The UnWritten Code by Ali Ehsan

The UnWritten Code

Architecture in the Department of Architecture of the Rhode Island School of Design. By Ali Al Abbad 2016

____________________________________________________________

Anne Tate, Primary Thesis Advisor

____________________________________________________________

Olga Mesa, Secondary Thesis Critic

____________________________________________________________

Anne Tate, Thesis Coordinator

The UnWritten Code A Cross Evaluation Analysis of Housing Typologies

of this resulted in neighborhoods and houses that do not satisfy users needs, all in which resulted in bad solutions to address some of the urgent needs. So, the goal is to

Dedicated to, My Father and Mother, who supported me all the way My Wife and Kids, who gave me joy through my journey My Colleagues My Professors

The survival of traditional societies over hundreds and thousands of years indicates form or as the basis for new developments. Hassan Fathi

Figure1 Figure2 Figure3 Figure4 Figure5 Figure6 Figure7 Figure8 Figure9 Figure10 Figure11 Figure12 Figure13 Figure14 Figure15 Figure16 Figure17 Figure18 Figure19 Figure20 Figure21 Figure22 Figure23 Figure24 Figure25 Figure26 Figure27 Figure28 Figure29 Figure30

Thesis Bord Dammam & Khobar apartment complexes North Khobar apartment building Suburban single detached housesg Housing compounds New Building on old Grid Vernacular Buildings Economic cross value evaluation drawing Highrise apartment economic evaluation drawing Dense Urban apartment building economic evaluation drawing Suburban houses economic evaluation drawing Housing compounds economic evaluation drawing New on Old economic evaluation drawing Vernacular economic evaluation drawing Cultural cross value evaluation drawing Highrise Cultural evaluation drawing Urban apartment Cultural evaluation drawing Suburban houses Cultural evaluation drawing Housing compounds Cultural evaluation drawing New buildings on Old grid Cultural evaluation drawing Vernacular houses Cultural evaluation drawing Environmental cross value evaluation drawing Highrise apartment environmentalevaluation drawing Urban Apartment environmental evaluation drawing Suburban houses environmental evaluation drawing Compounds environmental evaluation drawing New on old grid environmental evaluation drawing Vernacular houses environmental evaluation drawing

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 64 66 68 70 72 74 76

Acknowledgments to, Anne Tate for being great advisor Olga Mesa Peter Chomowicz for their support and involvement Jamel Akbar

and environmental aspects.

Until recently, architecture was shaped by the culture and context, in which it was Built, and people were shaped by the architecture they occupied. widespread implementation of government-controlled regulations, a and no time for culture to adapt. Such an approach to the built environment without consideration of all economic, cultural, and ecological values, would ultimately lead to the failure of the architecture. A problematic shift in architecture could lead to the degradation of communal quality, shown by symptoms like lack of communication among neighbors and careless

focused on economic, cultural, and ecological aspects of each housing typology.

cities of Dammam, Khubar and Dhahran. These cities are relatively

and Dhahran is the house of ARAMCO the national oil company. The older housing typologies are taken from Qatif and Ahsa oasis.

Figure.1:

Figure.2: 8

old settlement was used to exhibit the variety of housing typology within

which are Qatif, Dammam, Khobar, and Dhahran. All these cities are BCE . The other three cities were born in the early twentieth century with the formation of the country and the search for oil. Dammam is the

In addition, it is the home of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and the national military air base. These cities contain a mosaic of housing typology within the urban fabric. These typologies correlate with pre-oil discovery, the oil boom, the housing project, and today's housing crises.

Figure.3:Thesis Bord 10

The highrise apartment complexes is one of eight units composing the Dammam Housing Project. The project was built in 1979. Each unit

in 10,000 square meters. The T-shaped building is the Khobar Housing Project built in the 1980s with very similar apartment size and design.

area.

are equipped with all utilities that were not common at the time. The main drawback of these projects is that all the apartments are one size, forcing families to move out for either expansion or contraction. The other major problem is the lack of the residents role in managing the property. Since the project is divided among three government agencies, none of which is accountable to the residents, the buildings are deteriorating and none of the public facilities are usable.

Figure.4:Dammam & Khobar apartment complexes 12

commercial avenue opens, the old city center loses some business.

mix of singles, foreign workers, and small families.

Figure.5:North Khobar apartment building

typology is that both the developers and the government agencies maximum lot size, and ease of utility supply.

Figure.6:Suburban single detached housesg

ARAMCO, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM),

by ARAMCO for its foreign employees. Other compounds are inspired by

the compound are smaller, but due to the added securty , services and maintenace, compound rent is at the upper end of pricing.

Figure.7:Housing compounds

This typology of housing is the by-product of solidifying property lines,

facade. The bigger portion of this building type is being demolished, especially in centers of big cities. The smaller typology in smaller towns

Figure.8:New Building on old Grid

Al Ahsa are all very similar in physical, social, and economic properties. A hundred years or so later the bigger part of these settlements is gone transformed into commercial tourism attractions, like Suqe Al Mobarakia in Kuwait, Suqe Waqif in Qatar, and Suqe Al Qaisaria in Al Ahsa. One of the few projects that aimed to revive the old neighborhoods, keeping the integrity of the housing community, is a small rehabilitation project in old Moharaqe, the old capital of Bahrain. The project goal is not preservation

the neighborhood came back to life. These example of vernacular architecture are a great knowledge source and potential innovation.

Figure.9:Vernacular Buildings 22

The economy is one of the forces shaping our built environment. Housing

methods, and drove architects to design for the individual piece of land documented as the features of modernity and capital economy. However, not gotten enough attention. Who owns what?What is ownership?When

However, that was not the always the case. So, this research is an housing. typologies

The housing typology economical value evaluation diagram is divided into two halves. The gray-scale side is based on Jamel Akbar's analysis of ownership models in his book, Crisis in the Built Environment. The bundle of rights on a property is divided into three portions. These three parts are owning, using, and controlling the property. In our case, the property is not only the plot of land, but also all the other components of

rights are held by one entity. The darker side is leaning toward a dispersed ownership. The colored side is analyzing territorial shift within housing types. Territorial shift renders In the diagram, each color is an owner and a change in color means a change in

was an important part of the vernacular architecture dynamic. in the coming pages each housing typology will be examined in more depth for both ownership model and territorial shift.

Figure.10:Economic cross value evaluation drawing 26

Looking at the highrise apartment complexes, we can see that the whole project falls into the dispersed ownership category. Supported citizens and maintained by the city municipality. This means that, the owner is an absentee agency and the controller is not held accountable to the categorization is not only true for the individual apartments, but also true for the service core of the building, the public platform, the parking In this housing typology, it is not possible to alter, expand, or subdivide

Figure.11:Highrise apartment economic evaluation drawing

into the permissive ownership type, meaning that, someone is renting or using the apartment and someone else is owning and controlling the building. Services and corridors of the building fall in the same

are in the dispersed model. The building owner can not rent, build, or alter the two-meter setback in his propety, because they are controlled

diagram, this housing type is also unchangable because the user cannot expand or alter his unit. There are some exceptions, mainly involving renter evacuation and full-building remodelling.

Figure.12:Dense Urban apartment building economic evaluation drawing

owner, user, and controller are one individual, family, or entity, meaning they can expand and change their property as they wish. However, the the land but they are not in control. Such a situation led the people who wall as high as the housing itself, in an attempt to preserve privacy and create some kind of a courtyard. The result is a very narrow unusable space on the two sides of the house. If a larger backyard was designed, suburban houses present a possibility for change and subdivision, but when it comes to expansion, the limits are the setbacks of the property

Figure.13:Suburban houses economic evaluation drawing

in one ownership model. This typology is a permissive ownership model, both owns and controls the property, including the apartments, services,

running well. However, the users are unconsciously careless to the way the property is treated either by themselves or their neighbors. Additionally, such housing typology is incapable of change, making it

Figure.14:Housing compounds economic evaluation drawing

The new buildings on old grid present a unique example. The new

they cannot expand on the small spaces shared by a couple of houses. The territorial shift in this typology is dynamic. Due to shared party walls, expansion between buildings is possible, but it is limited to a single block. buildings expanded to a full block, and at the end of the building life, a single large building replaced the multiple smaller ones.

Figure.15:New on Old economic evaluation drawing

The houses are owned, used, and controlled by one family. The party

by the population of the town. Such and ownership type will keep the decision making in the hands of locals living in the place. Any individual one objects. In term of the territorial shift, this housing typology represents

public realm; houses could expand to the side by taking a room from the neighbor or by building a room on the roof of their neighbour. They could

Figure.16:Vernacular economic evaluation drawing 38

The possibilities are limitless and the concept is simple: keep the control needs. The premise of this is not advocating chaos. On the contrary, as Jamel Akbar emphasizes when talking about vernacular architecture, old cities may not look organized, but they carry a very high order. What is pushed for here is a change, not only in ownership model but also problematic piece of regulation. It could be seen as an aspiration for light

and ventilation for the buildings or as a disgraceful and failed attempt to

give the individual the freedom to try many ways to solve this design problem. That ultimately would bring variety and new solutions to the collection of housing typologys.

When thinking about the contemporary culture of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, the dominant image is a clash between a rigid cultural and conditioning, satellite TV, and Internet connection in a tent in the middle A more contradictory and confusing example is the fact that women in of the Royal Consultative Council, yet no women have been allowed to drive a car. Despite these clashes and contradictions, some religious

privacy needs. However, those problems are obvious when we examine the housing typologies. Failure to extract a modern building code

in both detaching the homeowners from being part of the regulation architects from experimenting with housing design on the scale of small individual buildings. As a result, house owners have tried working within problematic urban settings. One example of such problematic regulation is the introduction of setback rules in the early 1980s. This regulation prevented people and designers from experimenting with courtyard extroverted building with side and front setbacks that cannot be utilized by the houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s occupant. Having all windows facing outside, exposing the rooms to the neighbors, has resulted in a large number of houses raising the boundary walls as high as the house itself, creating a second

extended family and relation to the bigger clan are very much intact. You

next to one another that all share the same family name. Singles, both

remains a major factor in choosing a place to live.

In the cultural value drawing, the grayscale half is an analysis of privacy. The darker the area, the more private it is. The diagrams range from black to very light gray. Black means total privacy. These parts have no visual exposure from outside, and they are mainly interiors of houses with no exposed windows. From there, the scale goes down, from private areas that have partial visual exposure to the outside, to semipublic areas with full exposure, and to public areas with total exposure. The colored half

discovery, oil boom, the housing boom, and the current generation. The diagram looks into which generation used which housing typology and whether there is an overlap between generations in the same housing type.

Figure.17:Cultural cross value evaluation drawing 46

typologies when looking into privacy. Like many modern buildings, all exposed to the other apartments in the other buildings. The large volume of movement around the buildings makes the windows exposed

When looking into the generational analysis, we can see that the users of the high-rise apartments are mainly the oil-boom generation. This has to do with the fact that all of the apartment buildings were built in the 1980s. Because all the units are the same size and there is no room for

Figure.18:Highrise Cultural evaluation drawing

The urban apartment buildings are not ideal for privacy. However, due to adapted windows screens and arranged shading devices to decrease visual exposure. The other concern of this housing typology is the lack of

In term of generational use of apartments, the dynamics of market forces come into play again. Due to remodeling and subdivision of these As a result, all generations use this typology but do not overlap.

Figure.19:Urban apartment Cultural evaluation drawing

Even though the extroverted building design is inherently problematic in terms of privacy because of window exposure, many house owners build property walls as high as their houses. This solution may partially solve the privacy problem, but it fails in many other aspects such as public realm. With all of that in mind, a low-density housing typology does serve privacy to some extent. Looking at suburban housing in relation to generational overlap, we can see that it is the only modern housing typology that allows multiple generations and extended families to live within the same house. In addition, such housing is passed from one generation to the next, going through intensive change, yet with major limitations on expansion. So the house can be remodeled, divided, or enlarged, but only within the limitations of setbacks and boundary lines.

Figure.20:Suburban houses Cultural evaluation drawing

Due to the design variation among housing compounds, the privacy score varies depending on the design and type of resident. Generally speaking, compounds tend to have less concern with regards to visual ease the transition from private to public. Due to the longer lifespan of compounds, this typology has attracted multiple generations, but it has failed to accept generational overlap. Residents tend to live in a compound until families type. However, we should keep in mind that compounds tend to house limited categories of residents, who are usually linked by working for the same company or in the same government sector.

Figure.21:Housing compounds Cultural evaluation drawing

New houses on the old grid are very similar to urban apartment buildings in relation to privacy, but they give more consideration to the gradual transition from private to public. In addition, such typology is considered more private mainly because of the resident demographics.

generation within such neighborhoods. This dynamic has to do with the fact that land ownership, building codes, and urban zoning are to some extent unresolved and have many layers that prevent the municipality from enforcing new rules.

Figure.22: New buildings on Old grid Cultural evaluation drawing

creates multiple layers of transition from private to public spaces. This addition, windows open to private courts, making them operable without visual exposure problems.

changes, including the removal of gates and walls, the introduction of cars and roads, and the use of electricity and air conditioning. All of this has resulted in a loss of control. With the rise of modern cities, the old abandoned by the residents.

Figure.23:Vernacular houses Cultural evaluation drawing

The response of an architectural typology to cultural needs is crucial to its success. A housing project should address privacy needs without

and subdivision.

were created to provide shelter from the weather. Designs had to work

Buildings were dense with large mass to keep out the harsh heat. Passive cooling was the primary design guide. Unfortunately, with the new building technology, architects seem to undermine the importance of environmental aspects of building design. Air conditioning could cool a building, but if aligned with the correct environmental response, it mechanical cooling in other seasons. Building responsibly is a crucial aspect of a successful housing design.

Microclimate conditions within the urban fabric of the housing are explored in the grayscale side of the drawing. The white parts indicate a

passively controlled with an architectural element, fully exposed, and harsh unusable spaces.

lacks diversity due to the dominance of concrete factories over other building technologies. In addition, the government agencies, building methods, making it hard for innovations in building material to see the light.

Figure.24:Environmental cross value evaluation drawing 64

there was no consideration for orientation, shading, or wind direction. The

has no soft landscape features to break the harshness of the concrete.

Figure.25:Highrise apartment environmentalevaluation drawing

The urban apartment buildings are a smaller version of the high-rises in terms of their response to the environment. The situation of the common spaces is even worse because the narrow spaces are exposed to both heat radiation from building exteriors and the heat dumped from air

Figure.26:Urban Apartment environmental evaluation drawing

The suburban single houses are inherently problematic due to the exposed walls and windows. The high property walls could provide some

Figure.27:Suburban houses environmental evaluation drawing

The housing compounds are to some extent environmentally responsible. The units are compact with shared party walls and shaded common spaces.

Figure.28:Compounds environmental evaluation drawing

good microclimate. In term of building materials, this type of housing is built with load-bearing CMU walls.

Figure.29:New on old grid environmental evaluation drawing

ontrolled areas. However, they have a range of semi-controlled and well oriented, shaded, and ventilated. These design considerations make comparison to other housing typologies. In terms of building materials,

Figure.30:Vernacular houses environmental evaluation drawing 76

generation of architects. This inspires high hopes for the future of

could be of great value. It is more viable to work on the design of the

If there is one thing that should be learned from this collection of economic, cultural, and environmental necessities. The project should give control to the residents, the design should cover cultural needs, utilization of local technologies and materials.

Books

Konya, Allan. Design Primer for Hot Climates. London: Architectural Press, 1980. Alnemer, Ahmad. Community of Courtyard Housing: As Study of the Relationship between Solid, Void and Privacy. 2014. Hassan Fathy / Natural Energy and vernaculer Architecture / 1986 Jamil Akbar /Support for Cout-Yard Houses Riyad_ Saudi Arabia/1981 Brown, G. Z., and Mark DeKay. Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies. New York: Wiley, 2001. Besim Hakim / Arabic-Islamic Cities: Building and planning Prenciples /1986 Davidson, Cynthia C. Legacies for the Future: Contemporary Architecture in Islamic Societies. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1999. Print. Kultermann, Udo. Contemporary Architecture in the Arab States: Renaissance of a Region. New York: McGrawHill, 1999. AlSayyad, Nezar. Forms of Dominance on the Architecture and Urbanism of the Colonial Enterprise. Aldershot: Avebury, 1992. Vale, Lawrence J. Architecture, Power, and National Identity. London: Routledge, 2008. Print. Association, 1973. Print.

Holm, Michael Juul. Arab Contemporary: Architecture Et Identity ;. Humlebaek: Louisiana, 2014. Print. Schoenauer, Norbert, and Stanley Seeman. The Court-garden House. Montreal: McGill UP, 1962. Print. Talib, Kaizer. Shelter in Saudi Arabia. London: Academy Editions, 1984. Print.

Steele, James, and Rasem Badran. The Architecture of Rasem Badran: Narratives on People and Place. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2005. Print. Hakim, Besim S. Arabic-Islamic Cities: Building and Planning Principles. London: New York, 1986. Print. Principles and Examples with Reference to Hot Arid Climates. Chicago: Published for the United Nations U by the U of Chicago, 1986. Print.

Olgyay, Victor, and Aladar Olgyay. Design with Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1963. Print.

Akbar, Jamel A. Crisis in the Built Environment: The Case of the Muslim City. Singapore: Concept Media, 1988. Kelly, Marjorie. Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012. Talib, Kaizer. Shelter in Saudi Arabia. London: Academy Editions, 1984. Pfeifer, GĂźnter, and Per Brauneck. Courtyard Houses: A Housing Typology. Basel: BirkhĂ¤user, 2008. Low, Setha M., and Erve Chambers. Housing, Culture, and Design: A Comparative Perspective. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

Webpages http://catnaps.org/islamic/islaurb1.html http://www.aqarea.com/mhome/2 https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%81_(%D9%85%D8%AD%D8% A7%D9%81%D8%B8%D8%A9) (Arabic) http://issuu.com/hbukhamseen/docs/oil_and_ink_appendix/1 http://issuu.com/hbukhamseen/docs/oil_and_ink/1

The UnWritten Code

Articles inside

The UnWritten Code