The tragic civil war in Afghanistan, since April 1978, has dealt a severe and destructive blow to the physical and social fabric of cities of the country. The regrettable victims in this conflict, however, which were entrapped, are the historic neighbourhoods in the cities, where fierce street-to-street fighting and use of heavy weaponry resulted in the utter destruction of their fine residential fabric and left some of the valuable historic buildings in ruin. Like many important urban and architectural heritage in Islamic cities, Kabul evolved through the agent of continued cultural participation, which entrusted deeper meanings to its architecture and urban form. Historically, Kabul, with its wonderful traditional architecture of courtyards, lavish Timurid (later Mughal) gardens, decorated worship centres and its glowing historic bazaars that enticed trade enterprises and merchants around the region, sustained a vibrant city life for its citizens. With an analysis of historical development and discussion of the importance of architectural and urban heritage of the historic city, this article will illustrate the postwar efforts of local and international aid organizations and their undertaking in the historical conservation process. The article will represent a case study of Murad-Khani, a historical conservation project in the Old City of Kabul, and deliberate its impact on the neighbourhood regeneration process. It will further examine the process of revitalization of architectural and urban heritage in the Old City in light of social and economic regeneration and cultural awareness.

The paper will illustrate the identification of principles that will provide important insights and lessons for those that are involved in the development of future sustainable built environments. Using a case study of vernacular architecture of Nuristan located in the NE region of Afghanistan with unique geographical and cultural significant, this paper will seek to demonstrate the principles of vernacular design and technologies such as the sustainable performance of dwelling and settlements common in this region. The value of compact townscape and land-use economy, self-help and participatory housing approaches, conservation, and others that help protect the natural environment as well as enrich the cultural heritage will be presented.

The reconstruction process of Afghan cities demands a sustainable course of development so that once again they can resurrect their once vital and attractive human-environmental capacities. In this paper effort has been made to present strategies and explore processes whose intent is to point to a rediscovery of the art and science of designing a sustainable course of development. It seeks to synthesize the principles of sustainability into an agenda for the design of towns and cities. These strategies serve as indicators to sustainable development; they should be used to define inherent qualities, carrying capacities and required ecological footprints of a place. Furthermore they are established to allow designers to model, measure and program sustainable standards as well as monitor the regenerative process of cities.

No abstract

This paper identifies principles that will provide important insights and lessons for those who are involved in the development of future sustainable built environments. Two case studies chosen with particular geographical and cultural contexts, one located in the northeastern mountain valleys of afghanistan and the other located in the central-arid region of Iran, have been used. This paper will demonstrate principles of vernacular architecture as characterized by sustainable affinity between nature and human settlement that are prevalent in these regions. The value of compact townscape, self-help and participatory building approaches, conservation, the use of natural energy systems, and other strategies that will help preserve the ecological integrity of place and at the same time enrich its cultural heritage will be presented.