Exploring potentials of sustainability in traditional courtyard houses in hot-arid regions: a socio-spatial syntax method

Al-Jokhadar, Amer and Jabi, Wassim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2594-9568 2016. Exploring potentials of sustainability in traditional courtyard houses in hot-arid regions: a socio-spatial syntax method. Presented at: UKIEG 2016 Conference Health and Well-being throughout the Life Course: the role of residential and learning environments, Coventry University’s Low Impact Building Research Centre, Coventry, UK, 16 June 2016.

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Abstract

In the age of globalisation and continuous urbanisation, architects have a greater responsibility to design residential buildings with comfortable and sustainable environments. However, sustainable solutions should not concern themselves only with utilising technology, but also with creating synergies amongst a community’s cultural, historical, social, and environmental aspects. This research focuses on the implications of this wider definition of sustainability within the hotarid climates of the Middle-East and North-Africa. Most of the current residential developments in these regions do not promote social cohesion as they have been constructed without consideration for local identity and lifestyle. In contrast, vernacular courtyard houses offer good examples of socially cohesive and healthy environments. Yet, vernacular houses might not be compatible with the needs and pressures of modern construction. The question then becomes one of maintaining the relationship between the spatial and social aspects of dwellings while employing the latest technologies and material. The relationships between the spatial organisation of courtyard houses and the social patterns of such arrangements are assessed, through a typological analysis approach based on the space syntax method, as a trace of lifestyle and cultural values of the society. This system of analysis incorporates the spatial arrangement of rooms, with their social, cultural, environmental and geometric characteristics. The aim is the parametric exploration of appropriate sustainable solutions that facilitate the synergy of socioclimatic requirements, the well-being qualities of the residents, and the specifics of culture, time and people.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Submitted
Schools:	Architecture
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NA Architecture
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2022 10:33
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/92011

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