TRABASA – TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE RECORDED BY MEANS OF BUILDING ARCHAEOLOGY IN SAUDI ARABIA: WORKSHOP IN JEDDAH (original) (raw)
Related papers
Middle Eastern countries are suddenly confronted with the problem of a severe loss of architectural heritage, which is the material manifestation of their own cultural inheritance and thus that of their identity, particularly under conditions of a sudden, rapid, radical and haphazard way of transformation as imposed over a society and its cultural geography by global impacts. This paper aims to argue whether the conservation issues regarding earth architecture in Saudi Arabia are materially or culturally based with specific reference to Ibrahim Palace since it represents this conflict. The paper suggests that the problems regarding the architectural heritage conservation in Saudi Arabia are threefold; material, cultural and philosophical.
Conceptual inspiration from heritage: the design philosophy surrounding the Saudi Arabian Rowshan
City, Territory and Architecture
Rowshan is a distinctive architectural element and a primary component of the façades of traditional houses in western Saudi Arabia. It is window type primarily made from wood and is incorporated in contemporary architecture to express the identity of the Hejazi architectural heritage without the realization of the advantages of this rich architectural element. This study examines the Rowshan design philosophy by identifying its visual, functional, and structural determinants, and applying them to a model to reflect it in a modern context. The study adopts an analytical approach in addition to interviewing elders who lived in traditional houses. The results show that the Rowshan philosophy must apply all its structural, functional, and aesthetic characteristics like seating function, privacy, visual continuity, use of light, exploitation for shade, and the use of ornamental patterns and, openings, while adopting modularity, flexibility, and adaptability as important principles in it...
Investigating Qatari Traditional Architecture from an Interdisciplinary Approach
2014
This paper presents the findings of an Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) research project funded by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). This interdisciplinary research project brings together architecture and sociolinguistics students and faculty members to develop a socio-cultural understanding and interpretation of the structures, designs, and physical dimensions of traditional elements employed by the members of the traditional society of Qatar from two complementary perspectives. The focus of this study is on identifying the multiple meanings and physical representations associated with elements of architecture, exemplified in the case of Qatari traditional architecture. These multiple meanings are dealt with from both architectural and multimodal discursive perspectives. The rationale behind this interdisciplinary approach is the fact that these two approaches are complementary to each other. This is because architecture spaces and elements act as a field and context where peoples’ practices and activities take place, Hence, these practices are intricately interwoven with the architectural, i.e. structural and design, peculiarities of the individual spaces. One hundred Qatari traditional elements were selected for the purpose of this investigation within a framework of multimodal analysis. This approach takes into consideration the multiple modes through which meanings are constructed, i.e. building materials, structures and shapes of buildings, types of people who are entitled to use a particular building, activities that are organized around a space, to mention just a few. The project offers the opportunity to undergraduate students and faculty members from diverse disciplines to collaborate in an interdisciplinary research project, and thus to benefit from each other’s background knowledge, ideas, and skills. The study recommends that this multidisciplinary approach be applied in undergraduate, postgraduate and other scholarly research pertaining to the study of traditional architecture and urban heritage. It proved to provide a better understanding and to serve as a strong motivation for students to engage themselves in research than an unidisciplinary approach. Keywords: Multimodality, Qatar, Tradition, Architecture, Meaning.
2013
Middle Eastern countries are suddenly confronted with the problem of a severe loss of architectural heritage, which is the material manifestation of their own cultural inheritance and thus that of their identity, particularly under conditions of a sudden, rapid, radical and haphazard way of transformation as imposed over a society and its cultural geography by global impacts. This paper aims to argue whether the conservation issues regarding earth architecture in S audi Arabia are materially or culturally based with specific reference to Ibrahim Palace since it represents this conflict. The paper suggests that the problems regarding the architectural heritage conservation in Saudi Arabia are threefold; material, cultural and philosophical.
2020
Communication with the architectural heritage in the Islamic world at present is mostly limited to be inspired only by the formal or decorative aspects, without identifying the conditions and references that formulated their current forms. The study aims to present a new concept for communicating with the architectural heritage in a contemporary style and employing it as an effective tool in architectural development and creativity. The content of seventeen publications related to heritage values and its visual characteristics that can be revived has been selected and analyzed. This was important to develop solutions of employing these heritage characteristics the contemporary local architecture in Al Baha heritage villages in Saudi Arabia as a heritage model in the Islamic region that served as a case study for this article. In the end it was concluded that the works of the past were not a simply tradition nor randomly occurred but rather were original creative works that have thei...
Vernacular architecture in Saudi Arabia: Revival of displaced traditions
Since 1950s Saudi Arabia has undergone immense changes in its social, economic and physical environments as a result of the dramatic increase in its national income that has accompanied the development of the oil industry. In less than half a century, Saudi Arabia has been transformed from nomadic and rural societies into modem urban ones. As a result of the extensive adoption of modern technologies and urbanization, most Saudis had fast quitted their vernacular traditions or lost functional relationships with it. The paper aims to examine traditional design and construction methods in three regions of Saudi Arabia (Western, Eastern and Central), how they had been abandoned and almost disappeared in the past 60 years or so, and the recent formal and informal efforts to revive and reinvent those traditional design and construction methods. formal and informal efforts to revive and reinvent those traditions in response to the social and physical context of the region. The rest of the paper is organised into the following main sections. Part two examines vernacular architecture in the three regions of Saudi Arabia and how they responded to the social and physical context of the region; part three examines and analyzes the various vernacular traditions that have been abandoned in modern architecture of Saudi Arabia. Part four examines the recent formal and informal efforts to revive and reinvent Saudi vernacular architectural traditions.