Tradidional Syrian Architecture

The house was the first human production. It initialized the first settlements. At the dawn of times, man sought a private space to accommodate his daily needs from the moment he took shelter in a cave. He developed his dwelling to suit his requests, using the building materials in his nearest surroundings. Throughout history, the human residence improved, growing more and more sophisticated with the emergence of new needs. Architectural diversity is thus an answer to the wide array of daily needs and activities. The Mediterranean area is distinguished by a similar traditional residential architecture throughout its vast territories, telling the long story of the cultural intermingling that has forged the area since antiquity. Similar environments, climates and social conditions played a crucial role, affecting architecture, making it a direct and clear consequence, a testimony of their roots. From an artistic and cultural point of view, this residential architecture, which may seem modest and simple, is worthy of praise and admiration. It must be registered and acknowledged to secure its conservation, and transmited to the generations to come. The urban fabric in most of the Syrian cities that lived, flourished, and developed in the past, is still very much alive today, distinguishing itself through its intimacy and density. It plays with spaces and volumes, shade and light... roads wind between residences, narrowing as they shift from public to private areas. Private spaces open onto an inside courtyard, allowing for a restrained amount sun to come in, ensuring the right amount of ventilation in hot summers. In the villages where lands stretch outwards, the house extends horizontally. The urban fabric in Damascus, Aleppo and Bosra is registered on list of world heritage, acknowledging the importance of traditional residential architecture. It is henceforth recognized as an equal to historical monuments. This urban fabric is in the immediate surroundings of historical monuments, blending to create a harmonized conglomeration of culture. Other towns and villages also have their own particular and characteristic residential architecture, made by simple people to serve daily needs. These builders and users have exploited the locally available building materials and the construction techniques they inherited from thousands of years of civilization. Alas, today, after having survived the tides of history, this architecture it is now threatened by annihilation.

Typologies of Traditional Buildings in Syria

There is a rich diversity in building types in Syria; they can vary according to the region and people’s lifestyles. However, two main lifestyles generate a major difference of construction and dwelling: nomadic and sedentary.

The first lifestyle is called nomadic and depends on pastures as a daily economic activity; it requires constant migration from one place to another in search of pastures and water. These populations are called “Bedouins” and usually live under a tent. They can change geographic locations with their families and groups (usually tribes) according to the available pastures or water necessary to work and live. The second lifestyle is the sedentary lifestyle, usually linked to cities and the countryside. The types of houses in a city or the countryside also differ according to the geographic location (seaside, mountain, valley, etc.). But there are still some clear differences between the traditional city house and the traditional country house: for example, the traditional city house is characterized by stone constructions with different types and colors and a great variety of building typologies. It essentially consists in a main inner courtyard surrounded by rooms for daily or sometimes evening activities. The country house's courtyard tends to be used more as the garden of the house, surrounded on one side or more by rooms, while the rest is bordered by a wall. The internal partition splits the house into two areas: one for the inhabitants and another for the animals. Seasonal vegetables are usually grown in this garden.

Countryside houses are generally small, ranging from a two unit house with Mastaba in the front, commonly found in the coastal region of “Mashkita”, near Lattakia, to the house with courtyard where rooms border the courtyard, giving the house more space. In this case, more than one family can live in the house, such as it is in “Sfireh”, a village located on the outskirts of Aleppo. Generally, the number of inner courtyards in the traditional Arabic house differs; the more luxurious the house, the greater the number of families living in it: some very big houses have 2 or 3 courtyards. As for houses with a single courtyard, they differ according to their occupant's economical status; some houses have large courtyards with a fountain in the center, surrounded by trees, while others, smaller in size have a plain simple courtyard

- The Tent

Tents are nomad shelters used by Bedouins as dwelling; they are easy to put up and take down for transfer. A nomad's life is linked to sheep farming, which means constantly moving from place to place, looking for pastures and a suitable environment for the community and its livestock. They generally move about in the desert, in plains, in the eastern areas of Syria, near the banks of the Euphrates and close to the Turkish border. Tents are used for multiple purposes; they can be of different sizes, according to assigned function or use: Firstly, there is the large tent made to suit the nomadic life style, split into two parts : one for women and another for men. There is also a section for guests separated from the other sections with a felt or cloth curtain, sometimes with supply bags and fine reeds. Saddles are usually hung on the left side of the tent and some belongings are also stored there. Secondly there are small tents, usually used for household activities, including the kitchen and cooking area, or to stock fodder and store equipment. The actual tent is rectangular or square and is made of woven wool, taut by ropes from the outside and fixed into the ground with stakes. The woolen fabric used is characterized by its relative good insulation properties and its ability to protect from the summer heat and the winter cold. The families that live in these tents usually consist of three generations. In some areas, we can find groups of tents in which a number of families live together, sharing water and pasture. The tents are equipped with all the necessities for a nomad’s life, which has almost remained unchanged: they still sit and eat on the ground, and their tents are furbished in the same traditional way, with mattresses, pillows and reed mats.

- The Basic House

This type is composed of two aligned living units; they are open on the exterior, either in front of the house called "Mastaba", generally used as a leisure part of the house, or on the back of the house, called "Zribeh", and used as a stable for animals. These two rooms communicate through a door; their use is mixed between day and night activities. The first is mainly used as a bedroom and the second as a kitchen and food storage area. This kind of spontaneous construction belongs to the rural world; the house is mainly composed of one floor and is associated to a farm called "Bustan". It is found scattered in the mountains near the city of Lattakia.

- The House with a Riwaq This type of house is composed of several aligned rooms forming a residential unit; they are connected to each others via a covered gallery called "Riwaq", which makes up the whole front elevation. This type of houses is common in the villages of the southern region of Syria, to the north of Damascus; it is used mainly as residence.

- The House with a Liwan This type of houses can be found in the region located north of Damascus. It is a tripartite structure composed of three aligned units: two are used for living and the central unit, open on the exterior, is called liwan. The connection between the two living sections takes place through the liwan, which is used as a distribution space. This house is a typical multipurpose rural house, used for living, as a “localworkshop”, as a warehouse, and finally as shelter for domestic animals in the central space (liwan).

- The Rural House with Courtyard The difference between city and country life has an impact on building the typologies and shapes of houses: building materials therefore also differ in the outskirts of Syrian cities. Life in the countryside depends on agriculture and livestock farming, this lifestyle calls for a courtyard attached to the house. It is used as a private space and is not necessarily surrounded by rooms. It can also have specific areas for animals e.g. horses, poultry, and seasonal vegetables.

- The Urban House with Courtyard One of the most common building typologies in Syria is the traditional courtyard house. It can be found in all Syrian cities, just as it can be found in all Mediterranean countries. This building typology is characterized by a small number of relatively small openings in the external façade, and a large number of openings that open onto the inner courtyard. Traditional houses vary in size and luxury level, and inner spaces vary in number and size from house to house, although they all have one common feature: the open courtyard gives the occupant a feeling of privacy and privileges the relations between the individuals of the family, who develop a strong attachment for the house. The inner courtyard is a garden and the center of household activities: all the rooms are set around it and open onto this gathering place. In large and medium sized houses, a fountain is placed in the center of the courtyard and freshens the air; trees are also grown in many traditional courtyards, adding shade and life to this exclusive area.

- The Lebanese House Throughout the eastern Mediterranean, we find a characteristic and common typology which bears the name of the country where its presence is the strongest: Lebanon. The Lebanese house appeared in the second half of the XIXth century and is linked to both Ottoman modernity and the development of a middle-class in the area. This typology represents a great change in the organization of space in the traditional house: it is the result of the incorporation of new industrial materials as well as of the new urban regulations and development programmes in that period.