User:Xinrutan/Architecture of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia and the Housing Infrastructure
Saudi Arabia has been trying to evolve for the past three decades to be a modern city while keeping the traditional life of the country. This huge development has been broken in different phases and the first phase of all consisted of seven sites which provided  3,580 dwellings. Somewhere in the range of thirty years prior, a huge extent of the populace in Saudi Arabia lived in adobe settlements. With the expansion in public pay which came about because of the increment in oil costs during the 1970s and the accessibility of simple without interest house credits, many individuals deserted their adobe houses and moved to new supported substantial houses in new areas or in new settlements a couple of miles from the old ones. As a catalyst to this issue, there are a lot of abandon adobe homes across the region. Nevertheless, citizens want to get back to that lifestyle because is such an important part of their culture and they want to preserve it. For a very long the time the country itself wanted to move to a more contemporary architecture, but the citizens fought to keep the legacy of the culture which is adobe architecture.

Subsequently, many feeble structures stay in the focal point of towns and urban areas and in completely deserted settlements. Back in the 1980s Saudi Arabia undertook in the development of its first national park. The park has a span of 1,125,000 in area and has an impressive change in elevation from the Red Sea to over 10,000 ft. within a path of 100 to 150 miles long. The most impressive part about this park is that the history that the park embraces can be seen within each step one takes in exploring this enormous relic of history.

Saudi Arabia and Vernacular Modernism
Vernacular architecture is an important manifestation of sustainable construction: the building has the smallest impact on the surrounding environment during its life cycle and has high thermal efficiency; chooses materials that have a low environmental impact or recycles; the building is not for one-time use, and the venue is durable and flexible.

Traditional buildings in the Arab region mostly use adobe and sun-dried mud bricks. Whether it is a country house or a noble mansion, soil is the most important material. This tradition can be traced back to pre-Islamic times in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The use of mud may be due to the scarcity of local stones. Traditionally, mud, straw, palm tree trunks are used for the roof, and stones are used for the foundation.Especially in Najd, a city in the middle of Saudi Arabia is located in the desert zone and is one of the driest areas in the world. The buildings here can be called extreme buildings, used to fight the harsh desert environment; because of this, the traditional houses of Najd have excellent heat resistance (the thermal inertia of well-made mud bricks is 4 times that of hollow concrete bricks); The traditional houses of Najd also have extremely high economic value, which is embodied in the multi-function of the indoor space, where the space is used according to the season; due to the unique construction method of adobe houses, a unique social unity is also produced.

Until the late 1940s, most buildings were handcrafted by builders and artisans (often referred to as master builders) that followed Islamic law and tradition. These buildings were highly aesthetic and were an accurate representation of Islamic beliefs. The master builders often practiced advanced design styles while respecting the values enshrined in Islamic tradition. However, such practices were soon seen as wasteful of human labor. Like any other region, Saudi Arabia did not practice architecture at its core, so it quickly adapted to the directive of modern architecture.

The first official architecture school in Saudi Arabia at King Saud University in 1968 also began practicing and teaching modern architecture. The education system was least focused on philosophical references hence building a non-correlated foundation with the existing culture. Using foreign construction materials and techniques quickly gained criticism from local architectural critiques and designers.

Through the intuitive knowledge of local artisans and heavy criticism, the Saudi Arabian educational system was redesigned to adopt a more vernacular design style while focusing on traditional building materials and ornamentation. The design decisions of most vernacular architecture in Saudi Arabia are guided by the laws and conventions prescribed by the Fiqh. The Fiqh is the Islamic code of jurisprudence based on the Quran and the Sunnah (the sayings and deeds of Prophet Mohammed). It contains, among other things, building codes and regulations and sections on rights of way, neighbors' rights, and rights of privacy (for example, the separation of males and females) (Abu-Ghazzeh,1994). The texts provide elaborate descriptions of symbolic and authentic manifestations of the culture. The urban pattern and the morphology of the local architecture are highly salient, indicating the incremental evolution over a long time. This resulted in a more cohesive design strategy where the building would be resilient to constant climate changes while also displaying a balanced form, material use, and architectural typology.

Modernization as a common perception of design is highly prevalent in urban areas, while vernacular architecture is more prevalent in rural areas that use indigenous resources to design and construct buildings. Modern design ideas are usually brought in by alien architects who bring in foreign materials and construction techniques. These designs are not native to the region hence end up being a foreign body within the urban landscape. Modern architecture and its beliefs are rooted in the rejection of ornamentation and design, which contrasts with Saudi Arabia's local architecture. Vernacular Modernism was adopted to combine the most emerging architectural style of the time while staying true to the Saudi Arabian roots. The vernacular modernism architecture style is the architecture that challenges the common perception of modern architecture as an internationalism that employs local traditions and transforms them to cope with the contemporary building materials, techniques, and services, and most significantly with the use of space (Umbach, M. 2005). The combination of vernacularism and Modernism brought about a more recent notion of architecture that is besides attaining to people's inherited socio-cultural and environmental values, it as well deploys modern building materials, techniques, and services, and the use of space is as well necessarily copes with the contemporary life demands.

Saudi Arabia skyscrapers in Feminist Theory
Saudi society is still one of the most traditional, even though it is known to be one of the modern countries in the world. The common status of women in Saudi Arabian society is a comprehensive issue and is often misunderstood because of the strict government rules and religious beliefs. In countries like Saudi Arabia where men have such a great influence in daily life, traditions, laws, and customs will be dominated by men, and architecture will naturally reflect signs and symbols that portray male dominance.

The Al Faisaliyah Center was the first skyscraper built in Saudi Arabia and is now ranks second, among the tallest architectures in Saudi Arabia. The Al Mamlakah is also known as the Kingdom Centre, is the tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia. The two buildings have two aspects of architecture that can be related to women in the past and present in Saudi Arabia's history; size and shape. The architectural symbols of these two buildings can also be related to women. Both buildings were designed by Western architects, symbolizing the fusion of Western and Middle Eastern roots of the status and role of women in history.

The Al Faisaliyah is smaller in size, made of iron, and is symmetrical. Al Faisaliyah's structure reflects the petite, restrained, protected, and sexual desires of women's past.

The Al Mamlakah is larger and more modern. The structure of the building is smooth, reflecting sunlight during the day and flashing lights at night. Al Mamlakah has a V-shaped depression on the top which looks like a woman in a beautiful dress, emphasizing the breasts. The building reflects a futuristic and liberating woman who is aware of her body and proudly displays her sexy.

Architectural Education
Architectural Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is based on architectural programs of universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Architectural programs of universities established in the 1970s and up to early 1980s in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are very different in terms of length of study, distribution of courses, administration, nationality of faculty, and other factors, they are nevertheless very similar in content.

King Saud University

The Department of Architecture was estab­lished in 1967 within the College of Engi­neering which was supervised by UNESCO from its foundation until it joined King Saud University in 1969 In 1975, the Department shifted to the semester system with a requirement of 211 credit hours for gradua­tion, which was reduced later to 197 credits and even further reduced to 175 credits. From this total, 24 credits are devoted to general university requirements such as Islam­ic culture, Arabic and English language courses, while 27 credits are devoted to Col­lege distributional requirements such as mathematics and physics for architects, engi­neering economics, computer programming, and project management. Courses taught by the Department of Architecture take 124 credit hours, of which 53 per cent are design studios ( 66 credit hours) while courses on history and theory add up to ninety per cent (10 credit hours), planning 7 per cent (9 cre­dit hours) and environmental control sub­jects 4 8 per cent. The rest are courses pri­marily serving other disciplines such as civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, and elective courses.

During the current academic year (1985-86), the Department has been proposing some changes in the curriculum, including doubl­ing the courses on environmental control from 6 to 12 credits. It can be said that as a general pattern that has emerged over time the school is decreasing the number of re­quired credit hours and increasing the empha­sis on technical subjects, while history and theory courses account for 57 percent of the overall load.

King Faisal University

The School of Architecture and Planning in Dammam was established in 1975 It is the largest school in the Kingdom, with 71 facul­ty members and 514 students in 1984. In 1985, the school graduated 92 architects, the largest group in the Kingdom to have gradu­ated in any one year 2 In fall of 1986, the School offered 96 different courses. The curriculum was primarily developed by the first dean, Ahmed Farid Mustapha, who had been the head of the Department of Archi­tecture at King Saud University. The first curriculum resembles to some extent the curriculum that King Saud University had at that time, but with more design emphasis A total of 189 credits were required to gradu­ate, of which 151 credits were offered by the Department of Architecture. Each student had to pass 10 design studios accounting for 50 credits, with 12 contact hours per week.

University of Petroleum and Minerals

The School of Environmental Design was established during the 1980-1981 academic year by the College of Engineering and Sci­ences within this technical university. The school offers three degrees: Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Architectural Engineering, and Bachelor of City Planning. The School's philosophy is stated in the manual: "In harmony with the nature of U.P M as a technological university, and in consideration of the present and future needs of Saudi Arabia in the environmental design professions, all the College programs introduce basic science courses and are heavily oriented towards the teaching of physical design principles and the appli­cation of advanced technology. "

Out of the 144 credits needed for gradua­tion, in the Department of Architectural Engineering, only 2 credits are for the history and theory of design, while 6 credits are devoted to two design studios and one course to socio-cultural issues As for the Architecture Department, the major prob­lem was that of fitting a professional program into four years, since the first year is reserved to the University-required courses. This has resulted in offering design studios during the summer and has affected the course load distribution. For example, history and theory courses account for only 6 per cent of the total required courses.

King Abdul Aziz University

The School of Environmental Design accepted students in the fall of 1976 It offers three degrees, Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Bachelor of City Planning. The curriculum has been primarily developed by Harvard University It is a six-year program of 180 credits in which students will spend three years in the general program (84 credits) which covers the basic courses for the three departments. This program, in which most courses are non-technical but rather artistic, historical, and theoretical, diamet­rically opposite to that of the University of Petroleum and Minerals.

Umm AI-Qura University

The School of al-'Imara al-Islamiya was established in 1983 within a university that offers primarily programs related to Shari'a and Islamic culture. To summarize the philosophy of the program according to its founder, "the school of al-'lmara fol­lows a methodology of teaching that unifies the whole curriculum into a series of 'profes­sional units' of a semester's length within which independent subjects are integrated with each other and with the studio projects. In each unit, social structure and specific injunctions of Islam pertaining to the shap­ing of the built environment become the reference points that structure that particu­lar unit. Two remedial units lead to six professional units followed with a teaching practice, that replicates a consultant's office in full. The program is concluded with the graduation unit at the end of which ijaza (a certificate of architecture) is given to the graduates."