Earthen Domes and Habitats. Villages of Northern Syria

The main results of the ‘Coupoles Et Habitats, Une tradition constructive entre Orient et Occident. (Contract n.2007-1134/001-001 CTU COHANT), a Culture 2000 project funded by EACEA of European Commission, are: - to document the unique historical landscape of earthen dome villages in northern Syria that has continued to express the complex relationship between the environment, people and architecture over thousands of years; - to examine the common roots between East and West demonstrated by the astonishing diffusion of corbelled architectural and building culture all over Europe and the Mediterranean; - to experiment and test an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis and valorisation of knowledge systems that we call Vernacular Architectural Heritage. The Vernacular Architectural Heritage is important for our own future because such architectures are characterized by: - a high level of technical variability and integration in geographical and cultural environments together with their traditionally ecological and effective energy performances, which is of the utmost relevance; - consistent levels of "tacit" and local knowledge, of technical and procedural competence and of information on local materials, resources and practices; - criticism, however, related to the durability (in the chemical and physical sense), to mechanical weakness and seismic vulnerability. Syrian earthen corbelled dome architecture expresses these characteristics at the highest level: the project offers to Syrian and international communities an analysis of its constructional system, based on a deep knowledge of local building culture, on local technical heritage and on experimental research into the physical, energy-related and structural behaviour of ‘earth’, stones, and ‘poor’ wood as building materials. The final goal of the project is, therefore, to increase the perception and consciousness of the value of this local earthen architectural heritage in an effort directed towards the sustainable development of the Mediterranean. Saverio Mecca, project coordinator