The conservation of historic buildings depends on their physical maintenance as much as it depends upon their protection against external threats resulting from economic forces, the political climate, and human interference. Although physical conservation is what keeps the buildings standing, protecting buildings from these external threats can be considered more important because, without such protection, the buildings might not survive for any maintenance to be performed. To achieve the envisaged protection, proper management techniques are required. This article draws management inspirations from the unique and long-enduring tradition of the Islamic waqf, as practiced in the historic Stone Town of Zanzibar, now a World Heritage Site. The structure of waqf management is examined, along with aspects of finance and building maintenance. It was found that the ability of a management system to evolve according to prevailing conditions can be an effective shield against the external threats mentioned here. BACKGROUNDWaqf is an important traditional institution of Islamic society that normally involves the dedication of a donated property, the income from which is committed to serve specific purposes. Once dedicated, the property becomes waqf in perpetuity. Initially, the proceeds of waqf donations were intended to feed the poor and disadvantaged members of society. Later, buildings designated as waqf provided

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Owing to health and security hazards posed by concentration of EMR (electromagnetic radiations) from wireless transmission devices such as antennas and WiFi, it is time for building specialists to consider EMR shielding in general designs. Such a venture needs understanding of shielding behavior of various building materials in their isolated and combined forms. While shielding properties of several industrial materials are known, much remains to be understood from traditional materials. This article contributes to the knowledge of SE (shielding effectiveness) of the latter materials. It has tested the buildings of the 19th CE STZ (Stone Town of Zanzibar). The coral stones, mud, and mangrove pole buildings of this historic town were found to be effective in shielding the radiations, nearly the same as renowned buildings of the Roman Empire.

�����������������������������������Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. It is a city of tenants, a third of which are poor and harshly suffering from housing ills. This study quests for decent shelter for city's poor tenants. Residential land in Dhaka is extremely expensive and short in supply. The proposition of 'Tenement Apartment (TA)' as affordable decent shelter for the poor tenants is assessed in this exploratory study based on 'affordability, cost recovery and replicability' concepts. The study further assessed conventional construction customs and financing mechanisms of informal providers and finds their potential to implement the proposition. Affordability, Cost Recovery, Informal Provider, Replicability, Tenement Apartment ��������������������������������� Keywords: INTRODUCTIONDhaka (Bangladesh) is now the tenth largest urban agglomeration in the world with second fastest rate of population growth and has become one of the mega cities of the world (UN, 2004). Present population size of the city is over 12.6 million and about 35 percent of the city dwellers live in informal settlements and are classified as urban poor. Poor quality of housing and lack of tenure security is the direct indicator of these informal settlements where there have no basic urban amenities. The poors are the direct sufferers due to the housing ills and their thirst for decent shelter is somehow overlooked over time.In Dhaka, residential land for housing is limited due to topographic constraints and extremely expensive. With limited buildable land, high density housing is one of the viable solutions in providing affordable shelter. Tenement houses typically configure with small dwelling units. Usually there are rows of dwelling units where the families occupy limited individual space and share common facilities and services. The concept of tenement houses presents a potential solution to the housing crisis in cities of developing countries and ensures a high-density living at an affordable cost. This study addresses the aptness of TAs to the impoverished city dwellers based on affordability *1 , cost recovery *2 and replicability *3 concepts. To make housing accessible to vast urban poor population, the apportioned cost must be affordable to them without subsidy. As the housing providers possess limited resources, housing programs can only be sustained if aimed at full cost recovery from the beneficiaries.Policies to supply shelter for the urban poor are not adequately addressed and seem to be ill suited to the realities of Dhaka city where nearly all housing is produced by private informal efforts. The conventional informal provider's shelter supply policy is very different from the formal housing providers who often provide shelter for the poor and neglected sector in the housing market. This study attempts to explore the informal providers' latent shelter supply policy and to utilize their energy to meet the growing need for affordable decent shelter by the poor. TAs are still absent in the city's...

This paper exemplifies conservation through external sources in a developing country where internal sources can hardly meet the demands to safeguard their historic heritage. The paper draws attention to conservation activities of external sources in the heritage Stone Town of Zanzibar and unveils their influence on sustaining a built heritage. It was found that, external sources are instrumental to take the heritage to the world stage and play a significant role in revamping it from stagnant conservation. However, practices in the country render the ultimate results of these sources rather detrimental to warrant a sustainable effect. Keywords: finance, built heritage conservation, developing country, sustainability, Zanzibar Stone Town��, ������, �����, �����, ������������� INTRODUCTIONThe Stone Town of Zanzibar (STZ) (Figure 1) is a World Heritage that suffers from serious deterioration due to economic constraints. Building maintenance is entirely left to its poor, financially incapable owners. Either, the government hardly renovates the bulk of its old buildings from the same Hitchcock, 2002:160).Following the rapid loss of heritage buildings synchronized with insufficient funds from internal sources, the government turned to external finances* 1) .Since the introduction of external finance, a single study has been conducted by Marks (1996) to oversee its performance. The study investigated the social and cultural impact of one of these finances (tourism) in the town. Much remains to be known on the overall context of the finances and how they influence conservation of the built environment. This study attempts to situate the ability of various external finances in sustaining conservation. In addition to being informative on their effects, it hopes to contribute to a better understanding on the potentials of external finances to conservation in the developing world. STUDY AIM AND METHODOLOGYThis study aims to unfold the way conservation activities undertaken by external sources of finance (donors, organizations and private enterprises) influence the conservation of STZ heritage, through the following objectives and means:i. Delineate sources of finance involved in rehabilitations. This is to expose the different types and nature of the sources. It is achieved through a chronological account of the history of conservation in the area.ii. Analyze thei�� ������������� ������������ ����� ������ ���� ��������� ������ ������������� ���� �������� ��� �������������� ��� ��� ������������� ��� ���� ying conservation activities by the sources.The study covered the 8 administrative divisions that make up the heritage area. The chronology of conservation activities was assembled from archival records, publications and project reports, back to 1923; the time when conservation was first considered in a town planning study (see Table 1). In order to capture the role, contribution and effects of external sources, a list of their projects was compiled and analyzed from Zanzibar Municipal Council (ZMC) and Stone Town Conservatio...