More than Vernacular: Vernacular Architecture between Past Tradition and Future Vision

Författare

Marwa Dabaieh

Summary, in English

This book hopes to offer an insight into the threats facing the vernacular buildings that survive in the Egyptian Western Desert. It offers a guide to those who wish to get involved in rescuing these buildings, those who re-use them and those who care for them. The first part of the book opens with an overview of the problems experienced in places that are only now becoming vulnerable to the rapid urbanisation that is affecting the vernacular heritage everywhere. It then focuses on the problems experienced by the communities living in the Egyptian desert. Among these problems, however, there are opportunities too. The second part describes three strategies that have the potential to bring sustainable change in the conservation of vernacular buildings in the Western Desert in Egypt. The final part offers a vision of how this desert vernacular heritage at risk can be nurtured, and suggests scenarios to achieve this. Whether you are an owner, an entrepreneur or a developer, whether you are involved in a local trust or work for a local authority, or whether you just want to find out about Egypt’s spectacular desert vernacular heritage, we hope this book will be an inspiration. Several of the hand-drawn architectural illustrations in this book are the result of surveys carried out for this study. This kind of record underlines the importance of the vital role of meticulous documentation in preserving the evidence of Egypt’s current desert vernacular, so that we can learn from this evidence when we work with such buildings in the future.

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