Vol :37 Issue No.1 2012 - Open House International

Ahmed Abu Al Haija
open house international Vol.37 No.1, March 2012 Alienation Of Traditional Habitats And Shelters In Jordanian Villages
Figure 4. Schematic plan and photo of a typical traditional shelter. Source: Author
are characteristic of Jordanian simple rural life,
where a strong sense of cooperation is dominant,
especially during the grain harvest, its collection
and storage.
Character of Place and Architecture
The public and semi-public spaces were arranged
to reflect the social relationships mentioned before,
and there were few open areas utilized for ceremonial
social events. The urban fabric was articulated
through building typologies that organically reflected
the topography of the land, which was selected
originally for security reasons, climate and availability
of local materials. The open spaces represented
the smallest portion of allotted space inside
the village, which may have been due to security
requirements by creating a thick density of surrounding
buildings without a clear hierarchical pattern.
Narrow and winding pedestrian paths lead to
shelters and patios; different alleys branch off from
the central street to the interior semi-private spaces
forming, in some cases, cul-de-sacs that open to
the doorways of shelters. These paths are determining
forces in forming comprehensibility of the residential
site’s character.
The typologies of the houses, their sizes,
openings, furniture, volumes, and spaces-- authentically
reflect the old use of these shelters, where the
plan is generally composed of a flexible open
space to allow multi-purpose uses: the size of the
shelter varied from less than 10 to around 70
square metres with very few openings, most of
which measure around 40 square centimetres.
These openings are generally located in small rectangular
shapes above the arched doorway or in
other cases, a small hole in the ceiling, which serves
as a chimney. The characteristics of darkness and
small dimensions of the shelters are partly the result
8 6
of the conservative culture of the inhabitants, where
the women are protected and not to be seen in
public. They are also partly the result of the relatively
short daily residence of men inside these shelters,
as they spend most of their time grazing their
flocks far away from the village. Furniture is built
from mud and hay in organic forms, including the
wheat bins attached to the bearing walls, and small
containers of grain, which are called khabieh.
Poverty forced necessary solutions to effect
privacy, considering that in several cases more than
two families divided the same shelter of less than 50
square meters. In these cases, the dwelling was
divided into single zones called mastaba, which
were separated from the others by a carpet hanging
called albjad. Small halls were located in
between the walls that divide these zones, in order
for the neighbouring women to keep in contact with
one another. These poor shelters, which also lacked
interior bathroom facilities, also contained spaces
for some domestic animals located in special
spaces called mithwads (figure 4). Communal
latrines, which all residents of the village used, were
set apart from the multi-purpose rooms. Some
bread ovens (taboun) built of mud were also used
by all residents of the village. (Mayor of Al-
Qadisiyya, personal communication 2010) (see
also McCann, 1997: 117).
Some shelters form a miniature neighbourhood
organized around small courtyards. The typical
typology is formed by rectangular spaces with
arches called gantara (to a maximum of 3 arches)
which support the ceilings that used to be covered
by mud and a waterproof layer composed of a finegrained,
special mud known as samag. Many of
the traditional houses in Jordan are rather typical.
Some differ in the way their ceilings are constructed.
Khammash (1995: 75) uses the ceiling to cat-