More than Vernacular
Vernacular architecture between past tradition and future vision
Marwa Dabaieh
Copyright Š 2015 Marwa Dabaieh ISBN: 978-91-7267-376-2 Purchase: www.bokshop.lu.se P.O.Box 118 SE-221 00 LUND Sweden Photos: Marwa Dabaieh unless otherwise state Editor: Jemima Kallas Published and printed by: Media-Tryck This book is printed on acid-free paper that is 100 % old growth forest- free (100 % post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free and printed with vegetablebased and low- VOC inks.
To Egypt again and more than ever
vernacular
+ More than vernacular
Vernacular architecture between past tradition and future vision
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Statement
This book hopes to offer an insight into the threats facing the vernacular buildings that survive in the Egyptian Western Desert. It offers a guide to those who wish to get involved in rescuing these buildings, those who reuse them and those who care for them. Whether you are an owner, an entrepreneur or a developer, whether you are involved in a local trust or work for a local authority, or whether you just want to find out about spectacular desert vernacular heritage, we hope this book will be an inspiration. Several of the hand -drawn architectural illustrations in this book are the result of surveys carried out for this study. This kind of record underlines the importance of the vital role of meticulous documentation in preserving the evidence of current desert vernacular, so that we can learn from this evidence when we work with such buildings in the future. The information contained in this book is true and complete to the best of my knowledge. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher and the author.
All rights reserved Š 2015
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Preface We live in a world that contains a wide variety of spectacular vernacular building, and it is at risk. Although many people are aware that the vernacular is suffering everywhere, evidence of how this treasured heritage is cared for often demonstrates little understanding of its true value. Egypt is a country with some of the finest examples of desert vernacular architecture in the world, a heritage which is at threat of disappearing. Towns and cities hitherto characterised by their vernacular architecture are experiencing great change due to the pressure for rapid growth that is being stimulated by globalisation and ambitious modernity. Those who live in these towns sometimes find it hard to adapt to such rapid growth and have difficulty finding a way of allowing their environment to evolve sustainably. The challenge is always to devise a way for vulnerable vernacular settlements to develop as they have done over the centuries, without losing the accumulation of their tangible heritage and the intangible body of knowledge that created them. How can this eruption of modernism be helped to adapt to the concepts of sustainability that vernacular buildings embody? It is to offer an answer this question that this book was written. My motivation to write this book began with my doctoral project.
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As an architect, I was always fascinated to learn how people designed and built vernacular settlements in the past without technical education of any kind and how they produced spectacularly complex architectural forms. Moreover their dwellings have survived for centuries and are still lived in. My personal interest in vernacular architecture and fascination with earth construction are what have driven me to create this book. This book describes three different conservation projects. These offer different perspectives for conservation of desert vernacular architecture and illustrate methodologies I have found useful. I have tried to select different situations in which conservation was used as a catalyst for economic growth among the impoverished indigenous societies living in these places. The three examples shown in this book are local responses to the problems presented by vernacular building in the Egyptian desert but similar challenges exist all over the world. The first part of the book opens with an overview of the problems experienced in places that are only now becoming vulnerable to the rapid urbanisation that is affecting the vernacular heritage everywhere. It then focuses on the problems experienced by the communities living in the Egyptian desert. Among these problems, however, there are opportunities too. The second part describes three strategies that have the potential to bring sustainable change in the conservation of vernacular buildings in the Western Desert in Egypt. The final part offers a vision of how this desert vernacular heritage at risk can be nurtured, and suggests scenarios to achieve this.
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Acknowledgements
My wholehearted thanks go to all who have advised, supported and enabled the creation of this book. So many people opened their homes to me and shared information and ideas that now underpin the thinking behind this book. I would like to offer profound thanks to Professor Kerstin Barup and Professor Mats Edström at Lund University in Sweden for their support and encouragement during the production of this piece of work. Deep thanks to Ibrahim El Nagar and Ahmad Hilal for their help with the illustrations and design. Without their unceasing efforts, this book would not look as good as it does. Thank you, too, to Professor Nabeel Hamdy and Dr Marcel Vellinga at Oxford Brookes University in the UK, who encouraged me write this book. My gratitude, too, to Architect Ramez Azmy at EQI for his help and information on the Adrere Amellal and Albabenshal projects. I am grateful to Professor Pierre Frey for the gift of his invaluable book, Learning from Vernacular: Towards a New Vernacular Architecture, which was an inspiration. My heartfelt thanks to all the friends and colleagues who powered me with positive energy to carry on. Last of all, I need to thank my mother, father and sister, who gave me their bottomless support so that I could keep working on this dream.
م ي روة ا دب ح
May 2015
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Foreword
Egyptians have been builders since the Pharaohs. Indigenous people have taken the materials offered by nature, mastered the crafts needed to work them and created manmade structures that satisfy their requirement for comfort, meet their social and religious needs and at the same time are aesthetically pleasing. It is by creating their own built environment, that indigenous people structure their social relationships and strengthen their cultural roots. When architects study vernacular architecture, we tend to focus more on the technological aspects of the buildings and almost ignore the fusion of technology with the sociological aspects that creates what we now call spectacular vernacular . I hope that this book will inspire the integration of traditional skills and materials with contemporary postvernacular architecture. Let us hope that such vernacular settlements will survive and that they will attract the attention and sympathy of researchers, professionals, decision makers, and all those working in the field of architecture, development and planning. Vernacular architecture is still capable of providing housing solutions in rural areas for future generations, using materials from the local environment.
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Characteristics and identity
Location
26 Vernacular conservation
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Conservation vs. modernisation
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Transmission of vernacular building knowledge skills
Vernacular and tourism
34 Developing a desert vernacular
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Desert Vernacular urban fabric Vernacular and climate change
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Desert vernacular and sustainability
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بالط
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Zero energy vernacular approaches
Adrere Amellal
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Transmission of desert vernacular building know
Balat
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Vernacular and human aspects
Albabenshal
Desert vernacular problems
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Conclusion and Afterword
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About the author
Vernacular conservation To save this vernacular heritage a sustainable approach to preservation is needed that takes account of both the tangible and the intangible. Vernacular conservation should not be applying strategies that focus only on problems of how to adapt old buildings to today s needs: it should take into account the characteristics of each location. Furthermore, the conservation of vernacular heritage should consist of more than historic preservation, which merely freezes the buildings for future generations to gaze at. Conservation should be seen as the first step towards a vernacular development that is at once sustainable and able to accommodate the needs of the next generations. Keeping a building well maintained is labour intensive. It is generally accepted that residential occupation is a low cost way of keeping a building in good repair until permanent solutions can be found. It is even better if the owners can be given advice how to do it though in most cases the locals know more than any outside expert. When the authorities in Egypt evacuated some of the listed towns, the buildings decayed rapidly as they lose the regular maintenance and care from local residents.
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Stages of building construction of the neo-vernacular desert model house: mixing the earth for brick casting
Soil mixing
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Wooden moulds for brick casting
Bricks left to dry in the sun
Stages of mud brick manufacture I 65
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Stages of building construction of the neo-vernacular desert model house: foundations and walls
Lintel from palm-tree wood Frame from wood Sill from brick
Foundation
Drawing and agreeing the plan
Building the walls
Drawing the house plan on the ground the traditional way, then starting on the foundations and walls 66
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Stages of building construction of the neo-vernacular desert model house: roof making process
Layering logs as primary beams
Stripping and treating Casuarina wood with linseed oil Fresh sand Clay mortar Mud bricks Palm leaves Palm reeds
Logs Mud brick pillows
Pealing palm leaves and treating the palm reeds
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Roof layers
Adrere Amellal
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Adrere Amellal ecolodge Adrere Amellal is another spectacular desert project. It is an ecolodge located 16 km from the town of Shali in Siwa Oasis. It was built in 1998 into the side of a sandstone mountain overlooking a salt water lake in Siwa. Sited about 70 km east of the Libyan border on the edge of the Qattara Depression, the oasis area possesses an exceptional natural environment, a number of attractive archaeological sites and several rare geomorphologic landscapes. Living through the centuries in relative isolation has allowed the Siwa community to maintain their own identity and traditions. So long as the fragile eco-system is safeguarded and the cultural heritage supported, the area has the potential for suitable, sustainable economic development. Adrere Amellal means the White Mountain. The words are from the Siwa dialect. The ecolodge is an example of a carbon neutral building. The design was intended to reduce the area s carbon footprint because the lodge is built from locally sourced Kershif (a mixture of sun-dried salt rock mixed with clay) and the timber from the area s palm trees. A consequence of locally sourcing materials is that the Kershif earthen buildings blend naturally into the landscape.
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Adrere Amellal ecolodge, main entrance I 77
In this project sustainable vernacular green approaches were the inspiration for the new passive and carbon neutral energy efficient techniques used in the building design and construction. The project designer and planner drew on their experience of vernacular work to handle the challenging climatic conditions, and the architect demonstrated that vernacular architecture always embodies the same timeless techniques. Practical applications to optimise energy efficiency were expressed in locally available materials, carbon neutral and biodegradable resources and vernacular building principles. For example, the building faces the prevailing winds to catch cool summer breezes. Its thick walls act as a thermal mass buffer and its small openings reduce heat gain from glazing. Other examples of climate control include passive ventilation in summer using natural ventilation systems that rely on the strategic positioning of doors and windows for cross and night ventilation. This entirely eliminates the need for mechanical air conditioning.
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Adrere Amellal ecolodge, side view from the west I 79
Adrere Amellal has no electricity. The lodge uses natural light during the day and beeswax candles after dark. It has also been designed to operate with very limited light features so as to reduce light pollution in the visible light spectrum. This allows the stars to be visible for stargazing and reduces luminous pollution in such a virgin spot. There is a system for water treatment on site. Waste water is initially held in self -contained sedimentation tanks. The clear supernatant water that floats to the surface then flows through perforated pipes into a sealed wetland where indigenous papyrus plants are grown, which completes the biodegradation. The self-sustaining philosophy of the ecolodge is also reflected in the hospitality: the guests are offered traditional food cooked in locally made honey-glazed clay pots; all herbs and vegetables are picked every day from the organic farm on site. The furnishings, which are simple but high quality, use only local materials and designs. Everything pays tribute to the talents of the local artisans.
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Adrere Amellal ecolodge, side view from the north I 81
Close up of the sun-dried salt clay known as Kershif I 85
Albabenshal The third rehabilitation project is Albabenshal, which is also located in the heart of the Siwa Oasis in the north west of Egypt, nearly 50 km east of the Libyan border, 300 km south of the Mediterranean coast and 560 km from Cairo (Lat., 29.2째 N. Long., 25.5째 E). The original houses that now form the Albabenshal lodge were built on the rock salt of Shali, which had become a ghost town when it was totally abandoned in the 1980s after a series of heavy rain falls had devastated most of the town in 1926. As part of the Siwa Sustainable Development Initiative, in 2002 Egypt s Environmental Quality International office (EQI) set up the Albabenshal rehabilitation and restoration project to revitalise Siwa s unique cultural and building heritage. The project was to restore five old houses and transform them into an ecolodge with 11 guest rooms. The rehabilitation process involved the traditional local building construction technique using salt clay (Kershif). Kershif is a mixture of sun-dried salt rock combined with clay that is used for building walls. The mud is extracted from the shores of the salt lake or recycled from the surrounding ruins. This material has several environmental benefits, including its ability to maintain indoor temperatures at moderate levels especially during the summer. The thick walls of Kershif act as a thermal mass that reduces peak indoor temperatures because the dense exposed materials absorb heat during the hottest days and slowly release it during cooler periods.
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Albabenshal ecolodge with, nearby, the traditional buildings of Shali’s Old Town
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Old Shali s ruined houses I 103
The restoration of Albabenshal has proved that a proper appreciation of vernacular techniques can help us to relearn fundamental concepts. The natural local building materials have long life cycles; they offer sustainable environmental solutions with minimal or no carbon emissions. They do not pollute the environment with construction waste. Above all, in the long term houses constructed using these techniques are economical to build compared to conventional buildings. Analysis of the desert vernacular houses chosen for the rehabilitation of Albabenshal points to several long-established technical solutions that can easily be given contemporary applications. Nevertheless, to guarantee better results vernacular strategies first need to be tested and verified using building performance simulation programs during the design stages. The local builders have the luxury of being able to try various approaches without risk because unsatisfactory outcomes can be easily corrected. Simulation may not be feasible for a modern design but, in the search for the best vernacular outcome it can be very helpful.
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Albabenshal ecolodge, at the heart of the vibrant life of Shali’s Old Town
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References
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Minke, Gernot (2009). Building with earth: design and technology of a sustainable architecture. 2nd, rev. ed. Basel: Birkhäuser Oliver, Paul (red.) (1976). Shelter in Africa. Pbk ed. London: Barrie & Jenkins Oliver, Paul (2003). Dwellings: the vernacular house worldwide. London: Phaidon Oliver, Paul (2006). Built to meet needs: cultural issues in vernacular architecture. Oxford: Architectural Press Schijns, Wolf, Kaper, Olaf E. & Kila, Joris (2008). Vernacular mudbrick architecture in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, and the design of the Dakhleh Oasis Training and Archaeological Conservation Centre. Oxford: Oxbow Turan, Mete (ed.) (1990). Vernacular architecture: paradigms of environmental response. Aldershot: Avebury 120
Waly, Tarek (1996). In quest of an approach for existence in desert architecture. 1st ed. Bahrain: The Arab Association for Printing and Publishing
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Copyright Š 2015 Marwa Dabaieh
P.O. Box 118 SE-221 00 LUND Sweden