Development of the House Architectural Design in the Gaza Strip

Abstract

The architectural design of house buildings in the Gaza Strip was developed considerably during the last century. It referred to various factors, which all contributed to create distinctive architectural styles of house buildings.This paper identifies three types of houses in the Gaza Strip classified as sandstone, mud and concrete houses, according to their construction materials. They represent three different styles of house buildings that prevailed in the last decades. The paper highlights the impact of the available building materials on the development of the house architectural design in the Gaza strip, which evolved from the primitive mud house to the new high rise concrete buildings. It analytically describes the distinctive architectural elements and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. The study finally suggests some recommendations, most notably the need to preserve the traditional house buildings because of their historic and cultural values and to benefit from their various advantages in creating a local architectural style using modern building materials and techniques.

Climatically and culturally responsive typologies using mathematical permutation

“…For visual privacy, the guest areas or the public areas including the living room are usually near the entrance via corridor or a hall, whereas the other private spaces such as bedrooms are visually shielded away from the entrance. This also explains why in traditional houses in the Middle East the entrance was opened up on a broken/angled Source(s): IJAR-Archnet, 2010 walkway that leads to the other rooms in order to achieve a higher level of visual privacy (Muhaisen, 2016).…”

Courtyard Geometry on Solar Heat Gain in Hot-Dry Region

“…In the last decades, the effect of the courtyard geometry has been prove and studied extensively from different perspectives. Interesting observations have been made regarding this form [9].…”

The Impact of Urbanization Processes on the Change of the Regulations for the Construction of the Historical Quarters of Gaza (Palestine)

“…80, page 9-18 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ARCHITECTURE expansion of the city built up areas, especially after the stop of using such material in buildings in the middle of the last century. In Gaza City there are many traditional houses built of sandstone which still preserve their distinctive architectural design and elements [20]. With the entry of cement material to Gaza in the first half of the 20th century, concrete houses, made mainly of concrete material, spread and became the most common way of construction (Fig.…”

“…5. However, this seems to have resulted in a relatively new architectural style that lacks relation to local architectural features and traditions of the community [20]. Architectural change of buildings: The architectural design of house buildings in the Gaza strip has changed dramatically during the last few decades, moving from the traditional courtyard type to the temporary style of concrete houses.…”