Vernacular architecture between past tradition and future vision

We live in a world that contains a wide variety of spectacular vernacular building, and it is at risk. Although many people are aware that the vernacular is suffering everywhere, evidence of how this treasured heritage is cared for often demonstrates little understanding of its true value. Egypt is a country with some of the finest examples of desert vernacular architecture in the world, a heritage which is at threat of disappearing. Towns and cities hitherto characterised by their vernacular architecture are experiencing great change due to the pressure for rapid growth that is being stimulated by globalisation and ambitious modernity. Those who live in these towns sometimes find it hard to adapt to such rapid growth and have difficulty finding a way of allowing their environment to evolve sustainably. The challenge is always to devise a way for vulnerable vernacular settlements to develop as they have done over the centuries, without losing the accumulation of their tangible heritage and the intangible body of knowledge that created them. How can this eruption of modernism be helped to adapt to the concepts of sustainability that

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.

Book signing by: Dr. Marwa Dabaieh

A Google map showing the directions to Megawra al-Khalifa:http://goo.gl/lvAu0C