Award-winning architect Salma Samar Damluji speaks to GreenProphet about her mud architecture work in Yemen and why Dubai’s property development mentality is ruining the Middle East

The Middle East may be a fascinating place politically but architecturally, it’s on its last legs. Years of corruption and poor governance mean it’s slowly becoming one of the ugliest places on earth. You just need look at at the sprawling mess of glass and metal in Dubai to realise that something has gone awry. Salma Samar Damluji, an Iraqi architect of 30 years says that greed and corruption is behind the fall of architecture and insists that this money rush is destroying the region’s architectural heritage one building at a time.

And no-one knows this more than Damluji. She has fought what she calls architectural recolonisation in Egypt alongside Hassan Fathy who championed mud architecture practiced by the falaheen (rural peasants) in the 197os. And she’s also worked in Yemen restoring and renovating eco-friendly mud buildings in Yemen’s Wadi Hadramout where ancient building can disappear over night.

“In Europe, countries have been able to preserve their own culture, architecture and urban heritage but the rest of the Arab world hasn’t done that,” explains Damluji. “So as a result they have no architectural heritage left – everybody is imitating Dubai which is a complete disaster. Unfortunately you see the result of it now all across the Arab region.”

One country that Damluji believes has been able to hold back the mass commercialisation of architecture is Yemen. “When I first went in 1981, there was a kingdom of architecture and there was a huge rich resource of architectural heritage. Yemen, I felt, was the last place in the Arab world that had this incredible civilisation and urban heritage that had been going on for hundreds of years. They were so developed that they were creating these amazing palaces out of mud – very modern too. I felt that there was a cause there and I felt I had to take on that cause.”

She has been visiting Yemen ever since and from 2005, the Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation has supported her work to restore buildings in Wadi Hadramout. Another important institution has been the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) of the The Prince Claus Fund in Netherlands, which funded restoration projects in ‘Aynat and Sah following a destructive flood in the region in 2008.

Damluji’s effort to protect and preserve the mud architecture of Yemen, however, hasn’t been easy. Civil war, political in-fighting and badly mismanaged resources mean she’s had to rely on outside support to carry out any restoration and she also has to take on other projects just to make a living. And it isn’t getting any easier.

“It’s harder now than it used to be to work in Yemen as a woman because there are more people in Hadramout who are more… I wouldn’t say fundamentalist. There is a worse level of education and people are taking the girls out of school at the age of 12 to get them married and people rely on money that comes from relatives living in Saudi and the Gulf.”

“So, things are difficult but there is still an architectural scene for me to engage in and there are all these builders who I adore but the people don’t like dealing with a woman… They think that to become good Muslims they need to do what the Saudi’s do and not talk to women. I think they’ve got the wrong end of the stick.”

Damluji’s hard work maybe challenging but it is being recognised – she was recently named one of the five winners of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. The one thing she wants the award to do, however, is bring more attention to the need for architectural restoration in Yemen. She says she is going to be bringing out her begging bowl and say ‘yalla, where’s the money’. “The Yemeni residents give me such a rough time but I think that maybe years down the line people will appreciate the architecture and heritage that I helped preserve.”

When I ask Damluji why architectural heritage is so down the list of priorities in the region, she pauses and replies with one word – greed. “I think it’s all tied up to politics, economics, corruption and how much money people can make from these big construction projects. The amount of money that changes hands during the kind of modern construction is huge and the fact that they annihilate architects from the equation means that developers have complete control over the building.”

Damluji also doesn’t see Masdar as some happy half-way solution. “I don’t know what’s so ecological about constructing in the desert,” she says. “And the other point is that Norman Foster [architectural team behind Masdar] was talking about Hadramout and Shibam in his literature about Masadar but he’s never been to Yemen. I am very cynical about that kind of development … I worked there [UAE] for a couple of years and I know the mentality.”

The things that do keep Damluji motivated and have kept her going back to Yemen for 25 years are the small victories – being able to restore a Sufi dome, conserving an important mosque in Yemen and keeping locals trained in the art of mud-architecture. “I think this thing- restoring architectural heritage – is like a battle and no matter what you do there is always more work to do. So I keep moving.”

: Top photo – Salma Samar Damluji outside Shibam’s gate with a visiting Saudi delegation © Rashid bin Shibraq, Mukalla 2010. 2nd photo – Al Faqih ‘Aynat Mosque in Wadi Hadramut ©SS Damluji, London 2012. Photo of Salma Damluji in Geneva via ©Aydan Balamir, 2007. Final photo – worker applying white wash to the ceilings of newly constructed bathroom at Nasir Ba Surrah’s house in Masna‘at ‘Urah, Daw‘an ©SS Damluji, London 2011.

For more on  mud architecture see: 
Iraqi Mud Architect Wins Prestigious Sustainability Award
Yemen’s ‘Manhattan of the Desert’ Boasts 400 Habitable Clay Towers
Hasan Fathy is the Middle East’s Father of Sustainable Architecture

The post Iraqi Mud Architect Talks Sustainability and Corruption in the Middle East (Exclusive Interview) appeared first on Green Prophet.

Bnei Barak, one of Israel’s most dense cities, is about to get its first large municipal park.

With 165,000 people living within a 7000 dunam area, Bnei Barak is one of Israel’s densest cities.  And its residents don’t have a green zone to call their own.  Ruth Mozes, an architect in charge of Bnei Barak’s urban planning department, said that “Bnei Barak does not have a single park, and its largest garden spans 20 dunams.”

In order to rectify the situation, a regional planning committee will officially confirm plans within the coming weeks to expand Tel Aviv’s large Yarkon Park into Bnei Barak.  This will grant the city a much needed green lung.

The plan is to develop a 350 dunam park that will extend from the Yarkon Park into Bnei Barak.  The area to be converted into a park is largely zoned as farmland, although it has been partially treated as an illegal garbage dump.

Landscape architect Shlomik Zeevi will design the new park and it will include three strips: one adjacent to the Yarkon River and which preserves the natural landscape, another area with playgrounds and activities, and a third strip will include a combination of office space and recreational park areas.

Mozes is also considering how the park will be made accessible to Bnei Barak residents.  “To improve acessibility, we’ve designed a passage of green tracts through the employment zone to the park,” she says.  “There will also be access by bus and in the future we will operate shuttles from the city to the park, mainly in the afternoon.”

:: Haaretz

Read more about parks:
Saudi Arabia to Build Musma Park – The Mideast’s Largest Environmental Tourism Park
Can an Ecological Peace Park Catalyze Between Syria and Israel?
Cairo’s Green Lung – Al-Azhar Park

Image via: RonAlmog

The post Dense Israeli City to Get a Breath of Fresh Air with New Park appeared first on Green Prophet.

What is a friendlier urban environment – dense constructed areas dotted with large, open public areas, or a slightly less dense urban environment infused with nature?

Living in a city is better for the environment than living in the suburbs.  Denser living allows for a lower carbon footprint since people can walk (or bike commute) to work, shop locally, and live a car-free, energy-reduced lifestyle.  Some would argue that the denser, the better, since more people can share resources and reduce commuting that way.  But even hardcore urbanites want a little green in their lives.  (Just think of all those diehard Manhattan residents piled on top of each other in high-rise apartments and their luscious Central Park.)

Israeli urban planners and environmentalists are currently disagreeing on the best way for a city to be green, after an annual convention of the Israeli Association of Landscape Architects.

A high percentage of the Israeli population lives in urban environments, and so great emphasis is placed on designing communal and open spaces in cities.  The Housing and Construction Ministry has even designated that 5 square meters of open space should be allocated per person in the cities.  (Dubai, on the other hand, has roughly 13 square meters of green space per capita and hopes to offer every resident 25 square meters of green space by 2020.)

No one is arguing that open space is important – urban living can feel a little suffocating without it.  But a paper presented at last week’s conference argued that it is not about the amount of meters of open space allocated per person, but rather their quality.  It’s quality, not quantity, that’s important.

This idea was presented by Dr. Yodan Rofe, an architect and urban planner, who studied open spaces in various parts of Israel.  His study showed that most urban residential neighborhoods have plenty of open space, but very little quality open space.

He also found that people prefer to stroll along city streets rather than spend time in public gardens, suggesting that it may make more sense to invest more energy in green-ifying and improving the quality of city streets.  “As a rule,” Rofe says, “public spaces should be developed as an entirety of streets, square and gardens.”

The Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI) and the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam Teva v’Din) disagree with Rofe, though, and believe that there is not enough open space in today’s urban environments.  They would also promote urban planning that is based on local diversity, with space set aside for regional flora and fauna.

Tel Aviv’s urban plan may be a compromise between these two philosophies.  Deputy Mayor Meital Lehavi is currently working to promote a comprehensive urban plan of green veins that connect the city.  These green axes would include the existing street infrastructure, bicycle lanes, natural greenery and trees and connect parks and gardens.

: Haaretz

Read more about the eco-advantages of urban living::
Should Cities in the Middle East Be More Dense, Like Manhattan?
The Compact City As Sustainable Urban Form Can Reduce Air Pollution
Sustainability in the City (of Tel Aviv), To Celebrate 100 Years Now and 100 in the Future

The post Urban Open Spaces: Good or Bad for the Environment? appeared first on Green Prophet.

If the thought of walking around a bustling city doesn’t feel like eco-tourism to you, maybe it’s time to think again and implement ‘The Art of Mindful Walking’.

The term ecotourism often conjures images of mud brick eco lodges in the desert or visiting rare endangered plants on a nature reserve, but it can and should be broadened to include enjoying less than natural sites with more eco-friendly forms of tourism (such as walking and biking).  As far as carbon footprints go, it may even be more eco-friendly to stay put in whatever city or town you’re already in and taking in the sites without the aid of fossil fuels rather than hopping on a highly polluting airplane to visit the aforementioned plants and eco lodges.  If you’re unconvinced of the poetry of walking a city’s streets, though, take a cue from Londoner Adam Ford’s ‘The Art of Mindful Walking’.

“The pavements can be hard and tiring,” Ford says, “but walking in a city has more to offer than we imagine.  The city is not all streets and pavements; there are parks and public gardens, river walks and canal banks.”

“The richness and variety of experiences per mile in a city can challenge even the most beautiful walk through countryside; and the density of bird life, flowers and trees is a continual surprise.”

Middle Eastern cities may be taking notice of the advantages of this most ancient form of eco-tourism.  There is already a tourism company in Beirut devoted to walking tours, and various areas of Israel offer walking tours as well.

Yet there are other parts of the region that have some catching up to do.  Amman is a notoriously miserable city to walk, with a serious lack of functional sidewalks and a general feeling of chaos.  In the United Arab Emirates there is the reverse problem.  The streets may have comfortable sidewalks, but the Emirati prefer their convenient cars and so only 4% of people living in the UAE walk on a weekly basis.

Ford insists, however, that our cities are the best place to enjoy a good walk and that, conversely, cities are best enjoyed through walking.  “For many people,” he says, “the thought never seems to occur that the city is a great place for walking. They imagine that you have to get out of the city, away from the noise, the traffic and the fumes and head for the countryside where birds sing and brooks sparkle. They could not be more wrong.”

: The Ecologist

Read more about walking in the Middle East::
BeBeirut Offers Eco-Friendly Tours in Lebanon’s Capital
A Miserable Walk Through Amman
Only 1 in 25 Emiratis Use Their Legs to Walk
Take an Eco-Friendly Tour with Israel Travel Company

Image via: DavidSpinks

The post Rediscovering Cities Via the Oldest Form of Eco-Tourism: Walking appeared first on Green Prophet.

Before we know it, the Middle Eastern sun will be hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk and kids will want to stay inside in front of televisions to escape the heat. But DI Berhard Gruber has designed a playground that is not only cool enough to play in, but also teaches kids about the environment. In addition to fun “outdoorsy” games such as climbing and playing in a sandbox, children can learn to generate energy using their own life force.

The playground is essentially built into earthen hills and covered with recycled truck covers in order to shade it from the sun. For children in urban environments that have little experience with nature, there will be no shortage of it as the walls will be covered in plants.

The facility will be kept cool with buried pipes that circulate cool air through the earthen walls. These work by encouraging air from the top of the building (cool air sinks, hot air rises), which will then be expelled at the lowest level. Space between hilltops and the roof will also enable wind to pass through the building while an interior pool will also add to the cooling effect.

DI Bernhard Gruber also proposes to include “wind games;” these educational toys harvest the children’s energy to produce even further cooling. This beautiful facility will enable children to play in the sand pit, get as dirty as they like, and in general have a frolicking good time without passing out from heat exhaustion.

:: Arch Daily

More architecture news from the Middle East:

Beautiful Red Sea Film School Integrates Nature as a Teaching Tool

All of Saudi Will Come To the Mile High Kingdom Tower>

Foster & Partners Finish Gorgeous Green Building in Morocco

The post DI Bernhard Gruber Designs Cool Green Playground For Hot Climes appeared first on Green Prophet.

A leading Muslim group denies the Cairo municipality’s request to relocate graves in the crowded city.

Following the success of Al-Azhar park in Cairo, also known as the city’s lungs, the municipality looked to cemeteries as possible venues to develop more community parks in Egypt’s crowded capital. But Dar Al-Ifta, the research institute tasked with making decisions that accord with Islamic law, gave the thumbs down.

Even if families grant permission to have their deceased relocated, historical and religious leaders will have to stay put. Given Cairo’s dreadful pollution and dearth of anything green enough to suck it up, it could use a few more carbon sinks, but the municipality will have to set their green sights somewhere else.

Gamal Abd Al-Gawad, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, told The Media Line that the issue has more cultural than political roots. Grave owners and relatives are more concerned to prevent relocation than religious leaders.

An urban planner with Ein-Shams University in Cairo, Muhammad Ibrahim worries that real-estate moguls will usurp the territory for themselves and develop even more crippling infrastructure.

But Dar Al-Ifta, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Justice, ruled that preserving graves of historical figures must take precedence. The paper reports:

Muslims have safeguarded the graves and remains of the pharaohs and never attempted to obliterate or remove them even though they were not Muslim, a statement by Dar Al-Ifta read. All the more so we should safeguard the graves of our nation’s glorious figures.

Al-Azhar park is the only genuine “green” reprieve for the city’s 17 million residents, who otherwise cope with the kind of noise, pollution, and rubbish that defies imagination. Developed by the Aga Khan Foundation and a former refuse dump, the 74 acre “green space” also generates income and jobs.

:: The Media Line

More on Cairo’s pollution, smog, and urban parks:

Cairo’s Green Lung – Al Azhar Park

A Black Smog-Craft Chokes Cairo’s Skies

Mekano Designs Renewable Energy Skyscraper for Cairo’s Filthy Garbage City

image via yoohoojuju

The post Egypt’s Buried Dignitaries Won’t Be Moving Anytime Soon appeared first on Green Prophet.

Despite their numerous environmental faux-pas, like the RAK global warming park, the UAE must be credited with its moments of genius. The latest campaign in Ras al Khaimah to clean up the Corniche is one such example. A popular park among tourists and locals alike, in recent years it has acted like a giant trash dump.

In anticipation of increased traffic, and therefore increased rubbish, the Department of Public Works imported four segways from the United States on which employees patrol the park. They were delivered last month, and have revolutionized how the public perceive their treasured green space.The cousins that drive the segways, Omar and Abdul Rasul al Belooshi, who are both 25, arrive at work at 7pm and often whizz up and down the Qawassim Corniche until the morning call to prayer. They work seven days a week.

Their main task is to encourage park visitors to put their litter in provided bins and to pack out what they pack in. At times they meet with resistance, but usually, they told The National, people are so happy with the results that they are happy to cooperate.

At other times they corral rowdy boys playing rough games, and even mentor them about road safety if challenged to a “race.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtb4AF0p8zE[/youtube]Here are Corniche Police on 3 wheels.

“It’s a fun job, and every day we see many people and talk to them to make this area clean,” Omar told the paper. “The first time they were angry, but we will do anything to stop this.

“People would see me and say ‘oh no’, but when we started to make this area clean they were happy. Before, people didn’t care and nobody was here to talk with them.”

The immediacy and novelty of the segways, compared with patrol cars, gives the “Corniche Police” better access to the public, with which they are able to convey a positive message.

Those unwilling to make the transition face a fine up to $1,300.

Mohammed Hassan, head of Inspection for the RAK Department of Public Works, said that posters urging people to pick up after themselves were ineffective. But the cousins are being billed as “heroes” for their clean up campaign.

They have been so successful that the municipality is considering plans to initiative a similar program at the Kuwaiti Street Market and the old RAK Corniche.

:: The National

More environmental campaigns in the UAE:

Abu Dhabi Turn it Off Campaign

Dubai’s Conservation Initiative – Higher Electricity and Water Bills

What Abu Dhabi Plans For When the Water Runs Out

The post Segway “Police” Achieve Fame For UAE Corniche Cleanup appeared first on Green Prophet.

After an era of uninhibited urbanization, Lebanon’s Green Party is politicizing Beirut’s absence of “green space.” Tel Aviv has Hayarkon, Cairo has Al-Azhar, and Dubai has the Ras al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary –  all slivers of nature amidst the smog and noise that typify life in many cities. These natural enclaves are designed to offer respite from an otherwise “unnatural” environment of hot tar and glass and the endless clang of construction.

The degree to which cities incorporate parks and other public spaces into their urban plans determines residents’ well-being, while failure to prioritize nature can lead to violence. At least, this is the view of Lebanon’s Green Party head, Phillip Skaff, who hopes to add thousands of green square meters to the capital. 

The Angry Green Inch

The Green Party and Lebanon’s residents are lucky to have in their midst Mr. Vladimir Djurovic, the architect who is doing Beirut’s dirty work by reclaiming every green inch possible. Even the slightest  transformation, such as the Samir Kassir Memorial Garden, receives widespread acclaim, pointing perhaps to what is wrong with what used to be a city chock full of cultural wonder.

“If such a small project can get such worldwide recognition, just imagine what we could do on a larger scale,” Mr. Djurovic told The Daily Star.

“The city needs this – its people need this. When you look at every other great city in the world they have all factored in how to make the lives of its citizens more manageable, but we have, and continue to, totally ignore this.”

The Lebanese architect has been recognized by the Cityscape Architecture Review and the American Society of Landscape Architects, according to the paper, and received the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) in 2007. Committed to working around and using materials that complement a site’s existing components, Mr. Djurovic is also said to turn down projects that are too exacting.

The Green Quota

His sustainability ethos comes at a time when the Lebanese population are crying out against its dearth of what The Daily Star’s Simona Sikimic calls “greenery per capita.” She notes that the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for 40 square meters per capita but Beirut only offers its residents 0.8 square meters. Politicians such as Mr. Skaff are picking up the cue.

“This is a terrible situation and requires a radical solution. The municipality must restructure its urban planning and step in to preserve land for its inhabitants,” he told the paper.

“Even if contractors are creating more features in their own designs, if you plant a few trees only the tenants will have access. This is not the point.”

By adding 800,000 square meters to the existing two million, the Green Party’s proposal could amount to an enormous improvement if they can also produce an appropriate management plan. Both The Pine Forest and The Corniche are in terrible disrepair, according to Mr. Djurovic.

“You have to entice and attract people to a space, but Beirut’s few public spaces are dangerous and dirty. But all one needs to do is clean them up,” said Djurovic, unconvinced that this will happen easily.

“Unfortunately, there is no will to do this and all people seem to care about is making money or impressing other people when the most impressive thing one can do is have a beautiful outdoor space left as nature intended.”

:: The Daily Star

More environmental news from Lebanon:

Beirut’s Souk el Tayeb Farmer’s Market Celebrates Healthy Local Food Traditions

Beirut’s “A New Earth” Provides Lebanese Urbanites a Place to Shop for Eco-Products

Lebanon’s Mediterranean Apocalypse: Scuba Diving In Waters Devoid Of Life

image via craigfinlay

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