities accommodating tourism opportunities. This will give, at least, some indications from which we can identify a use or combination of uses, and practical steps needed for successful heritage conservation actions in Jordan, in order to retain the cultural significance of the place.
Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 2021
The cities of Dezful and Boroujerd can be considered a treasure trove of traditional houses in Iran whose social, functional, and cultural roots are reflected in their architectural body. Traditional housing includes and expresses the lifestyles and behavioral systems of its inhabitants. Therefore, by analyzing the spatial structure in different traditional dwellings, we can understand the structural differences in them. The main purpose of this study is to identify and express the structure and spatial differences in traditional housing in Dezful and Boroujerd, which have many differences in terms of environmental structure. This study seeks to answer the question: What are the differences between structural patterns and spatial configuration in traditional housing in Dezful and Boroujerd? The method of this research is generally qualitative and software that includes analytical-descriptive approaches and logical reasoning. First, using observation, field survey, and library studie...