bâtiments ii. rehabilitation buildings. rehabilitacio... · método rehabimed arquitectura...

RehabiMed MethodTraditional MediterraneanArchitecture

II. RehabilitationBuildings

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MéthodeRehabiMed

ArchitectureTraditionnelleMéditerranéenneII. RéhabilitationBâtiments

Método RehabiMed

Arquitectura TradicionalMediterráneaII. RehabilitaciónEl Edificio

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RehabiMed MethodTraditional MediterraneanArchitecture

II. RehabilitationBuildings

THIS PROGRAMME IS FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION

EUROMED

AGENCIA ESPAÑOLADE COOPERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL

EUROMED HERITAGE

COL·LEGI D’APARELLADORSI ARQUITECTES TÈCNICS DE BARCELONA

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MéthodeRehabiMed

ArchitectureTraditionnelleMéditerranéenneII. RéhabilitationBâtiments

Método RehabiMed

Arquitectura TradicionalMediterráneaII. RehabilitaciónEl Edificio

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Consortium RehabiMed:

Project Manager:Xavier CASANOVAS

Members:

Ministry of Communications and WorksDepartment of Antiquities of CyprusPerson in charge: Evi FIOURI

Bureau Culturel de l'Ambassade de la RépubliqueArabe d'Egypte en FranceSupreme Council of Antiquities, EgyptePersons in charge: Mahmoud ISMAÏL et WahidMohamed EL-BARBARY

Col·legi d’Aparelladors i Arquitectes Tècnics deBarcelona, EspagnePersons in charge: Xavier CASANOVAS

Ecole d’Avignon, FrancePersons in charge: Gilles NOURISSIER

Centre Méditerranéen de l'EnvironnementMarrakech, MarocPersons in charge: Moulay Abdeslam SAMRAKANDI

Institut National du Patrimoine, TunisiePersons in charge: Mourad RAMMAH

Director:Xavier CASANOVAS

Coordination of the volumes:Oriol CUSIDÓRamon GRAUSAmèlia MARZAL

Development and drafting of the method:Oriol CUSIDÓRamon GRAUS

Network of experts of the RehabiMed Consortium:

CyprusPersons in charge: Evi FIOURI et Irene HADJISAVVAConstantinos ALKIDESAthina ARISTOTELOUS-CLERIDOUMichael COSMASEliana GEORGIOUKyriakos KOUNDOUROSYiola KOUROUAthina PAPADOPOULOUAgni PETRIDOUEleni PETROPOULOUMaria PHILOKYPROUEleni PISSARIDOUSocrates STRATIS

EgyptPersons in charge: Mahmoud ISMAÏL et Wahid EL-BARBARYMahmoud ABD EL MAGEEDMahmoud EL-ALFYMohamed ELARABYPhilippe HEARINGERHany HELALBernard MAURYMohamed SIEF AL-YAZEL

SpainPersons in charge: Oriol CUSIDÓ et Ramon GRAUSMartí ABELLAJosep ARMENGOLSantiago CANOSACèsar DÍAZ GÓMEZ

Albert FUSTERJosé Luis GARCÍA GRINDASoledad GARCÍA MORALESJosé Luis GONZÁLEZ MORENO-NAVARROMaría-José JIMÉNEZJosé Manuel LÓPEZ OSORIOCarmen MARZOIrene MARZOCamilla MILETOJoaquín MONTÓNJosep MUNTAÑOLAFrancisco POLEmilio RAMIROPere ROCACristina THIÓFernando VEGASAntoni VILANOVAMontserrat VILLAVERDE

FrancePersons in charge: René GUERIN et Patrice MOROT-SIRXavier BENOISTChristophe GRAZMaria LÓPEZ DÍAZMichel POLGEJean-Alexandre SIRIChristian THIRIOTVéronique WOOD

Morocco Persons in charge: Abderrahim KASSOU et QuentinWILBAUXKarim ACHAKMohamed BOUAZZAOUIHicham ECHEFAAJamal-Eddine EL-GHORAFIAmeziane HASSSANIOum-Kaltoum KOBBITESaid LOQMANEAbdellatif MAROUAhmed OUARZAZI

TunisiaPersons in charge: Radhia BEN M’BAREK etAbdellatif GHILENEMourad RAMMAHMohamed KERROU

Collaborating experts in other Mediterraneancountries:

Nur AKIN (Turkey)Nazmi AL-JUBEH (Palestine)Mustafa AL-NADDAF (Jordan)Ziad AL-SAAD (Jordan)Suad AMIRY (Palestine)Koksal ANADOL (Turkey)Carlo ATZENI (Italy)Abdelaziz BADJADJA (Algeria)Kurtel BELMA (Turkey)Demet BINAN (Turkey)Can BINAN (Turkey)Andrea BRUNO (Italy)Khaldun BSHARA (Palestine)Yotam CARMEL (Israel)Banu ÇELEBIOGLU (Turkey)Vito CENTRONE (Italy)Nathalie CHAHINE (Lebanon)Ofer COHEN (Israel)Michel DAOUD (Lebanon)Habib DEBS (Lebanon)Michelangelo DRAGONE (Italy)Reuven ELBERGER (Israel)Tal EYAL (Israel)Fabio FATIGUSO (Italy)Antoine FISCHFISCH (Lebanon)Yael FUHRMANN-NAAMAN (Israel)Giovanni FURIO (Italy)Sinan GENIM (Turkey)Feyhan INKAYA (Turkey)Monther JAMHAWI (Jordanie)

Oussama KALLAB (Lebanon)Nikolaos KALOGIROU (Greece)Vito LAUDADIO (Italy)Yasmine MAKAROUN BOU ASSAF (Lebanon)Moshe MAMON (Israel)Hilmi MARAQA (Palestine)Filipe MARIO LOPES (Portugal)Nikolaos MOUTSOPOULOS (Greece)Farhat MUHAWI (Palestine)Yael F. NA’AMAN (Israel)Yassine OUAGENI (Algeria)Alkmini PAKA (Greece)Rubi PELED (Israel)Avi PERETS (Israel)Simona PORCELLI (Italy)Bougnerira-Hadj QUENZA (Algeria)Cristina Scarpocchi (Italy)Sinan SENIL (Turkey)Haluk SEZGIN (Turkey)Mai SHAER (Jordan)Yaacov SHAFFER (Israel)Ram SHOEF (Israel)Giambattista DE TOMMASI (Italy)Shan TSAY (Jordan)Fandi WAKED (Jordan)Eyal ZIV (Israel)

Scientific Committee of the Rehabimed Project:Brigitte COLIN (UNESCO)Josep GIRALT (IEMed)Paul OLIVER (Oxford Brookes University)

French translation:Michel LEVAILLANT

English translation:Elaine FRADLEYADDENDA

Spanish translation:Inma DÁVILA, Amèlia MARZAL

Arabian translation:Mahmoud ISMAÏL

Illustrations:Joan CUSIDÓ

Cover illustration:Fernando VEGAS, Camilla MILETO

Photographic material:RehabiMed, CORPUS and CORPUS Levant teams.Other sources are indicated with the photo.

Graphic design:LM,DG : Lluís MESTRES

Website:www.rehabimed.net

© 2007 Col·legi d’Aparelladors i Arquitectes Tècnics de Barcelona pour le consortium RehabiMedBon Pastor, 5 – 08021 Barcelona, [email protected]

ISBN : 84-87104-75-4

RehabiMed wish to encourage the reproduction of thiswork and the diffusion of its contents, with duemention of its source.

This project is financed by the Euromed Heritageprogramme of the European Union and by theAgencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (AECI).

The opinions expressed in this document do notnecessarily reflect the position of the European Unionor its member states.

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Preface

The first Euromediterranean Conference of heads of state in 1995 saw the launch of theBarcelona process, an ambitious initiative ratified in 2005 at the Barcelona +10 Summit. Thepriority objectives are intended to seek sociopolitical, economic, cultural and environmentalsynergies from a regional and mutual development viewpoint. It was within this context that theEuromed Heritage Programme emerged in 1998, to contribute towards the improvement andprotection of the diverse heritage shared by the different Mediterranean countries.

Traditional architecture, as an essential part of the cultural legacy generated by the collectiveimagination of the Mediterranean, plays an important part in the actions carried out by EuromedHeritage. In their first years, CORPUS and CORPUS Levant carried out an enormous task cataloguingand analysing the characteristics and typologies of traditional Mediterranean architecture,identifying the problems presented and suggesting the best alternatives for preserving it.RehabiMed wanted to continue this stage of analytical study to develop the essential ideas arisingfrom the needs and urgent requirements detected by these projects – promoting effective,respectful rehabilitation.

Today, in a globalised world, where economic and cultural uniformity mark the developmentcriteria to be followed based on standard patterns, RehabiMed's proposal is even moremeaningful. Rehabilitation counteracts the idea of globalisation, and regional wealth, culturaldiversity, different ways of life and particular local features become essential elements to bepreserved.

There are many public and private initiatives aimed at recovering constructed heritage; some areoriented towards singular, monumental heritage, which we call Restoration, and others, as is thecase with RehabiMed, are directed towards more modest, more abundant heritage with agreater presence in the territory, such as traditional architecture in historic town centres, ruralvillages and dispersed throughout the territory. This is what we call Rehabilitation, always carriedout to provide buildings – the majority of them without any kind of heritage protection – with ause. This activity involving action on what has been built presents a wide diversity of situations,if we look at the Mediterranean sphere. In European countries, rehabilitation activity representsalmost 50% of total activity in the sector, while in the countries of the south and east of theMediterranean basin, this activity does not amount even to 10% of activity in the sector, despiteits importance concerning economic development and the social cohesion of the population.

RehabiMed's aim is to reinforce rehabilitation activity and maintaining traditional Mediterraneanarchitecture as a factor in sustainable (social, economic and environmental) development.Achieving this objective will allow us to move forward with two historical challenges that mayappear contradictory but from our point of view are perfectly compatible and complementary:firstly, contributing towards improving the living conditions of residents, who are the people whogive meaning and life to this heritage; and, secondly, contributing to preserving the historical andcultural identity of Mediterranean peoples.

To achieve this aim, RehabiMed's approach has been to work in three directions. Firstly, we havedeveloped some strategic and methodological tools orientated towards rehabilitation; alongsidethese, we have carried out various publicity actions and training for professionals in the spirit ofthe content of the tools developed; and, finally, we have launched four pilot operations with realrehabilitation work to test, experiment and demonstrate the importance, possibilities andpositive effects represented by good rehabilitation policy.

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They have been three years of hard work, constructive debates and experiences shared withexperts, with students and, above all, with the population directly linked to our actions, whichhas allowed us to meet the objective we initially set. We believe that the results are excellent andthat we have created a good starting point for rehabilitation to get off on the right foot, givingmeaning to the tools created, the training given and the experiments carried out.

I am delighted to present the first volume of our methodological work, the result of the effort ofmore than 150 experts from different professional spheres in 15 countries. The texts in thispublication contain the RehabiMed Method for rehabilitation of Traditional MediterraneanArchitecture, which have been considered and drawn up at length to respond to the concerns ofour collaborators and experts. In addition, the publication develops the different points putforward by the RehabiMed Method to provide guidelines on specific proposals, to facilitate theirapplication and to show different situations sharing very similar forms of action in therehabilitation of the regional and urban heritage of traditional architecture. All this should servepoliticians and officers of the different administrations to make it easier for them to generate anddevelop their initiatives to promote rehabilitation from a very broad frame of reference, raisingthe awareness of the population and getting it to take an active part in decision-making.

Xavier CasanovasRehabiMed Project Manager

Barcelona, 30 June 2007

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Traditional Mediterranean Architecture

RehabiMed uses the term traditional architecture to refer toeveryday architecture that is alive because it is inhabited,essentially civilian, domestic and of pre-industrial construction. It isa form of architecture built using local resources, which coversmaterials, techniques and the skills of its constructors, and it is thefundamental expression of the culture of the differentcommunities and their relation with nature and the landscape.It is an architecture that covers different forms of grouping andthe scattered habitat with all its auxiliary constructions, notforgetting the more modest elements (fountains, paths, etc.),which, altogether, form the traditional Mediterranean landscape.RehabiMed focuses broadly on this architecture, including boththe rural habitat, fundamental to the humanization andstructuring of the territory, and the city, the clear expression of lifein community and the optimization of resources and humanrelations, going beyond the filters of highbrow architecture toincorporate all the values of more modest forms of architecture.Rural architecture is primarily linked to systems of agricultural andlivestock production, which, beyond a simple presence in abygone landscape, plays a vital role in understanding theprocesses that have produced today’s landscape, the result of asocial and a natural history. Rural architecture has always played asalient role as an element that structures the landscape in whichbuildings, crops and nature are in perfect balance, the result of acontinuous process of change and transformation, a socio-environmental reality generated jointly by biophysical andsocioeconomic factors throughout history. The traditional ruralhabitat takes the form of a heterogeneous variety of builttypologies which may be scattered or form small settlements. It isalso accompanied by a large variety of auxiliary elements andconstructions that are vital to the domestication of the territory(cabins, dry-stone walls, ovens and kilns, caravanserais, fountains,wells, mills, stables, granaries, etc.), and infrastructures (canals,paths, irrigation channels, etc.) which are the result of thehistorical interaction between natural resources and human waysof appropriating them that bear witness to the coherenthybridization of the biophysical factors of a region and thesocioeconomic factors of the community that inhabit it.Urban architecture, on the other hand, is built in the context of acity or urban settlement, being the expression of a more complexform of community dwelling, in which artisans and traderspredominate over the land-related trades and where ‘the newneeds and forms of society find their place’ (Mumford, 1961). Theurban settlement, though also originally linked to the rural spaceand to the need to commercialize farming surplus, appeared as astructure to dominate the territory, defined by Braudel (1968)

‘more than by its walls or the number of its population, by the wayin which it concentrates its activities on the most limited surfacearea possible’. The urban habitat covers a large typological range,derived to a large extent from geographical differentiation andfrom its origin and historical evolution. This historical andmorphological diversity not only translates as buildings,construction procedures or materials used, it is also theconfiguration of the urban form, expressed in the way ofstructuring and considering collective space (streets, squares, etc.),of organizing constructions and uses which, in the rural world, arescattered (sanctuary, fountain, fortress, etc.), of relating privatearchitecture and public space, developing a greater variety ofresidential typologies that reflects more complex social structures,in the uses of buildings, in the singularity of its infrastructures(market, school, etc.), and so on. These settlements, which in daysgone by exclusively configured the city as a consequence of itsgrowth and transformation, now form an integral part of thecontemporary city, where they play the role of historical nucleuses.It is, then, the form of traditional architecture that humankindused to settle and construct its habitat in the territory around theMediterranean Sea, a palimpsest permanently rewritten by therelations between people and their surroundings, and which hastoday become cultural landscape and collective imaginary.

Introduction

Elmali, Turkey

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Rovinj, Croatia Lucca, Italy

Hacienda Algarrobo, Malaga, SpainQalaat al Manika, Syria

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A changing world. Architecture underthreat

The inventories drawn up as part of the CORPUS and CORPUSLevant (EUROMED Heritage I) projects showed in 2002 the far-reaching transformations and pressures to which architecture,landscape and traditional territory are subject. Today, traditionalsurroundings are in a dramatic situation throughout theMediterranean Basin, reduced to a continuing loss of their socialand cultural character, threatened by intense degradation andconstantly on the retreat. Likewise, the breakdown of thetraditional world and the tendency to cultural homogenization asa result of globalization have brought about disregard for much ofthis architecture, often considered to be a symbol of poverty withvalues and qualities that are far removed from the mediatizedconcept of modernity.Pressure on the traditional habitat began with the process ofindustrialization, though it was much accentuated by the modernmovement and urbanism in the early 20th century, seeking newmodels of dwelling and building cities that could overcome thedeficiencies of traditional settlements; it went as far as denying allfunctional, social and even aesthetic values, and radically placed‘the new’ before ‘the old’. This process emerged at different timesaccording to the country in question and whether we refer to theurban or the rural space.Today, in the era of the ‘global village’, when the metropolitanindustrial city is turning into a diffuse metapolis and the bordersbetween country and city are becoming increasingly hazy, thepressure on this architecture and the population that it houses iseven greater.In the rural environment, many villages are becoming depopulateddue to the lack of alternatives for development, and others aresubject to violent transformation under the pressures of propertyor tourism-related speculation without the necessary urbanplanning. This contemporary urbanism is upsetting the historicalbalance between humankind and nature, and converting the rurallandscape into a landscape without activity, where traditionalarchitecture loses its meaning and original function, and is reusedand transformed.In urban environments, the ‘historical nucleuses’ are affected bydifferent problems according to each historical and regionalcircumstance, which we could summarise according to four mainvectors of pressure, sometimes complementary or simultaneous,and with differing degrees of influence: nucleuses in the processof overpopulation due to migration (south-north or country-city)with the subsequent physical (over-occupation and modificationof dwelling), social (constitution of ghettos, insecurity, etc.) and

environmental (insalubrity, lack of comfort, pollution)deterioration of the urban environment; nucleuses in the processof depopulation due to the abandonment of the historic fabric forthe city, with the subsequent loss of social values and thedeterioration of buildings and architectural heritage; nucleusesaffected by heavy-handed urban renovation work (demolition ofheritage, destruction of the historic fabric with the creation ofnew expressways, incoherent insertion of new architectures), and,finally, nucleuses affected by processes of urban reinvestment, inwhich we can distinguish three main processes: the developmentof tourism, tertiarization (especially in historic centres) with thepossible loss of the residential function, and gentrification (theinstallation in a run-down neighbourhood of residents from a

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Introduction

Arnavutkoy, Istanbul, Turkey

Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina

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high-income bracket), all processes that can have acounterproductive effect in social terms.Institutions such as the UNESCO and ICOMOS have issuedrepeated alerts about the loss of this heritage. In this respect,mention should be made of the recommendations of theInternational Charter for the Conservation of Historic Towns andUrban Areas (Washington Charter) of 1987 and the Charter onBuilt Vernacular Heritage (1999). Both charters, in addition toproviding criteria for intervention, stress the need for long-termaction in the form of education and sensitization measures,involving the promotion of training and specializationprogrammes in areas of preservation of traditional architecture,aimed at technical professionals and politicians, who should headpolicies for the assessment and rehabilitation of this heritage, andseeking the complicity of the population, an active protagonistand participant in this shared legacy.It is in this context that the RehabiMed project proposes a seriesof measures to encourage the rehabilitation of this architecture onthe basis of sensitization and training.

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Tunis, Tunisia Rbat, MoroccoAleppo, Syria

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Rehabilitating Traditional MediterraneanArchitecture

In its global dimension, traditional habitat has a great deal tocontribute to a context of sudden changes and urbanization thatis neither sustainable nor environmentally friendly, and is markedby a need for the reorientation of urban policies in order to reduceconflicts between humankind and nature, improve quality of life,encourage basic values of community life and call for the recoveryof the existing territory and recognition of cultural diversity.For RehabiMed, the concept of rehabilitation covers a broad rangeof action with a view to recovering and updating a lost ordamaged function—in this case, dwelling. On the basis ofpresent-day concerns, rehabilitation means improving the actionof dwelling by seeking a point of balance between technicalaspects, the preservation of heritage values and criteria of socialjustice, economic efficiency and preservation of the environment(the three mainstays of sustainability).RehabiMed continues the task begun by the European Charter ofArchitectural Heritage and the complementary AmsterdamDeclaration, both dated 1975 and promoted by the EuropeanCouncil. These documents put forward the concept of “integratedconservation” for the recovery of run-down historic centres, basednot just on the restoration of monuments but also on thepromotion of actions to rehabilitate the fabric of dwellings andsocial measures.RehabiMed therefore proposes a methodology that addresses therehabilitation process on the basis of integrating traditional spaceinto a wider territorial context; from the global viewpoint of amultisectorial, economic, social and environmental approach; thatis driven by a desire for coordination and calls for consensus ofaction between the various agents; that is flexible, due to theneed for continual adaptation to changing realities; and,essentially, non-dogmatic, not claiming to produce single solutionsto the problems of the traditional habitat in the Mediterranean,seeking instead solutions that adapt to the conditioning factorsand specificity of each local context.

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Thessalonica, Greece

Beirut, Lebanon

Istanbul, Turkey

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The RehabiMed Method on the scale of the building. The Guide and itsconstituent tools

Whereas the first volume of this publication is devoted to theRehabiMed Method and its intervention on the scale of villages,towns, cities and the territory, volume two is its complement,focusing on the scale of the building. It is, then, a text aimed atthe architects, engineers and builders who design, direct and carryout rehabilitation work on traditional buildings in theMediterranean. Rehabilitation of a building calls for an overview of the territory inwhich it is set and an understanding of its relation with theterritorial and urban context. This is why the RehabiMed Projectinsists on the need to apply this Guide in the framework of theoverall rehabilitation method outlined in the first volume of thispublication, which sets out a series of shared, coherent criteria forintervention in order to address the complex problems involved inthese situations.This second volume is also divided into two different parts: amethodology, which we refer to as the Guide, establishingprocedures for the successful undertaking of rehabilitation work,and a practical part containing specific tools for concreteproblems.The first part is the product of the joint work of a network ofMediterranean experts who, in the first year of the RehabiMedProject, drafted the basic principles and procedures of the Guide.The texts in the Guide have been debated at length afterpresentation at the 2005 RehabiMed Symposium in Marseilles,and constituted the conceptual bases for various training seminarsin 2006 and 2007 (Nicosia, Cairo, Kairouan, Marrakech).The second part, comprising practical tools, was written byindividual specialists in a variety of fields with a view to providingelements of support for the various phases of rehabilitation work.It aims to cover a broad range of problems and sensibilities which,in our opinion, characterize the Mediterranean basin.It is true that strict compliance with a guide of this nature calls fora high degree of commitment and may raise issues that aredifficult to address according to the reality of a given country andplace, but we are convinced that setting high standards will, in thelong term, stimulate the quality of the rehabilitation of ourtraditional architecture and contribute to its preservation.

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Dubrovnik, Croatia

La Selva del Camp, Spain

Cairo, Egypt

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Second part

The RehabiMed tools

An aid to the rehabilitation of traditional buildings

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I. Knowledge

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Tool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitation

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Tool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitation

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitation

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Traditional MediterraneanArchitecture.Territory, landscape and traditionalarchitecture

José Luis García-GrindaDoctor of ArchitectureProfessor of the Department of History and Theory oArchitecture at the School of Architecture of Madrid (Technical University of Madrid), Spain

To speak of a Mediterranean territory is to refer to a diversity oflandscapes in which sea and mountains are involved in constantdialogue and reach out to each other, in a geographical formationmarked by a series of territorial contrasts—the fertile and thedesert, mountains with plains, rough and smooth, plateaus withriverbanks, coastline and inland—where the hand of humankindhas shaped the urban and the rural.The Mediterranean is a space where human activity over thecenturies has used and shaped the territory, leaving marks, traces,landmarks, references, the products of its historical development.Cities, towns, villages, caseríos, estates, temporary settlements,cabins, tents, refuges, etc., with miscellaneous arrangements,spaces and organizations, are the forms of human dwelling in thisterritory. Added to these are other non-residential arrangements,dissociated from the dwelling and associated with productive uses(farming, stock-keeping, forestry, pre-industrial, etc.), or othercollective and private needs and services.The network of roads, for vehicles, people on foot or livestock,along with natural watercourses, aided by ports, wharves,moorings, etc., interlink and communicate settlements and places.In addition to the hydraulic network, artificially created to harnessthe territory’s water resources, these constitute the organization ofthe space constituted by the terrazgo and the montazgo, withtheir divisions and limits, and a variety of scattered built elements,a structured territorial complex with those settlements andarrangements. All this is the result and reflection of prolongedinteraction throughout different historical epochs and societiesbetween humankind, nature and the physical environment.Bearing witness to the relation of developing communities,individuals and their environment is the creation and shaping oflandscapes in territorial spaces of cultural interest, known ascultural landscapes—territories in our geographical scope, in thematerialization and personalization of which traditionalarchitecture has a significant role.It is important to clarify that professional specializations (urbanism,architecture or engineering) apart, I understand architecture in aterritorial sense, following the definition provided by WilliamMorris in the second half of the 19th century, as a series ofalterations produced on the surface of the earth at the service ofhuman needs. This broad definition embraces and ties up with thearchitectural concept of cultural landscape, including settlementsat their various levels of size and complexity, buildings,infrastructures and the various treatments presented by urban andrural non-built spaces.

When referring to traditional Mediterranean architecture, thehouse is the heart and the symbol of this organized architecture asa whole, in both urban and, particularly, rural settlements. It isconceived as the seat and the heart of traditional life andactivities, and, in the words of Viollet-le-Duc, in architecture as awhole, the home is what best characterizes the customs, tastesand uses of a people—the way it lives and feels. Set on its ownsite, it may be accompanied by buildings or parts of buildings thatmeet the various artisan, farming and commercial uses and needs.The actual estate or private property may also include, thoughseparate from the house or on common land, a whole range ofbuildings of this kind, which go to define the characteristictraditional architecture of each comarca or territory. The house inthis sense is not just a physical structure, it is an institution createdfor a complex set of ends, and its construction can be qualified asa cultural phenomenon. It is, then, not unusual in traditional

Landscape of rural settlements with farmed terraces: Estellecs (Spain)

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationTraditional Mediterranean Architecture. Territory, landscape and traditional architecture

1 architecture for the concept and actual name of the house to beused to identify not just dwelling place but also the estate as awhole and its associated properties, seen as a symbolic place ofcoexistence and production.These auxiliary architectures vary a great deal in their nature. Theybasically serve farming or livestock functions or provide back-upfor these productive activities, separated from the house forreasons either of function or hygiene, such as stables, sties, ovensand kilns, granaries, silos, barns, drying sheds, storehouses,threshing grounds, cellars, dovecots, apiaries, refuges, etc. Thereare also others that respond to the same needs but are collectivein use or ownership, such as granaries, refuges, livestock pens andfolds, etc., some of them permanent and some used intranshumance.Another group of architectures provides facilities or public servicesto the community, often adopting traditional forms andorganizations, and, on occasion, forming part of the housingprogramme. In some cases, these architectural elements were theproperty of the council or collective associations, sometimes alsoproviding revenue for them to support the development of theiractivities. These included various types of fountains, wells,

cisterns, tanks, deposits and supplies of water for human andanimal consumption and watering, such as washing places, watertroughs, pools, aqueducts and irrigation channels, and theconstructions and mechanisms that extract water from its naturalcourses and wells, such as dams, millraces, crankshafts andwaterwheels, for services such as the forge, the smithy and thekiln. Others provided infrastructure for hunting activities, such ashides, kill sites or pits to catch bears, wolves or other “vermin”. Thearchitectures of civil and religious institutions were represented bythe town hall, with various facilities for education, justice, foodsupplies, trade, lodging, health, sport and celebrations, such as

Caseríos in La Axarquía (Spain), based around modern raisin production Alquézar (Spain), Al kassar, a town founded in the 13th century beneath the 10th-century castle of Arabic origin

House in Languedoc and Provence (France), with dovecot, drawing by Viollet-Le-Duc

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1schools, prisons, pillories, counsel trees, markets, souks, shops,guilds, almudís, corn exchanges, fondouk or khan, saltstorehouses, pósitos, tithe barns, tercias, hostelries, inns, taverns,hostels, baths, hospitals, poorhouses, hospices, bowling alleys andpelota courts, complemented in some cases by private activity. Thespecifically religious included churches, mosques, synagogues,oratorios, sanctuaries, wayside crosses and cemeteries.Pre-industrial architecture dedicated to production, which may belisted under some of the previous headings, included mills drivenby beasts of burden, water or wind, olive-oil mills, presses, paperand sugar mills, smithies, coppersmith’s, water-driven sawmills,

fulling mills, saltworks, pottery, glass, iron, lime and plaster kilns,different artisan workshops, textile mills, tanneries, dyers andforges. Extraction activities covered mines, quarries, kilns andmineral-panning sites. There was also the organization andelements of certain road infrastructures (actual roads, cart tracksand paths, livestock tracks, paths, or bridges, pontoons,footbridges, sewers, etc.) and systems of irrigation and thoseassociated with sailing and fishing activities, such as ports,wharves, shipyards, moorings and hatcheries. Another headingwas the treatment of public space (pavements, steps, ramps,roofs, pergolas, benches and vegetation), elements to form andenclose farming space, such as terraces, fences, hedges, walls,enclosures, gates, etc., or these elements organized to this end,exemplified in such exposed spaces as some African oases, wherethe palm grove becomes a solar roof, beneath which fruit treesgrow, and the lower level becomes a vegetable garden, feedingon the structure of irrigation channels, enclosed by densepalisades made of palm branches that protect it from the desertsands.Added to these organizations are the public spaces they form,which, in both the urban and the rural worlds, are notablycomplex. They are defined and organized by significant buildingsand elements, with specialized uses linked to a whole range ofactivities (public, civic and religious, representative, commercial,festive, productive, access-related, etc.) in squares, avenues,gardens, streets, alleys, dead ends, open drains, atriums,fountains, watering and washing places, tracts of land, threshinggrounds, crossroads, fords, etc.

House in the country; masia in Cassà de la Selva (Spain)

Landscape of terraced crops in La Alpujarra, Ohanes (Spain) The humanization of the landscape: Bentarique (Spain)

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Tool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationTraditional Mediterranean Architecture. Territory, landscape and traditional architecture

I. Knowledge

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1 This represented a whole series of architectures ranging from adegree of organizational and constructional complexity, thebuilding of which called for the participation of artisans orspecialist tradesmen, to other, more basic examples, which weresimply built by the individual in question, alone or with the help ofothers. In short, a complex and varied body of architecture thatgives the Mediterranean territory its own specific identity,reflecting both local specificity and cultural relations in thearchitectural forms that were the result of historical exchanges,and in which each part, no matter how small, goes to shape thecharacter of these different Mediterranean landscapes that can

truly be termed cultural.The Charter on the Built Vernacular Heritage drafted by ICOMOSin 1999, a continuation of the Venice Charter, provides in itsintroduction a summarized characterization of this culturalproduct, tabling an incipient territorial vision:

“The built vernacular heritage is [...] the fundamental expressionof the culture of a community, of its relationship with its territoryand, at the same time, the expression of the world's culturaldiversity.

Sanctuary of Sidi ali El-Mekki (Tunisia)Farming caseríos, Ecija (Spain)

The human scale in rural landscapes: caserío in Santa María de Nieva (Spain) Salobreña (Spain), Greek settlement on a former island, with the sugar caneplantations, of Arabic origin, and the Arabic and Christian town centre, crowned by thecitadel

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1Vernacular building is the traditional and natural way by whichcommunities house themselves. It is a continuing processincluding necessary changes and continuous adaptation as aresponse to social and environmental constraints.”

Values of traditional mediterranean architecture

Traditional Mediterranean architecture can be characterized as apre-industrial product, set in both the urban and, particularly, therural environment, where, until well into the 19th century, urban

phenomena were dominated by the rural nature of theirsurroundings, based on production and evolution within themechanisms of tradition and therefore associated with a specificterritory.The process of designing and constructing this architecture wasbased on models that varied in accordance with individualexperiences, needs and possibilities. These variations mean that inmany cases we are dealing with open models, characterized bythe presence of significant shared elements, forms or parts. Someauthors even consider types as such not to exist, contrasting withthe so-called primitive vernacular architectures, products ofsocieties with little stratification and limited economic and socialdevelopment, in which the types are more closed and constant.The forms used by the latter are present in the Mediterranean areaabove all in the form of refuges, cabins, shacks and tents,adopting elementary organizations that exist alongside the mostcomplex traditional architectures.Models are the result of the collaboration of many people forgenerations, including those who used them and those whoconstructed the buildings. In this respect, there are no actualdesigners, since everyone was familiar with the models. However,

Section of a dovecot, a specialized construction in cereal-growing areas, Fromista(Spain)

Farm and storehouse, Valle del Mejerda (Tunisia) Waterwheel, washing place, drinking trough and irrigation channel in a row, Pozode los Frailes (Spain)

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Forge machinery in Compludo (Spain)

Troglodytic oil press, Galipolli (Italy) Watermill adapted to low water levels, Huebro (Spain)

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1specialist craftsmen were habitually involved in their constructiondue to their greater specific knowledge of both architecture as awhole and the more complex or specialized parts of theirconstruction. Builders, stonecutters, masons, roofers andthatchers, carpenters and ironsmiths are some of the specializedworkers involved, who often incorporated details and know-howtaken from the historical architecture of designers, eveninterpreting and integrating certain aspects to make their builtwork stand out from the rest.Architectural form therefore adapts to given problems, to specificneeds and available means, without conscious aesthetic effort,though some buildings present distinguishing decorative featuresthat mark them out, economic possibilities permitting. It is basedon the idea that a common task should be carried out in thesimplest, most direct and least troublesome way possible, in asociety linked to tradition in which changes occur within a givenshared inheritance and hierarchy of values, reflected in the typesof buildings. Its form is characterized by being a product of userather than change, marked by its capacity for aggregation and itsopenness and flexibility, easily allowing for modification and

Windmills in the port of Rhodes (Greece)Public spaces protected by arches can be used as a place for gatherings and doingbusiness, Ciudadela (Spain)

Agricultural waterwheel in the river Orontes, Shaizar (Syria)

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1 growth. By this token, it is conceived as something simple, clearand easily comprehensible, in which tradition is expressed as aform of collective control, even in the field of architecture, as aform of respect for others and the environment. A decrease in thepresence of tradition and greater economic development arerelated to the greater individual evolution and diversity of thehouse, reflected significantly in the differentiation and progressivespecialization of living and work spaces, particularly as of the LateMiddle Ages, with the appearance of differentiated rooms for

daytime, sleeping and eating, and even summer and winter.

Historical cultural relations across the Mare Nostrum are oftenimprinted on traditional architecture in the presence of elementsand organizations that link architectures from relatively distantgeographical areas in the Mediterranean, qualifying their exclusivelocal specificity. In Spain, for example, the concave undertile,known as an Arabic tile, which evolved from the Roman tegula, issignificantly referred to as an Andalusian tile in North Africa, as a

Collecting rainwater in a dry climate: rural cistern, Los Almagros (Spain)

Simplicity and cleanness of detail: drain on a terrace, Arcos de la Frontera (Spain)

Classical influences in traditional architecture: house in Minorca.

An enclosure and roof for livestock; fold in Sesnández (Spain)

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1result of the arrival in those territories, especially in the 16th and17th centuries, of the Moors expelled from the Iberian Peninsula,while the different circumstances of its presence in otherMediterranean territories give it local names.This architecture uses local materials such as stone, earth, timberand other plant matter, establishing a close relation with theenvironment and the place. This use of locally available materialsdirectly relates economy and effort with durability, in accordancewith the available building technology and knowledge. Their useis governed by a hierarchy of quality and durability of the material,depending on the budget and the symbolic and functional role ofthe built work. It is not unusual for the most expensive, long-lasting materials to be reserved for the main façade, while theremaining façades, parts and auxiliary constructions, of lesssymbolic importance, are built using cheaper and less durablematerials. It is the use of local materials that determines greatercontinuity of the different construction types, also influenced byevolution. It is also important to bear in mind significant changesproduced by a variety of phenomena, such as the replacement ofplant matter in roofs and visible structures due to fire risk inrelatively recent times in many places in our territory. Exceptionally,

we know of the transport overland and by river and sea, sinceancient times, of certain special materials—timber, stone andmarble—transported from one side of the Mediterranean to theother. The calceranite from the impressive quarry of El Haouaria inTunisia, extracted since Punic and Roman times, was loadeddirectly onto boats waiting in the caves created at the sea’s edge.Timber from the Cuenca mountain range was, in the 10th century,transported downriver to the east coast of Spain and the Arabicports of Denia and Valencia, where it was used to build ships andbuildings, and exported to Egypt.Traditional architecture works with the place, both in establishingsettlements, seeking prime orientations and preserving fertileland, and in laying out the house. In the latter case, it adaptsknowledge of the microclimate, using simple passive systemsbased on the thickness and colour of masonry and differinglayouts, sizes and coverings of openings to seek protection frominclement weather. The overall shape of the building and its roofresponds differently to wet or dry climates, with pitched roofs andprojecting eaves or terraced or flat roofs. There were also specificheating systems, with large kitchens that fulfilled their primaryfunction as well as comprising the centre of domestic life. The

Coloured renderings in evolved cave dwellings: neighbourhood of La Chanca inAlmería (Spain)

Complements for the house: communal oven, Zalduendo (Spain)

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1 Spanish example of the gloria, a successor of the Romanhypocaust, is a response adapted to deforested cold areas, wherea closed hearth with practically no oxygen allows the slow burningof small products such as straw. The harnessing of ventilation toproduce through draughts or the construction of fireplaces todraw hot air out of the downstairs rooms can be found in thewarm areas in northern North Africa and the Far East, drawing thecoldest air from lower-lying north-facing areas, as specificadaptations in places where climatic conditions are adverse.Natural plant materials were incorporated into façades and patiosto produce increased climatic comfort with their shade andmoisture, complemented by construction elements to enhancetheir effects.This form of architecture also takes into account the specificexperience of some places as regards natural phenomena, such asearthquakes and tremors, generating structures that seek defencefrom their destructive effects, such as double parallel structures inthe façade and roof, independent of the latter to prevent it fallingin, based on the flexibility of timber structures, present in the eastin Greek and Turkish examples, corresponding to the meeting ofthe Eurasian and Anatolian Plates. Another example is theincorporation of flexible joints implemented horizontally along themasonry walls or at the building’s corners, comprising joists and

Curved Arabic roof tiles derived from the Roman tiles, with different shapedimbrexes and channel tiles, Aldea Quintana (Spain)

Timber and stone: floor structure in the Alpujarra, Pampaneira (Spain)

Plant materials: fence to enclose and protect the oasis of Douz (Tunisia)

Brick: Mudejar influences in Nezta (Tunisia)

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1right-angled pieces of timber. Solutions of this kind are present invarious examples of architecture in North Africa, and they are evenused in the architecture of Turkish tradition in the Egyptianmaritime centre of Rosetta, in a clear example of historicalexportation.One of the frequently cited contemporary values of popularMediterranean architecture is its function, thanks to these simpleyet intelligent climatic adaptations, as an example of the newbioclimatic architecture. Here, constructional passivity combineswith adjustments to sunlighting and the creation of systemsincorporating ventilation, the creation of shade and moisture, andcomplementary heating systems in which biomass is the energyresource generally used, as methods used by this form ofarchitecture to improve comfort in response to the climaticconditions.

Nor is there any shortage in the rich and diverse array ofMediterranean architecture of solutions that might be termedanticlimactic. The houses in the Alpujarra, in the mountainousregion of Granada and Almería in southern Andalusia, feature acharacteristic terrace-type roof—not, apparently, the most idealsolution in this mountainous territory with high precipitation andno lack of snow in winter, with some settlements at an altitude of

over 1,500 m. This distribution, along with an organization ofcompact houses, without courtyards, is in fact the cultural residueof dwellings of Berber origin that can be related to those in theMoroccan Atlas. The construction and correct functioning of theseterraces is based on the use of a purplish impermeable clay, witha high proportion of manganese, called launa, applied in variouslayers over floor tiles supported by wooden beams. This representsa complement to public space, very limited due to the orographicdifficulties inherent in these settlements on steeply slopingmountainsides, using terraces as an open-air workplace and aspace to hang out products to dry.Along with judicious adaptation to and respect for place, the useof time-honoured artisan building techniques involving thecontrolled use of local materials and the reuse of any usefulconstruction element in existing constructions makes traditionalarchitecture a useful contributor to sustainable development. Itcertainly expresses and conserves the knowledge, accumulatedand handed down over generations, of the huge diversity ofhistorical construction techniques based on different varieties andcharacteristics of the local materials used. This shared body oftraditional knowledge can be regarded as a true cultural legacy ofbuilding know-how in the Mediterranean, an intangible heritageto add to that of tangible reality, clearly applicable to the recovery

Stone: mooring points or nerois in the port of L’Escala (Spain)Cultural transmission and influences: a balcony protected by latticework, theapplication of the Arabic ajimez to colonial architecture in the Canary Islands, Icodde Los Vinos (Spain)

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1 and restoration of historical architecture. It is a form of knowledgeon occasion tinged with ingenuity, since it uses solutions that arenot strictly orthodox in technical terms, but that do offer a freshnessand even a primitivism that gives them an appeal of their own.Local materials and traditional artisan techniques in themselvesrepresent a major economic potential. The implementation ofprocesses to recover and rehabilitate this architecture generatequalified labour, constituting a market even in areas where thereis no industrial labour alternative, as in much of theMediterranean rural world.

Gloria stove and trivet in a cave dwelling, section, Castrojeriz (Spain)

Caserío with terraced roof in the Alpujarra, Trévelez (Spain)Climatic use of vegetation: orange tree in the courtyard of an Andalusian-stylerural, Testour (Tunisia)

Gloria stove and trivet in mountainous area (Spain), drawing by LeonardoRucabado, early 20th century

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1The attraction of traditional architecture for modern architects, asa source of inspiration for their language, is directly related to thesimple, rational treatment of many of the solutions it employs, ina direct relation between form, function and built reality. Thissimplicity in the treatment of its forms that merely seek to respondto specific needs or solve a given problem gives traditionalarchitecture an absolutely modern concept of formal beauty, inwhich reason adopts the form-function binomial. It is no surprisethat masters of the Modern Movement such as Frank LloydWright, Le Corbusier and Alvar Alto drew on this source. Morerecent figures, too, such as Hassan Fathy and Barragán, have usedconstructional and plastic forms in their new architectures with amarked desire to introduce references to it. The pure, cubic, whitevolumes of some traditional Mediterranean architecture haveserved as a reference to much of the modern architectureproduced since the 1920s. Regionalist eclecticism, too, in somecountries, generated an alternative to this modernity, at the samehistorical moment, with architectures that combined motifs takenfrom traditional models in a search for a national architecture asopposed to the internationalization of the Modern Movement.Their forerunners, the supposed pioneers of the ModernMovement, such as the Arts and Crafts movement in the secondhalf of the 19th century, took as their inspiration the vernacularbuildings of the Middle Ages to generate a new architecturebased on artisan production. Even earlier, at the time of Neo-

The urban courtyard as a climatic regulator and a generator of shade andventilation, Arcos de la Frontera (Spain)

Street covered by projections in the Alpujarra, Pampaneira (Spain) Terraces and chimneys in the Alpujarra, Capileira (Spain)

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A washing place built with reused elements, Arcos de la Frontera (Spain)Reuse of old stone materials: Bosra (Syria)

Simplicity of form and volume as the inspiration for modern architecture: cemeteryat Casabermeja (Spain)

Direct, rational solutions as a paradigm of modern beauty: Lucainena de las Torres(Spain)

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1Classical architecture and the European Enlightenment, traditionalconstructions were frequent references in the search forpicturesque and rustic models, with a premium on diversity andvariety of elements as opposed to the rigid classical norm, creatingarchitecture of recreation or pleasure in country gardens andmansions.Today, some sectors of contemporary architecture continue torefer to popular architecture as a symbol of the local, with theirsights set on sustainability and bioclimatic and ecological solutionsas opposed to globalized or decontextualized languages, seekingspecificity and architecture linked to the place, in a globalizedworld where identity is often sought in the local.There is no doubt that traditional Mediterranean architecturecontinues to establish itself as part of the built cultural heritage, aspart of historic centres or singular architectural sites, and assingular or ethnographic examples, because it constitutes thehistorical legacy of our lifestyles in a process that has not beenwithout difficulties and losses. As cultural heritage, it also hassignificant economic potential, complementing built and naturalheritage as a knowledge and leisure resource. It is, however,equally true that in some Mediterranean countries it has ceased tobe produced for some decades and in others, though still alive, itmight be considered, to use a naturalist simile, a speciesthreatened by extinction.

Rehabilitation and mediterranean rural space

The rural space is the most fragile as regards traditionalMediterranean architecture, with the phenomena ofabandonment and destructive transformation related to thegrowing influence of the urban environment, subsequentemigration and abandonment of rural settlements, and thecultural and economic changes associated with globalization. Themass introduction of industrial materials unknown to traditionalpractice, the incorporation of introduced architectural typestogether with new housing demands and needs, and changes inproduction now taking place in the rural environment, as well asthe abandonment of part of the habitat, in the context of thetransformation and loss of collective and individual traditionalrural values, mean that traditional architecture is in serious dangerof disappearing from this space.Here I refer not only to the house, but also to much of the auxiliaryarchitecture, particularly that which is associated with traditionalproductive processes, that fall into disuse as a result of growingindustrialization and modifications to farming, livestock andforestry uses, and other facilities for miscellaneous communalneeds. In short, what has been transformed or is threatened bysubstantial transformation is this architecture as a whole,understood and structured in the form of rural landscape.

The Swiss Cottage is a thatched cottage orné designed by John Nash in the early 19th

century. Inspired by traditional architecture, it sought the picturesque as opposed to therigidness of the Neo-Classical architecture of the time, Cahir (Ireland).

Les maisons cubiques et blanches qui ont inspiré le langage moderne architectural:maison rurale d’Ibiza.

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1 Rehabilitation as a mechanism for the recovery of traditionalarchitecture must not, then, be based solely on urban settlements,but most particularly extend to the wider rural environment, at itsdifferent scales, from the viewpoint of the territory as a whole. Ofparticular importance here are the instruments of territorialorganization associated with sustainability, affecting settlementsof different levels and sizes, their public spaces, the individualscale of each building and detailed architectural treatment, withattention both to the house and to the auxiliary architectures.Rehabilitation has to be understood as a complex technique ofrecuperation, which pays attention to architecture at its differentscales and complexities, integrated into an approach or even anoverall programme of local sustainable development, requiring theconfluence of different disciplinary viewpoints and experiencesand citizen participation.As well as professional training in the specific techniques ofrehabilitation, user recognition of this form of architecture as apart of culture and identity is key to its future. Only that which isfamiliar and valued will be conserved and handed on to futuregenerations. This calls for campaigns of explanation anddissemination to present rehabilitation work to the population.Careful rehabilitation work speaks far louder in the ruralenvironment than a thousand speeches or articles, because itillustrates how intelligently rehabilitated traditional architectureprovides levels of habitability in keeping with contemporaryexpectations and requisites. This process accords importance tothe role of the local artisans with their knowledge of traditionalconstruction techniques who can pass on their specific know-howby means of specific experiences of rehabilitation, contributingtheir expertise to the training of future rehabilitation experts.Traditional architecture is a cultural and economic resource andthe basis for sustainable development, and its rehabilitationrepresents a lever in these rural communities, as opposed tomodels of new construction, that avoids the occupation ofagricultural land. The growing pressure of tourism and itsassociated new uses has to be used intelligently and channelled insuch a way as to promote the rehabilitation of this form ofarchitecture and avoid unsuitable environmental and socio-cultural transformations of local communities. Some of the earlySpanish experiences in this field showed how rural touristaccommodation can distinguish different territories by recoveringand rehabilitating traditional architectures. Their inclusion inprogrammes of sustainable development is the key to establishingeach territory’s visitor capacity in environmental and socio-culturalterms in order to retain a balance between visitors and localpopulation, given the limitation and fragility of resources. Tourismhas to be one element more contributing to local economicactivities without necessarily becoming a monoculture, though itcan act as a catalyst to set everything else in motion in depressedareas. Quality, locally managed tourism scattered across the

Urban rehabilitation, recovering coloured renderings, Villajollosa (Spain)).

The reconstruction of significant traditional architectural features as touristattractions: marshland dwelling in El Rocío with a reed roof, Doñana National Park(Spain)

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territory, which conserves local resources and rehabilitatesheritage, is basic to compliance with parameters of sustainabilityand non-conflict with the recuperation of traditional architecture.The specific consideration of cultural heritage necessarily involvesan appreciation of the architecture of the specimens conserved,with their different levels of quality and durability, and mustqualify the different interventions. Rehabilitation involves thetransformation and partial destruction of the targets in order togive them a new lease of life, and the key is to establish whichparts and elements should be completely preserved and whatshould be the tolerable degree of transformation in order toprevent loss of identity. There will also be examples that, due totheir singularity in terms of architecture, history, ethnography,function or landscape, etc., are the object of careful restorationand conservation, included in architectural restoration policies andgiven uses that are compatible with their integrated conservation,and provide a specific explanation of the traditional lifestyles theyserved. The role in the landscape of some territorial elements mustalso be considered. They may even be the object of reconstructionand interpretation, in the case of significant examples that havedisappeared, which may be important to the history and culture ofa specific territory.Obviously, many examples should be the object of renovation andreplacement, for reasons of conservation and obsolescence. Thedebate in these cases is deciding which are to be characteristic ofthe new architecture, seeking the conservation and integration ofcharacteristic typological and construction features, with attention

Rehabilitation of a rural water complex as a tourist attraction. Section of the mill andhydraulic ironwork in Teixois as part of a rural development programme carried out inthe 1980s.

Traditional architecture and activities rehabilitated as a living museum: an artisanpaper mill at Capellades (Spain), cross section.

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1 to the experiences of climatic adaptation and values ofsustainability, with no need to produce folkloric falsifications oftraditional architecture. Like any human product, traditionalarchitecture has not remained unchanged over time; it, too, hasbeen subject to evolution, qualified throughout its transformativeslowness by tradition. It is possible to identify evolving lines, withthe incorporation of some exceptional innovations, where thenew architecture can be integrated without its presencenecessarily signifying the destruction of the image of the placesand the rural landscape.These architectures constitute a historical legacy of the way welive, and in many Mediterranean countries they call for specificattention to the issues of valuation and rehabilitation in order toavoid the process of destruction and disappearance that theyusually suffer. Now, at the start of the 21st century, it seems to benecessary to extend pilot rehabilitation operations applied to therural territory, choosing settlements and significant architecturaltypes of an exemplary nature, in order to complete and step upthe recuperation work that is usually undertaken in urbanhistorical centres.

Traditional architecture as tourist accommodation: hotel in a cave dwelling inMatmata (Tunisia)

Rehabilitation seen as an overall architectural and territorial operation, includingconstituent elements, the settlements, their dwellings and constructions, the elementsof public space and their integration into the natural setting, etc. Baget (Spain)

Traditional architecture rehabilitated for rural tourist accommodation: thatchedcottages as bed-and-breakfasts, Adare (Ireland)

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1

Traditional MediterraneanArchitectures: collective values

Michel PolgeChief architect and urbanistTechnical Director of the Agence Nationale de l’Habitat (ANAH),France

The use value-heritage value binomial seems to be marked byconflict, exclusive choice or Manichean debate. It could berepresented by another old conflict (for the French, at least):engineer versus architect, or even “replacer” versus conservator.An ideological approach to these debates will get us nowhere. If,on the other hand, we table the issue from the viewpoint of otherquestions such as continuity, reparability or improvement, we seeconstructions as what they are: existing, used, reusable. Then wecan work on the margin of adaptation of these constructions, ontheir cultural value and the conditions of their sustainability.

1.1 The century when the Mediterranean opened up againThe second half of the 19th century was a period of transition. TheMediterranean once again became an active commercial focusafter several centuries during which conflict had limited trade.After the Renaissance, with the colonization of America, Atlantictrade supplanted Mediterranean commerce, and trade in theMediterranean was largely restricted to large blocs: the Ottomanand the European Mediterranean, at the same time limited byconflicts between or within these blocs. For better or for worse,human and commercial exchange were reactivated in theMediterranean in the 19th century with Europe’s ever increasinginfluence over the southern Mediterranean, a hold that went handin hand with declining Ottoman power in both the north and thesouth. The Westerners colonized and developed commercialexchanges, going as far as opening the cul-de-sac that was theMediterranean via the Suez Canal, restoring its interest as acommercial route that went beyond its intrinsic economiccapacities. In the late 19th century, the Mediterranean was onceagain “globalized” and industrial Europe began to spread itsmodels in a process that did not end with colonization.Until the 19th century, expertise spread with the men who bore it,slowly, adapting it to local resources and materials and pre-existingknow-how. Andalusian Renaissance architecture, both the“highbrow” and the “popular”, is a remarkable example oftechnical syncretism and evidently things did not stop inAndalusia: the Spanish then transported their own know-how toAmerica, the French adopted examples of Spanish stereotomy anddeveloped them, and so on. But with the advent ofmanufacturing, it was the products that then spread, and on avery large scale. Factories were needed to produce them, andproduction initially took place where there was coal, but it laterspread everywhere, following engineers and traders. Thoseresponsible at local level for the actual building process merely had

to learn the process. From this point on, globalization ofconstruction and architecture models took over at a scale that hadnot existed since the Roman Empire, that great disseminator ofmodels. Industrial production made the process of standardizationeven more radical.

1.2 The paradoxical destiny of the Marseilles tileAs of the 1850s, and for several decades, merchant ships set sailfrom Marseilles with mechanically produced tiles that were loadedin the hold as ballast and then sold in ports. So, in Algiers, Beirut,Istanbul and even Odessa, roofs were tiled with this new material.Houses began to be roofed with “Marseilles” tiles when the needhad not hitherto been felt, even more so in countries thattraditionally had terrace roofs. Why was this? There are probablymany reasons, the least of which are technical. Marseilles tiles didnot, for the southern Mediterranean, represent “progress”, in thesense that they were not a material that replaced another withoutneeding thorough changes in expertise. The roof structures builtin Beirut before the 1914-1918 war show that there were no localroof-building traditions adapted to this new material, nor did thepeople master the use of this exogenous material (minimum slope,etc.). In fact, the Marseilles tile was used in southern ports asdecoration. It was probably appropriated as the sign of foreignarchitecture imported from the rich and powerful countries of thetime. Cement, industrially produced bricks, metal roofstructures—new techniques were to follow, with no regard for

Deir el Qamar (Lebanon)

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationTraditional Mediterranean Architectures: collective values

1

pre-existing know-how. These imported novelties marked a beforeand an after in traditional architecture: this is how it was donebefore and this is what is disappearing...

1.3 The boom in manufactured productsWith the Mediterranean back on powerful trade circuits, movingbeyond traditional areas of exchange, the phenomenon ofindustry came into its own. Industry mass-produced constructionmaterials cheaply and could transport them far and fast by trainand ships. Manufactured products flooded the market, andanother process came into play: the artisan as the local actor inconstruction gradually lost his “plural” know-how and eitherdisappeared or started to use industrial materials. Industry soughtto eliminate any obstacle to the use of its products: compleximplementation was one such, so there was a need for productsthat were simple to use and implement, but used on a large scaleto encourage a large output: big companies were called for, witha highly specialised labour force with few qualifications—thecomplete opposite of the traditional artisan industry.Traditional means of construction—the work locally of artisans—could only have stood up to this onslaught if they were perceivedas a value... but they were not. Just as in the first countries to beindustrialised, the countries newly “conquered” by manufacturedproducts saw first how local architectures became hybrids andgradually disappeared, in an outward movement from the town tothe country. The idea that pre-industrial construction has a valuein itself is a recent one, a “distant” idea never acknowledged bythose who inhabited it when it was still flourishing: they wereeither rich and sought novelty as a visible sign of their wealth orwere poor and rejected what seemed to be the material sign oftheir condition. From this point on, for several decades, traditionalarchitecture was a theme for picture postcards and artistsattracted by the picturesque before it was flattened by the newurbanists.

We must not judge this phenomenon in hindsight. Indeed, todaywe see traditional architecture from a considerable distance: thereare several generations between those who saw it built andourselves, and we are no longer swept along by the religion ofprogress that caught up the engineers and architects between1850 and 1970. Furthermore, what remains of this traditionalarchitecture is the best part: the bottom-of-the-rangeconstructions, built with few resources and little expertise, havedisappeared, just as the worst built architecture of the industrialera will disappear. We sometimes tend to see the past and itsmaterial signs as a marvellous civilization, a kind of paradise lost.These past societies probably were charming—for a very smallpercentage of the population. Likewise, it is pointless to set thevirtues of artisan production against the vices of industry. Thetraditional architecture that remains today must interest us for itsuse values, its capacity to adapt to milieus, its value as testimony.There is, however, no point in promoting it by comparison withwhat has come afterwards.

2.1 What does traditional architecture mean?Various features characterize what is usually termed traditionalarchitecture:

It is the architecture of artisans: its models are those of “in thestyle of”, models that are physically close and visible. It is, then,an “apposite” architecture.It is architecture without architects: their work was reservedexclusively for the important commissions of the powerful:monuments, palaces, and so on. Architects used highbrowmodels from books and treatises: they were essentially utopianin the etymological sense.It is an architecture that uses resources (materials, etc.) that areextracted or produced locally. This is another reason why it is“apposite”.It is an architecture which, for cultural and economic reasons,evolves very slowly, hence the misconception that traditionalarchitecture is immutable and timeless. It is a rural rather than an urban architecture, because theurban is, by nature, more open to innovation, novelty,interchange and cultural crossover.It is an architecture that is generally left out of histories ofarchitecture, which tend to be more open to architect’sarchitecture and monumental, highbrow architecture—that is,the architecture of power.

Of course, there were no strict divisions between architect’sarchitecture and artisan’s architecture; they influenced each other,the latter trying to copy the former, and the former being obligedto use the technical know-how of the latter.Traditional architecture—it would perhaps be more accurate to saytraditional architectures—is, then, the result of the production

Suez Canal (Egypt)

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1processes of the pre-industrial age. As such, it exists as the resultof these processes rather than of a deliberate decision. The veryfact of speaking of traditional architectures, of inventing thisconcept, means that there is a historical breakaway from thoseforms of production. To speak of traditional architectures is, in thissense, a convenient modern concept, despite being asimplification: if there is such a thing as traditional architecture,there is also a form of architecture that is not traditional. We haveseen how the architecture that followed the rupture caused bymanufacturing and its mass diffusion is, effectively, quite different.Yet even before this time, construction was subject to tensions,evolution and the comparison between highbrow and popular (orbetween architect’s architecture and artisan’s architecture,definitions which are, evidently, not value judgements).In order to be exact, then, it would be better to speak not oftraditional architecture but of pre-industrial and industrial meansof production, as we await the post-industrial, which, I hope, willconsider both processes for the greater advantage of what is nowcalled sustainable development.

2.2 The interest in traditional architectureThe usual responses are varying and contradictory:

Heritage is interested in the value as testimony of the physicalsigns of history. The French law on historical monuments, forexample, refers explicitly to “the general interest from ahistorical or artistic viewpoint”. This is primarily a culturalreasoning.

Nostalgia is critical of modern society and admires old-fashionedlifestyles (once considerably idealized). From this point of view,the idea is to conserve and protect what remains, and preservetechnical expertise. Its discourse is one of beauty as opposed tothe truth of heritage. Its intention is often mixed withidentitarism, insisting the signs of local old societies, regrettingthe apparent standardization of today’s world, turning from thisfact to heritage, driven by the passion of finding the differentialelement. This is a more idealistic stance.Commerce realizes that heritage is, potentially, massmerchandise.Functionalism recognises the use value of old constructions andcentres on the issue of need to make the old building respondto the criteria of present-day quality in association witheconomic aspects: the functionalist emerges with thedisappearance of the illusion of the tabula rasa as a preliminaryfor constructing the city of tomorrow. This is a realistic stance.

The heritage and functionalist approaches are the two “positive”approaches that can serve as a reasoned way of addressing theissue of built heritage, its conservation, transformations,rehabilitation and improvement.These two approaches are, in theory, complementary rather thancontradictory, since they bring together the notions of use valueand cultural value. This is even more the case if we add the notionof sustainability, which brings us to: rehabilitation is better thanreconstruction, improvement is better than reconstruction,sustainable is better than ephemeral, thrifty is better thanextravagant, renewable energies are better than fossil energies,etc.Yet the path is not as smooth as it apparently ought to be...The nostalgia or cultural identity approach seems in theory to bea rather unconstructive, reactive attitude. Unfortunately, thisapproach often creeps into the “positive” approaches (notablythose of heritage), confusing the truly historical approach ofheritage and an aestheticizing approach that is all the moredangerous as it is highly subjective.The purely commercial approach is related above all to tourism.For the purposes of this article, suffice it to say that tourism isobviously a good thing for its economic effects, provided it doesnot destroy the things it is based on.If there is a plea to be made for the rehabilitation of traditionalarchitectures in the Mediterranean, and elsewhere, it is that thedifferent “positive” approaches work together: thecultural/heritage approach and the functionalist/use valuesapproach. The idea, then, is to combine conservation andimprovement without overemphasizing, forgetting or denying theeconomic side. A rehabilitation policy that costs more than newconstruction would be socio-economic nonsense: buildings are,primarily, to inhabit, to be worked and lived in, not to be lookedEarly 20th-century cement tiles by the firm Escofet (Spain)

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1 at. Likewise, a rehabilitation policy that produced housing orworkplaces that were markedly less adapted to modern life thannew construction would merely sentence itself to death. It isimportant to know how to both conserve and improve. Perhapsthe happy medium lies in sustainability: we all know now thatthere is no future in the overconsumption of resources as itcontinues to be practised today.

2.3 An example of pointless conflict between heritage andfunctionalism: windowsIn rehabilitation operations in France, windows are often the causeof tension when it comes to replacement. So, why do windowsneed replacing?

The first reason is dilapidation due to a lack of maintenance, errorsin the initial conception or, simply, wear and tear. In this case, itseems—in France, at last—normal to throw out the old frame andinstall a new one. The idea of repairing an old window on anormal building site would not occur to anyone. I recall seeingsome lovely 18th-century casements sent to the rubbish tip simplybecause no-one had thought to look for a joiner—supposingthere was one in the area—who knew how to repair the bottompart (weathering, sill cove, subsill), as a new in-set window wasgoing to be installed anyway to improve thermal performance.

The second reason is to save energy. There is a great deal to besaid about ways of addressing energy saving in older properties.Technical solutions are still the field of great debate, but there isno space here to add to it. Suffice to say that energy saving is amajor public issue everywhere, that existing housing is frequentlya very “bad pupil” in this respect (in France, in any case), and thatwindows are, by definition, an aspect that cannot be neglected.

There are just two solutions: to produce new energies or improvethe performance of the existing. So the windows are replaced, asno one knows how to repair existing quality windows andreinforce them (for example, with double glazing). Suddenly,instead of addressing good technical solutions forrepair/reinforcement, the debate turns to aesthetics: using glazingbars, using wood... “Wood” is the automatic reflex reaction: butare we sure that the wood we use today to make windows, forthe products it contains, for its source, be it known or unknown,is automatically as sustainable as all that? Should we not take theissue a little further?

This takes us to the limits of our practice: the aesthetic question isobviously the least important, though it is bought to the forefront,and the real technical and heritage issue is left to one side in theabsence of suitable technical solutions: as far as I know, it is onlyvery recently that the Danes started to bring a more sustainableapproach to this issue: conserving and repairing existing windowswith a production chain for this purpose, reinforcing the fittings toobtain better performance.This example serves to show how the rehabilitation debate is easilydistorted when the heritage and the use-value approaches arebrought into conflict rather than combined. As in many technicalissues in rehabilitation, compromise is necessary, in the positivesense of the word, leaving to one side the aesthetic questions thatare, by definition, subjective. In the above example, the questionsto ask are:

Is the existing window valuable in terms of heritage (forreasons of age, construction technique) and, if so, how shouldit be repaired and conserved?In this case, how can its heat- and soundproofing performance beimproved: by reinforcing the fittings? With double-glazing? In thiscase, what is the appropriate approach to associated issues suchas ventilation?If the original window is not conserved, what should it bereplaced by and, most of all, using what material?

When we ask this kind of question, the aesthetic issue is returnedto its normal place: secondary. Which it always has been: noarchitecture treatise of the past treats the issue of windows andtheir design any differently to the most rational of engineers. Theimportant question for a traditional joiner, whether working for anarchitect or a humble client, was how to allow in as much light aspossible, using highly transparent glass in large panes to limit thenumber of glazing bars and, furthermore, at an affordable price;how to produce large opening leaves that were as rigid aspossible, and how to ensure that the fastening was rain- andwindproof (invention of half-round tongues and grooves in the18th century, for example). The beauty of traditional windows liesin the possibility of manufacturing rational, efficient, sustainableGokçuogen (Turkey)

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1products. This is the lesson to be learned, rather than their supposedaesthetics. By approaching the issue in this way, we would avoid theolde worlde windows we see all too often in protected areas, whichsatisfy neither the historian nor the technical expert.

3. Traditional architecture: what are the advantages today?

The above arguments show various reasons to rehabilitatetraditional architecture.Firstly, and this is the value most recognised by both the“informed” and the general public, it has a value as testimony, aheritage value: to conserve it is to conserve a memory, not for thesake of nostalgia or identity, but because it is a human need toestablish oneself in time and, in order to do so, to retain signs ofit in the form of physical traces. This is why conquerors seek todestroy not only people but also their monuments and towns. Thedestruction of Warsaw was a drama representing this point ofview.But ordinary architecture cannot serve merely as testimony. Itcannot comprise empty shells conserved as museum pieces. Thereare monuments for this purpose, in the primary sense of the word.Architecture is, above all, functional, and this is its onlylegitimization.The failure of urban renovation policies in the years after WorldWar II demonstrates the need to maintain and rehabilitate oldtowns. It soon became apparent that the systematic destruction ofold centres to build completely new districts was merely adangerous illusion that merely by building everything anew it waspossible to create a better world. This utopia, in the etymologicalsense of the word (remember, in the 1950s, urbanists thoughtthey should build for the coming 30 years, then demolisheverything and rebuild it all even better) rapidly came up againstreality in the form of the economic impasse of this approach, notto mention human reactions. That reaction was so strong that ithas often led to the opposite extreme: the desire to conserveeverything, to condemn concrete (there is a curious ideologicalconfusion between forms and material), to imitate the styles of oldtowns and architectures, as though the town were merely anabstract stage set (all things considered, the error of pastiche is thesame as that of the old partisans of the tabula rasa: believing thatthe form generates the content). Knowing how to rehabilitatemeans knowing how to demolish, because it requires a choice.

So let us unashamedly make economics our central concern:making improvements at an affordable cost, with the idea ofmaking something to last, is evidently more acceptable thanconstantly reconstructing, abandoning what was still usefulyesterday and will continue to be, provided the right means areimplemented.

But it is not enough to conserve: it is also necessary to improve.Traditional buildings have used the means available in successiveages to translate the needs of these periods. These needs are notimmutable; no one would agree to live today in the sameconditions as two or three centuries ago if there is access to whatthe present day can do better. To improve is to take into accountconstantly changing needs as regards safety, hygiene, energy andresource saving. The architecture of old is not an ideal Platonicproduction just waiting to be rediscovered and re-evaluated.Hygienism did not go out with the urban utopias of the lastcentury: built works, be they newly constructed or rehabilitated,must still provide fresh air and light, improve the living conditionsof their inhabitants and adapt, in Mediterranean towns even morethan in many other places. Rehabilitation is a project, not a revival.Ultimately, traditional architecture has a lot to teach us. Withoutidealizing it, at its best it has brought an economical approach totechnical situations in which our modern solutions may work, butat too high a cost. It uses local materials profitably, it ventilateshouses in hot countries without the need for air-conditioning, andit implements human expertise in the face of both scarcity andwealth of resources. These indeed are lessons to be learned, notcopied thoughtlessly but analysed to make the most of pastexperience.

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Introduction:

Cultural Heritage in Palestine is rich and diverse. In addition to itsnumerous monumental religious sites such as the Dome of theRock, the Nativity Church, the Holy Sepulchre, and the IbrahimiMosque, Palestine has a number of valuable historic Monumentswhich are of different historic periods and architectural styles; ofmost important are 13th century Mamluk public buildings inJerusalem. In addition Palestine posses’ historic city centres suchas the old city of Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus and Bethlehem.Further, the Palestinian villages with their organically beautifulpeasant architecture add to the variety and richness of thisheritage. The desert monasteries located in the eastern slopesillustrate another typology, as does “throne village architecture”,which refers to the feudal palaces in the eighteenth andnineteenth century rural Palestine. The caravanserais alonghistoric trade routes, in addition to the dispersed holy shrines(maqamat), and the beautifully constructed dry stone farmhouses, within the typically terraced hills of Palestine alsoillustrate the variety and richness of a cultural heritage which thePalestinian people have been entrusted with for the WorldCommunity at large. The Old City of Jerusalem was included inthe UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1981. A tentative list oftwenty Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites of OutstandingUniversal Value in Palestine1 was also prepared in June 2005 bythe Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities through a consultativeprocess that involved Palestinian experts from several culturalheritage institutions.Like most other third world countries, the protection of culturalheritage in Palestine faces a number of obstacles and challengeswhich makes its protection (let alone its development), anextremely difficult task. Such difficulties vary from the lack ofproper legal frame works, lack of skilled human resources in mostareas of cultural heritage (conservation, management,documentation, planning etc) and the absence of a national

policy for protection, and hence the lack of budgets. The scarcityof land in Areas A and B2 resulted from the Oslo Agreement in1993; the lack of efficient cultural heritage authority, in additionto the chaotic and unplanned urban sprawl which took place inthe last ten years, left the cultural heritage in Palestine undercontinues threat of destruction. Moreover, cultural heritage hasnot yet been put as a priority on the national agenda, and is stillseen as a liability rather than an economic and socialdevelopment factor.

The Social and Cultural Values: Whose Values, Practitionersor Owners?

This article tries to shed some light on the issue of social andcultural (and other) values of cultural heritage in the case ofPalestine. It tries to discuss the reasons for the immense

Mazra'a Alquiblia [Rula Halawani, RPA]

The Social and Cultural Values of Cultural Heritage in Palestine: Whose values, the practitioners or the owners?

Suad AmiryPh.D. in ArchitectureDirector of RiwaqCentre for Architectural Conservation, Ramallah, Palestine (P.N.A.)

Farhat MuhawiarchitectAssociate architect at Arco Office, Ramallah, Palestine (P.N.A.)

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationThe Social and Cultural Values of Cultural Heritage in Palestine: Whose values, the practitioners or the owners?

1discrepancy which exists between cultural heritage experts andpractitioners "agreed upon" aesthetic, historic, scientific, socialvalues (that of international conventions and charters such as theUNESO Convention of 1972 and the Burra Charter), and that ofthe laymen's and owners of the cultural heritage properties. Isthat gap in developing countries, such as Palestine, much morethan that in developed western countries? And if yes why? Andwhat are the pre-requisites for bridging that gap?If one assumes that recognizing the value of cultural heritage isthe first pre-condition or pre-requisite to its protection, then thequestion becomes which values and for whom?It is true that cultural heritage (for us specialists and practitioners)should be protected for its own merits as it embodies anations/community/a group of peoples collective memory, history,and forms an important component of its identity. However thisdoes not seem to be of relevance even for people like thePalestinians, whose cultural heritage has been the main target oferadication and destruction in on going political conflict with thestate of Israel.As a result of the creation of the state of Israel in 1947, as wellas Israel's continued 38 year policy of grapping more land fromthe West Bank, the Palestinians have lost a great deal of theircultural heritage: the eradication of hundreds of villages, thedemolition of many historic quarters. Most important has beenthe systematic Judiazation (manifested in building moresettlements) of the land, which results in the dramatic change ofcharacter of land, landscape and human settlements; fromhaving an Arab character to that of westernized character3.The relevant and challenging question is: has such dramatic lossesmade the Palestinians value the remaining parts of their culturalheritage more? The authors of this paper argue that the sad and surprisinganswer is NO. This is of course manifested in the every day alarmingdestruction that one sees in the historic centers of all Palestiniancities and villages. This is also manifested in the Muqata' theHeadquarters of late President Arafat in Ramallah whichwitnessed historic events for a historic figure such as Arafat.How come this has been easily demolished or "cleaned up" notraces has been left of that collective memory? The same is truein Egypt where the house of the most loved singer in the historyof the Arab world; that is the Villa of Um Kulthum, had beendemolished in Cairo with very little attention or consideration toprotect it.Such sad examples made us as practitioners think: under whatcircumstances/conditions or what does it take for people to valuetheir cultural heritage? How can we make people believe in thevalues of cultural heritage when basic every day life need ofcultural heritage owners are not meet under Israeli militaryoccupation?

Artas valley [John Torday, RPA]

Al Nabi Mousa on way to Jericho [John Torday, Riwaq Photo Archive (RPA)]

Dead Sea-Jericho [John Torday, RPA]

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationThe Social and Cultural Values of Cultural Heritage in Palestine: Whose values, the practitioners or the owners?

1 Since a lengthy discussion is beyond the scope and length of thispaper the authors of this paper chose to ask the relevantquestions without necessarily answering them.This brings us to the more complex issue or concept of the

private versus the public: How does the concept of the privatespace/ownership and the public space/public ownership play intothis? How does the "sacredness" of the private property relate tothe public interest and values? And hence the issue of whoseheritage it is? How does the concept of citizenship or lack of it

play a role in the protection? What is the role of governments inprotecting the right of the public? And what is exactly the role ofgovernments central and local? And particularly in the case ofPalestine, how does the absence of middle class play a positive ornegative role in this matter (issues of ramification)?Finally we would like to say that only through the economic valueof cultural heritage do people in third world countries startvaluing their architectural heritage, i.e. when cultural heritagebecomes an economic source of income.

1 For more information see: Inventory of Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites ofPotential Outstanding Universal Value in Palestine, June 2005. The PalestinianNational Authority, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Department of Antiquitiesand Cultural Heritage.

2 Areas A: Area which was under the security and administrative control ofPalestinian National Authority (PNA) after Oslo peace process. Areas B: onlyadministrative control o PNA.

3 For more information on this subject see: Benvenisti, Meron. Sacred Landscape:the Buried History of Holy Land since 1948. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 2000.

Nablus [Rula Halawani, RPA]

Beit Wazan [Mia Grondahl, RPA]

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Architectural heritage: adaptation,use and maintenance

Abdelaziz BadjadjaArchitectProfessor in Architecture at the University of Constantine, Algeria

These days, old architectural heritage excites a feeling ofindifference or even hostility in most people, since buildingsconstructed in the past no longer respond to present-day needs or“architectural” tastes. Just because it is old, rather than fallinginto disuse a building should recover its interest and awaken anawareness of its cognitive and emotional value; the need toensure the conservation of cultural heritage has to be widelyaccepted and form part of the sensibility of all social spheres.However, an interest in safeguarding this precious threatenedheritage by no means conceals a tendency to neglect the needs ofthe present day. On the contrary, it is the consequence of changesin the mentality, inclinations and aspirations of contemporarysociety. The conservation of old buildings has to form part of awider campaign that seeks to protect and improve humankind’sliving conditions.

Inappropriate use

Due to their rapid development and the growing density of theirpopulations, cities have undergone a far-reaching alteration ofboth their figurative and building structure. Predominantlyresidential constructions are experiencing major changes:ground floors and mezzanines are, for the most part, convertedfor use to commercial or artisan purposes.These inappropriate uses can be attributed to the socio-economic conditions of their inhabitants. Families have smallincomes and many young people are unemployed while aspiringto a certain social status, as the opening up of the market offersinteresting opportunities for the demands and needs of agrowing population.The resulting modifications, often without the intervention of aprofessional, are frequently detrimental to the building. When itproves to be necessary, the choice of a new function is aninfinitely subtler process because it raises a number ofunderlying issues: how to conserve the architecturalcharacter of a building after a change of function?As a result, work carried out to change a building’s function(from residential to commercial), often without the interventionof an architect, actually damages the building on different levels.

Alteration of the figurative structure and urban profileThe architectural character of the building is erased in the face ofthe additions required by the new function. Building work masks

or distorts its arrangement and decoration. This attitude ofmodernization according to present-day tastes, comprising acomplete upheaval with no consideration for the character of theconstruction, causes major and sometimes irremediable damage:

Modification of openings in the façadeSuppression of mouldings (bands, cornices, parapets, niches, etc.)A new distribution that does not take into account the layoutof the façadesThe use of concrete as a replacement materialRenovation of the lower part of the façade involving arendering that does not allow predominantly stone walls tobreatheremplacement des menuiseries anciennes par des modernesUse of ostentatious artificial lighting (neon, spots)Excessive use of modern materials (floor slabs, marble,miscellaneous wall coverings, aluminium display cases andracks, etc.) characterized by a polychromy and texture thatpresent a considerable contrast with traditional materials,shrouded in a patina that gives them a beauty that representsthe age-old expertise of humankind.

Zaouya Sidi Abderrahmane, Constantine.

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationArchitectural heritage: adaptation, use and maintenance

1 Destabilization of the bearing structureWhen developing a site, a number of parameters must beaddressed in order to ensure optimum use. Work generallyinvolves:

Extending surface areasiIntroducing new installationsIncreasing ceiling heightsLighting and ventilation of interior volumesTreatment of spacesRenewing old drainage networks.

If carried out without the intervention of a professional, theseoperations often involve aberrant solutions that compromise thestability of the building:

Large openings (display cases, windows, etc.) are made invertical and/or horizontal bearing elements (openings to builda stairway, trap door leading upstairs, etc.)Structural floors are overloaded (storeroom, miscellaneousapparatus, etc.)Rather than being resolved, existing defects are ignored andconcealed, for example using wall coverings (tiles, wallpaper)to hide unsightly manifestations of pathologies such asblistering, black damp stains, etc.

Lack of maintenance

The occupants of housing in old city centres are largely tenantsand often have ambivalent relations with the property owners.Their cultural (little or no education) and socio-economic status(social class of rural origin with its specific form of appropriationof space, characteristically large, low-income families) aredeterminant factors in their negative attitude to their builtenvironment, which is old, run-down and cramped. Their livingenvironment, often limited to a single room with a high rate ofoccupation, receives little maintenance or is completely neglected.This behaviour can be attributed to:

Ignorance and negligence; the occupants do not even see thedefects as serious progressive pathologies and have no idea ofthe extent of subsequent damageLack of resources; the work required to correct these defectsinvolves sums of money that the occupant does not haveA deliberate attitude in the hope of being allocated alternativehousingAs tenants, they feel no concern for the state of the property.The owner may be absent, unable to afford work or involved inlitigation with the co-owners or neighbours (the existence of

Constantine.

Dar Meharsi, Constantine.

Courtyard in the Medina. Constantine (Algeria).

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationArchitectural heritage: adaptation, use and maintenance

1shared elements in constructions makes it difficult to define theparty responsible for a given intervention).

The result of this state of affairs is an almost total absence ofresponsibility for the building, which takes the form of lack ofmaintenance and inappropriate use.Building maintenance must not be neglected, because it willprevent defects that are more serious; a building is subjectunconditionally to a process of ageing by multiple exterior agentsthat undermine it and limit its continuity in time. It is alsoimportant to take preventive action that may prevent subsequentdefects: revision of roofs and downpipes, protection of masonryby maintaining renderings and joints, treatment of wood, etc.Inappropriate or improper use can also be the cause of seriousprogressive pathologies, such as excessive weight on structuralfloors (water deposits, storage of objects in a small space),excessive stress of certain elements of the structure (cluttering ofribs and ties), and unsuitable cleaning methods (repeated swillingthat in the long term produces rotten timber elements, particularlywindowsills).In most cases, when these issues are addressed, the defects aretreated superficially, attacking the symptoms rather than thecauses: filling cracks, removing and partial replastering crumblingrenders, laying boards over a sagging structural floor to restore itshorizontality, and so on.For the inhabitants of a town or city, a well-conserved building orarchitectural complex is a lesson in housekeeping, communityspirit and cultural requirements, the symbol of a community. It isthis single element, which must not be a museum or a foreignbody, which informs the whole atmosphere of the city.

Kasbah, Constantine.

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The traditional architecture we find in the Mediterranean basincontinues to be of an extraordinary richness. It is the product andthe reflection of societies accustomed to intense interchange, andit has taken form slowly precisely thanks to these interchanges.It is however important to point out immediately that it is adisappearing architectural form, because it was produced on thebasis of a logic that we call pre-industrial, when things happenedslowly, when the shapes of architecture were distilled with thepassing generations and when know-how was handed downfrom father to son in families of builders (known as masterbuilders, maalem in Arabic). The societies living in theMediterranean have changed radically since the arrival of thephenomenon of industrialization, now refined for the umpteenthtime in the form of globalization. The communities that built anddwelt in this architecture have disappeared or are breaking down,and other logics are now at play (migration, second homes,creation of ghettos, gentrification, fall in property value leading toreplacement by new buildings, etc.).1

Sometimes, our romantic, melancholic view prevents our seeingthat its inhabitants have to be able to transform it in order toadapt it to the needs and aspirations of the present day. In thisarticle we will attempt to present the richness in bioclimatic termsof this architecture and to reflect on the possibilities ofrehabilitating it to make the most of its huge potential, with all therespect it deserves.

The house in a place in the MediterraneanHaving ventured to speak of the concept of MediterraneanTraditional Architecture2, we must straightaway stress its widediversity. In climatic terms, the Mediterranean is characterized bya temperate climate that changes rapidly as we move south,becoming hot and dry, or becomes quickly colder as we moveinland and to higher ground in the nearby mountains3.Its traditional architecture responds to a balance between itsinhabitants’ various needs (use of the building, subsistence

economy), available building materials and, of course, protectionfrom the natural environment.Firstly, it is important to consider that traditional architecture takesradical and ingenious forms when environmental conditions arevery severe. For example, the wealthy houses in Cairo, Egypt,developed the malqaf, a kind of skylight, borrowed from hot areasof Persia, to harness the breeze from the Nile and draw it throughthe main rooms in the house for ventilation. Then in various hot,dry places in the Mediterranean with rather cold night-timetemperatures (Matmata in Tunisia, Cappadocia in Turkey, Guadix

Covered passages in Cairo (Egypt)

Bioclimatic values in therehabilitation of TraditionalMediterranean Architecture

Xavier CasanovasTechnical architectDirector of the RehabiMed European project (Col·legid’Aparelladors i Arquitectes Tècnics de Barcelona) and lecturer inthe Department of Architectural Technology II, School of BuildingConstruction of Barcelona (Technical University of Catalonia),Spain

Ramon GrausArchitectLecturer in the Department of History and Theory ofArchitecture, School of Building Construction of Barcelona(Technical University of Catalonia), Spain

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationBioclimatic values in the rehabilitation of Traditional Mediterranean Architecture

1

and Paterna in the Iberian Peninsula, Matera in Italy), cavedwellings were built, homes dug into ground that was easy toexcavate, to make the most of the thermal inertia of the site.In colder mountain climes, the kitchen (also the centre of energy)is placed at the centre of the house with walls that also harnessthermal inertia, though in this case to prevent the heat leaving too

quickly. In most Mediterranean countries, the houses tended tostand two or three storeys high, with livestock kept in asemibasement ground floor to harness their body heat in thewinter (in summer they were sent to graze in the mountains andthe interior was cool) and the harvest was dried in the well airedattic, providing excellent insulation.

Underground dwellings in Matmata (Tunisia) Underground dwellings in Paterna (Spain)

The malqaf of El Set Wasela (Egypt) and a diagram showing the ventilation system

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However, when the climate is more temperate and there is anintense cultural residue, the repetition of a specific model ofarchitecture is more associated with the culture of a society thanwith the climate. Consider the example of the courtyard house. Indesert climates, a high, narrow courtyard (for example in the ksarof Tamnougalt in the southern Moroccan Atlas), 4collects the cold

night air and keeps the space cool for much of the day, providingventilation but not allowing sunlight or sand to enter. In morebenign climates, however, the courtyard is larger but does nothave a clear bioclimatic function, since it is closely connected tothe culture of privacy of an inward-looking house thatcharacterizes Islamic culture.

Detached house in the Pyrenean foothills in Guixers (Spain), fireplace and loft

Courtyard of a kasbah in the Tamnougalt ksar (Morocco) Courtyard of Dar Ben Abdallah in Tunis (Tunisia)

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1Then we have to be wary of the word “tradition”. Since when andin relation to what is a building traditional? For example,throughout the Mediterranean, the lines between traditional andcultured architecture are ambiguous and blurred. The“traditional” Lebanese house, the house around a central hallwayor the three-arch house5, is very similar in structure andfunctioning to the house on the terra firma of Venice, the Catalanmasia and the typical Ottoman house with its central sofa.From all of the above we can deduce that most traditionalMediterranean architecture is situated in areas with a temperateclimate. But the conditioning factors represented by thetemperate climate, to quote Rafael Serra, “are merely those ofother types of climates, less harsh but with the essentialcharacteristic that they may all be present at once. These are the‘problem of the cold’ in the winter, which may be dry or damp, adistinction that is not important in more extreme climes though itis in these. The ‘problem of the heat’ in the summer (dry orhumid), almost as intense as in other climates, despite lastingrelatively few days. Finally, the ‘problem of changing weather’ inintermediate periods, when there may be extreme cold or heat forshort periods of time.”6

The art of choosing a good site and the intermediate spacesIt will come as no news to anyone that traditional architecture hasits own particular wisdom when it comes to choosing a site in theterritory. This is its starting point. A form of architecture that ispoorly positioned in relation to the sun, which is the great dictator,will rarely have bioclimatic virtues. But a good siting also meansconcealing from or exploiting the wind, orienting each of therooms according to its daytime or night-time use, and so on.Here we have to insist on the idea expounded above: the moresevere a climate, the more radical the solutions. Here we can giveexamples, too: a ksar is a fortified village in the valleys of thesouthern Moroccan Atlas Mountains that protects itself from heat,cold and sand by crowding the houses together and seeking toreduce the number of façades that exchange heat with theexterior. Conversely, a farmhouse in the Pyrenean foothills is abuilding that can stand open to the four winds on a south-facingslope and positions its front door in the façade that is protectedfrom the cold wind.By this token, villages on mountainsides have always constructedtheir streets to follow contour lines with the ground floor of thebuilding in front dug into the ground to avoid blocking the sunfrom the building behind, and its front door on the street above.This type of arrangement usually guarantees cross ventilation. Thisis a concept developed by the Modern Movement, but one thathad long been current in traditional Mediterranean architecture.One good example is the Lebanese custom of placing smallsandbags at all the doors to keep them open and allow ventilationbetween the front and the rear of the building.

Houses terraced on a natural slope in Berat (Albania)

The Tamnougalt Ksar (Morocco)

Percentage of openings in the façades of a detached house in the Pyrenean foothillsin Guixers (Spain); south, east, north and west façades

The sandbag used in Lebanese tradition to prop doors open, creating crossventilation of the rooms

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1 In addition, in a temperate climate such as ours, traditionalarchitecture seeks protection, pleasant views and sea breezes bymeans of what we might refer to as intermediate spaces betweenthe interior and the exterior, which generate pleasantmicroclimates according to the period of the year and time of day.The diversity of these spaces is what makes traditionalMediterranean architecture so singular.A covered street or a porch at the entrance to a house is the firstspace of this kind. Of solid construction or comprising canes andplants, such as vines or jasmine, it welcomes the visitor andprotects the inhabitants when they sit at the front door to wileaway the time or mend a tool, etc. This is a key element that inclimatic terms leads to the life in the street and the sociability thatcharacterize Mediterranean places.A similar space, and one that is common to the architecturethroughout the Mediterranean, is the gallery, a raised porchedspace, usually with columns that support arches, which serves asa hallway to a series of rooms but is also large enough to sit outor dry the harvest in. In Catalonia, it is also known as solana (asunny outdoor space), which is the same as the Arabic riwaq orthe Greek iliakos.A particular example from the Near East is the iwan, originating inPersia. This is practically a room with one of its sides missing, acovered but open-air space for a variety of functions, serving as ahallway for the rooms that open onto it. The simplest structure istwo rooms with a central iwan, but the layout may be furthercomplicated by juxtapositions, courtyards, etc., producing rathercomplex compositions.A very simple but effective element is the eave, a projection of theroof that provides shade in summer and allows winter sunlight inas a result of the varying trajectory of the sun, which is lower atthis time of year. A similar but more sophisticated phase is thetribuna (bow window), a small room that can be closed off fromthe other rooms in the house and that looks out onto the exteriorthrough a glazed facing. This is a place to spend the winter hoursthat harnesses the greenhouse effect for heating and transferssome of the heat to adjacent rooms. The tribunes in Barcelona’sEixample are an obvious example, though it is closely associatedwith tradition and can be found everywhere, being particularlyabundant in the architecture of Turkey.This brings us to the courtyard, the paradigm example of the“inside-outside” intermediate spaces of traditional Mediterraneanarchitecture. Its bioclimatic behaviour and the strong cultural linksthat have guaranteed its continuance are outlined above. It onlyremains to add that in every region the proportions of its floorplan and section offer the most suitable response to the climate ofeach place. The house with peristyle of Hellenistic tradition wasfollowed by a series of adaptations of the courtyard: the Romandomus, the courtyards of the Catalan Gothic townhouses and, ofcourse, the appropriation of the tradition of the courtyard (west

Foyer of a house in Lefkara (Cyprus)

Gallery of a house in Bda (Syria)

Roof of plant matter with jasmine in Jesús Maria (Spain)

The vegetation in the Riad Berebere in Marrakech (Morocco)

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ed-dar, the centre of the house, in Arabic) by Islamic culture andthe radicalization of its use, turning it inwards.It was in Islamic culture that the courtyard found its ultimateapplication, together with vegetation and water. Water wasintroduced in the form of a fountain or small pool, therebycreating a microclimate with a degree of moisture. Thisenvironmental improvement also introduced vegetation, as in theexample of the riad of Marrakech.

Local materials, breathability and thermal inertiaThe world of pre-industrial construction was characterized by low-cost labour offset by the great expense of transportingconstruction materials to the site. It was therefore natural to try touse the materials closest at hand to the site or those that wereeasiest to use. This led to earth, local stone, lime mortar or plasterand wood becoming omnipresent materials in construction. Somematerials from the agricultural world, such as straw, were used asgood insulation in many different solutions.It is interesting to see how this subsistence economy configuredthe landscape of a territory. The tones of the earth and stone usedto build houses blended in with the colours of the surroundinghills to form an inseparable part of the landscape.At the same time, what was usually a solid earth or stoneconstruction (rammed earth, adobe, rubblework, etc.) wascharacterized by using its thermal inertia to guarantee

comfortable interior spaces. In this way, the surfaces exposed tothe sun’s rays absorbed the heat, but since thick stone or earthwalls transmitted it slowly, the interiors remained cool during theday. The walls then stored the heat and transferred it to the inside,maintaining a pleasant temperature throughout the night.This phenomenon, explained here in relation to the walls, is alsoapplicable to the traditional flat roof. The terrace was a flat ceilingof timber beams covered by a hand’s span of earth that provideda roof and also, depending on the time of year, another room(bedroom, kitchen, drying shed, threshing ground, etc.). Flat roofsof this kind are found in the North African Atlas, the mountains ofLebanon, the Alpujarras of Andalusia and, formerly, across awhole swathe of the Pyrenees7 and the Alpes-Maritimes.Another important factor was the breathability of these walls—that is, their capacity to absorb moisture and dry out, and tobalance exterior and interior humidity. This was possible thanks toa culture of using breathable coatings such as plaster, earth or limemortar renderings, and whitewashes.

Light filtersFinally, traditional Mediterranean architecture is characterized byan infinite wealth of solutions to provide filters on the openings inbuildings (doors, windows, balconies), thereby responding to thevariations in our temperate climate with the threefold aim ofproviding thermal insulation, shade and ventilation.

Eaves of a house in Gjirokastra (Albania) The buildings of Ait Larbi in the Dades Valley merge with the surrounding landscape(Morocco)

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Making a hole in a façade has always been a delicate task. Therewas a temptation to make a large hole, but caution advisedmaking it smaller. We have to remember that the use of glass (toprovide insulation, let light in and allow visibility) was a luxury forthose societies and a great deal of ingenuity was needed to makeas large a window as possible without creating an imbalance inheat gain. Whereas initially these openings had just a woodenshutter with a spyhole (a smaller opening with a small openingshutter), they were gradually succeeded by larger openingsprotected by waxed paper, and it was only considerably later thatglass was incorporated. This is a good example of how traditionalarchitecture is not immutable; it constantly changes as it absorbs,we might say, "modernizations". Adaptability is certainly one ofthe foremost values of this type of architecture, as it hasdemonstrated over the years. It has taken the incorporation oftechnologies that are remote from the human scale to bring abouta breakaway that traditional Mediterranean architecture continuesto resist today as a more sustainable and environmentally friendlyalternative.There is a whole range of solutions. For example, in Catalonia, awindow opening could comprise the frame and the operable sashof the window, protected on the outside by a paravent, or outershutter, another shutter in the interior behind the glass to

graduate the light and, finally, net curtains or drapes tamed thesun and provided privacy. The Mediterranean is full of differenttypes of blinds: adjustable elements to control the intensity ofindoor light. This is the case of the simple cord blind which, withits various positions (completely up or down, half up/down orresting on the balcony railing) helps to control the indoortemperature. It also applies to the more complex Venetian (orMajorcan, depending on the place) blind, a kind of lattice ofadjustable slats on a frame. In this case, the light and air let into aroom can be precisely adjusted: completely open, completelyclosed and the endless variations between, as shown by theimages that accompany this article (directing the light to theceiling or to the floor, allowing someone inside to look out, etc.).Islamic societies combine the climatic need to filter the light of ablazing sun and the culture of the veil—seeing without being seen.Here the mashrabiyyaa comes to the fore. This carved woodenlattice fills the window, allowing in air and very filtered light whileallowing those on the inside to look out. Much of the opening isfixed but it also has movable frames, also made of wooden trellis.

Conscientious rehabilitationRather than incorporating bioclimatic gadgets, the rehabilitationof a building has to bring a sensitive approach to the traditional

Solar Protection with curtains in the Kasbah of Algiers (Algeria)Gallery with a whole range of filters in Sidi Bou Said (Tunisia)

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elements described here. Conscientious rehabilitation work shouldnot prejudice or ignore them.However, we also have to accept that these passive systems ofenvironmental control do have their limits. In themselves, theyguarantee reasonable comfort levels, but if we want a constanttemperature of 20ºC and relatively humidity of 50% when theoutside values are 35ºC and 30%, only an active system will dothe trick. However, this is nothing new: to combat the cold in atraditional house, the inhabitants light a fire, which is merelyanother artificial system for producing heat.A rehabilitation project has to weigh up the needs of aprogramme (the client’s requirements), the values of thearchitecture in question (cultural, architectural and alsobioclimatic) and knowledge of the current state of the building.The RehabiMed method insists on the need for knowledge priorto the intervention—that is, it is necessary to make a carefuldiagnosis of the building (including the thermal balance) beforeundertaking rehabilitation. It is, then, necessary to understandhow the building functions, and to rehabilitate and modernize iton this basis.Having read this article, readers will deduce that we favour a formof rehabilitation which, on the basis of traditional constructionand ambient control mechanisms, seeks to adapt the conditions ofthe building to present-day needs; but also brings a sensitiveapproach to thermal inertia as opposed to insulation without

criteria (for example, in a thick-walled building the north-facingfaçade can be hyper-insulated, and less or no insulation used onthe faces that receive more sunlight to exploit their thermalinertia), maintains the breathability of the walls (for example,using lime renderings and breathable whitewashes or silicatepaints rather than the cement renderings and vinyl paints thatbreak with this hygrothermal balance), respects intermediateplaces (for example, avoiding the speculative appropriation ofthese spaces by metal window/door frames) and conservestraditional solar filters (for example, avoiding the systematicreplacement of frames by simplistic aluminium or PVC solutions).Only after integrating these parameters is it appropriate toconsider the real need to introduce an active atmospheric controlsystem (be it heating or air conditioning).Once the building has been rehabilitated, it is occupied by thepeople who are to live in it. We began this article by saying thatthe society that produced this architecture has disappeared so thenew user might not know how to "work" the building. We thinkthat new users have to be told how to use it by means of a shortinstruction and maintenance manual presented at the end ofrehabilitation work. The “Majorcan” blind would therefore haveinstructions for use to optimize its functioning, as though it werea domestic appliance.Although, for example, it requires an effort to maintain a wooden-framed window rather than install the low-maintenance solutions

Recovery of a parapet to allow ventilation on a terrace roof in Hebron (Palestine)

Exterior and interior views of the mashrebeeyeh of El Set Wasela (Egypt)

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1 offered by the market or opt for the convenience of a standardaluminium blind with remote control, we think that it is theseaspects that demonstrate a conscientious approach to therehabilitation of traditional Mediterranean architecture.

1 CASANOVAS, Xavier (dir.): Rehabilitating Traditional Mediterranean Architecture.Marseilles, 23, 24 and 25 September 2005, Col·legi d'Aparelladors i ArquitectesTècnics de Barcelona. Barcelona, 2005.

2 NOURISSIER, Gilles; REGUANT, Joan; CASANOVAS, Xavier; GRAZ, Christophe:Traditional Mediterranean Architecture. École d'Avignon, Col·legi d'Aparelladors iArquitectes Tècnics de Barcelona, Ecole des arts et métiers traditionnels deTétouan. Barcelona, 2002.

3 FOLCH, Ramon (dir.): Mediterrània: territori i paisatge. Atles Ambiental de laMediterrània. Institut Català de la Mediterrània, Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya,Estudi Ramon Folch. Barcelona, 1999.

4 BADIA, Jordi; CUSIDÓ, Oriol; GRAUS, Ramon; MANRIQUE, Emili; NOY, Martí;VILLAVERDE, Montserrat: [Spanish-French version, Marruecos presahariano.Hábitat y patrimonio - Le Maroc présaharien. Habitat et patrimoine. UNESCO,Col·legi d'Aparelladors i Arquitectes Tècnics de Barcelona. Barcelona, 1998.Translated by Marinette Luria].

5 HUSSEINI, Frédéric; NOURISSIER, Gilles; CASANOVAS, Xavier (dirs.): Manuel pourl'entretien et la réhabilitation de l'Architecture Traditionnelle Libanaise. Écoled'Avignon, Corpus Levant Project. Avignon, 2004.

6 SERRA FLORENSA, Rafael: Les energies a l’arquitectura. Principis del controlambiental arquitectònic (1993). Edicions UPC (2nd edition). Barcelona, 1995, pp.200-219.

7 CASANOVAS, Xavier: "I tetti piani nel Pirineo catalano", CATALDI, Giancarlo (Dir.):Attualità del primitivo e del tradizionale in architettura. Atti del ConvegnoInternazionale 'Le ragione dell'abitare', Prato, 8-9 January 1988. Alinea Editrice.Florence, 1989. pp. 135-141.

The multiple possibilities of wooden blinds with adjustable slats in Barcelona’sEixample district (Spain)

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Over the centuries, our ancestors acquired a certain know-how in the field of construction, based on an intuitiveknowledge of their environment and climate. Theconstruction techniques and materials used were chosen withgreat care in order to adapt their dwellings to the climate.This concern is all the more noticeable in areas with a hotclimate, such as the south of Tunisia.Cave architecture is a fitting response to the rather harshclimatic constraints of some southern regions. This type ofhabitat comprises a series of dwellings in the ground, usingnatural cavities or specially dug-out holes. The principlecondition of this type of dwelling is the presence of damp-free soft ground.This type of dwelling is an excellent response to hot climates.The underground dwelling avoids the intense heat of summerand the icy cold of winter thanks to the increase in thermalinertia, due to the mass of the ground. Furthermore, thenotion of exterior façade is absent, which considerably limitsheat gain in summer and loss of calories in winter.Thus the daily range of temperature is totally irrelevant. Theyearly range of exterior temperatures is the only magnitudethat influences the interior.The thermal properties of this habitat vary according to:

The nature of the ground, which may be more or less inert orinsulatingThe thickness of the wallsExposure to the sun.

In the south of Tunisia, there are basically two different types ofcave dwelling according to the nature of the ground. The first is inthe region of Matmata and the second in Chénini.

The cave dwelling in MatmataIn Matmata, the traditionally built habitat comprises dwellingsconstructed around a fairly deep central shaft, which may be asmuch as 10 metres deep.The rooms are dug out around this courtyard, sometimes on twolevels, and organized in complex apartments made up of bedrooms,storage space, stables, etc.Entry to this central courtyard is via a sloping tunnel that emerges tothe exterior some tens of metres away. Some are equipped with awater deposit, dug beneath the courtyard, to collect rainwater.The aridity of the climate makes the construction of underground

dwellings around a courtyard an attractive proposition: in addition tothe ground’s thermal inertia, the amount of façade exposed to thesun is kept to a minimum, as the courtyard increases the amount ofshade. It also makes it possible to exploit the earth’s radiation(cooling the surfaces of the courtyard). The cool air at the bottom ofthe courtyard noticeably decreases the ambient air temperature.

Cave dwellings in ChéniniIn Chénini, another type of cave home is built on a hillside, duginto the earth through strata of hard rock that forms the roof.These dwellings have fewer advantages than those in Matmata,though in relative terms they are more efficient, bearing in mindthe impossibility of digging vertically due to the presence of rockyground.Cave dwellings illustrate the role of the thermal inertia of theground in establishing interior ambiances and prove to be thedwelling best suited to hot, relatively dry climates with a largeannual temperature range.

Tunis, Tunisia

Traditional architecture and climate inTunisia

Radhia Ben M’barekArchitectChief architect and specialist in heritage architecture

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationTraditional architecture and climate in Tunisia

1 For these cave dwellers, calculations show that the phase shift ofthe annual thermal wave was in the region of six months.However, whichever form of cave architecture we are dealingwith, various other factors and elements intervene in the creationof bioclimatic architecture. Different possibilities were adopted byour ancestors with a view to obtaining maximum comfort andresponding to the demands of the occupants of spaces in hotregions, in order to produce a comfortable form of architecture.By way of example, the vernacular architecture of Djerba is basedon isolated dwellings with a central courtyard and thick walls, setamid vegetation. This construction is called el menzel. Great use ismade of vaulted and domed roofs. The traditional Djerba house ischaracterized by the presence of one or more rooms raised abovethe other spaces, situated at the corners of the dwelling. Thisroom, or ghorfa, has a small opening near the top of the spacethat allows natural ventilation.In the case of the vernacular architecture of Tozeur, palm grovesprovide a filter to the hot air and the sun’s rays. The building issituated on the north side of the palm grove, protected from thesand-bearing south winds. The characteristic façades of thisregion of Tunisia are built of solid brick in such a way as to createprojections that offer a variety of shaded areas.The exterior spaces of the old towns are also treated with a viewto obtaining a degree of climatic comfort. The sabat was createdfor this purpose, forming shaded areas and reducing the incidenceof solar radiation on the house façades.This concern is also found inside the house, where the solution ofbuilding around a courtyard means that there is always shade,with a minimum of solar radiation on the various façades of theconstruction in the course of the day.

In thermal terms, the courtyard is like a cooling shaft, since thecool air cannot escape and cools the rooms that open onto it. Thefacings of the courtyard absorb the hot air from the interior spacesand the walls that receive the sun, then emit it and cool down.This coolness is then transmitted to the interior of the spaces. Thecourtyard is, then, a regulating element that benefits the entiredwelling.Finally, we can say that our ancestors had to take into account avariety of factors and elements to achieve a form of architecturethat responded to their need for climatic comfort, including:

The form of the roofsIn summer, the sun shines mainly on the roof. The east and westwalls receive half the radiation of the roof. This is why the form ofthe roofs is important to comfort inside the dwelling.Due to their form, vaults and domes are less exposed to the sun’srays and the wind. The use of this type of roof therefore helps toreduce the impact of the sun’s rays at roof level and then in theinterior space itself.

The openingsThe minimization of openings to the exterior is one point ofconsideration. Some façades have no more than an entrance doorwith an opening above it (air vent).This design and organization of the openings ensures goodventilation, giving the home interior comfort at all times. The highposition of openings facilitates the exit of hot air. As a result, coolair comes in through the doors and out through openings high up,generating a natural ventilation system.

Matmata, Tunisia Matmata, Tunisia

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationTraditional architecture and climate in Tunisia

1Building materials Stone: for the construction of walls and vaultsGypsum: used as a binding agentLime: generally used for renderings.

These three principal materials in traditional construction offerefficient resistance to heat conduction, allowing the creation of acool interior.

The mass of the envelopeIn traditional construction, the thickness of the walls variesbetween 50 and 70 cm, and may be as much as a metre, ensuringgood insulation and slow heat transmission.Furthermore, the compactness of the volumes helped to limit theeffects of heat; building a dwelling (and other constructions)against its neighbours provides extra protection from the heat byminimizing exposed surfaces.

ColourThe use of light-coloured cladding for the roof, floor and wallsensures minimum absorption of the sun’s rays. Whitewashing orpainting them a light colour (particularly white) helps insulation byreflecting solar radiation.

Tunis, Tunisia

Kairouan, Tunisia

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This atlas offers a unique instrument dedicated to the knowledgeand exploitation of the solar resources in the Mediterranean basin.It is a powerful tool for architects, engineers, meteorologists,agronomists, local authorities, tourism professionals, as well asresearchers and students. It covers the period 1981-1990. It offers fundamental knowledge on the solar radiation availableat ground level, which is of primary importance for both the lifeand the climate (including the ocean) since it is the primary sourceof energy on Earth by far. The Atlas co-ordinate by K. Scharmerand J. Greif, published by Les Presses de l'Ecole des Mines as TheEuropean Solar Radiation Atlas - vol. 1: Fundamental and maps,describes the course of the Sun across the sky as it varietiesthroughout the year and with the geographical location. Theinteractions of the solar radiation with the atmosphere and itscomponents (haze, turbidity, clouds, etc.), and the separation ofthe radiation into the direct and diffuse parts are discussed. Theimportance of the solar radiation in various domains is presented,with an emphasis on solar engineering, where solar energy is usedto provide electricity in photovoltaics systems, to supply hot wateror heat houses. Ground radiation measurement techniques and instruments aredescribed. Satellite images are also used. They are combined withground measurements to provide a synoptic view of thedistribution of the solar radiation over Europe. The structure of thedatabase and its main applications are described.Here, we present 4 of the 26 coloured maps (ten years average1981-90) that describe the solar radiation and its direct anddiffuse parts. They also detail the changes with time. The value of the atlas can be usefully extended by using it inconjunction with the complementary volume and CD-ROM calledThe European Solar Radiation Atlas - vol. 2: database andexploitation software, also published by Les Presses de l'Ecole desMines. The database offers spatial (every 10 km approximately)and temporal knowledge for different time scales (fromclimatological means - more than 700 stations - to hourly values -7 stations -) on the solar resources: irradiation (global and itscomponents), sunshine duration, as well as air temperatures,precipitation, water vapour pressure, air pressure in a number ofstations. The software uses the database in either a "map" or a"station" mode at user choice. Once a station been selected, theprogram looks for all the data available for this station. Thesoftware includes algorithms covering the following fields: solargeometry, optical properties of the atmosphere, estimation ofhourly slope irradiation under cloudless skies, estimation of solar

irradiation values (going from daily to hourly values, conversionfrom horizontal to titled surfaces), spectral irradiance, illuminance,daily mean profiles of temperature and other statistical quantities(central moments, extremes, probability, cumulative probabilityand utilizability curves). Graphics can be displayed in 2 or 3dimensions. Some applications studies on solar engineering canbe performed too. This Atlas has been realised on behalf of the EuropeanCommission, by a team led by the company GET (Jülich,Germany), and comprising the Deutsche Wetterdienst (Hamburg,Germany), Armines / Ecoles des Mines de Paris et de Nantes(France), Instituto Nacional de Engenharia e Tecnologia Industrial(Lisbon, Portugal), the Technical University of Lyngby (Denmark),the World Radiation Data Centre (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), andInstitut Royal de Météorologie (Brussels, Belgium), John Page(Sheffield, United Kingdom) and Robert Dogniaux (Brussels,Belgium) acting as advisors.

A tool to develop the use of solarenergy in Mediterranean basin: the European Solar Radiation Atlas(ESRA).

École des Mines de Paris, France

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I. KnowledgeTool 1Knowledge of traditional architecture as a basis for rehabilitationA tool to develop the use of solar energy in Mediterranean basin: the European Solar Radiation Atlas (ESRA

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Global irradiation on horizontal plane. Monthly mean of daily sums. Tens yearsaverage. June.

Global irradiation on horizontal plane. Monthly mean of daily sums. Tens yearsaverage. March.

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Global irradiation on horizontal plane. Monthly mean of daily sums. Tens yearsaverage. September.

Global irradiation on horizontal plane. Monthly mean of daily sums. Tens yearsaverage. December.

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