The Cohesive Urban Social Fabric Between Local Architectural Identity and Climatic Response

Abstract

Mario Botta once said: «Architecture is the constant fight between man and nature, the fight to overwhelm nature, to possess it. The first act of architecture is to put a stone on the ground. That act transforms a condition of nature into a condition of culture; it’s a holy act». Through history, we see this interaction between us, nature and culture, this complicated relation shapes our life into social urban fabrics and architecture. Therefore, Architectural heritage is the most witness and expressive art and science to human being’s history book. Since our environments are different, the logical consequence of urban fabrics also would be different in point of view the compactness, units’ form, materials, urban layout and streets. For example, the Saharan urban fabrics seems to be more compact with narrow streets and patio-built units, this urban fabric are also a result of social order needs, the hierarchy of streets from public to private shows the intimacy relation between local habitants and visitors, public spaces for social gathering like plazas assure the mix use of spaces, the preservation of landscape of local environment to integrate the design with nature and to demonstrate agriculture spaces in that fabrics. Therefore, to clarify this crossed complex fabrics we should find the harmonic serrated wheels which touch this elements or criteria. The architectural community has had a strong and continuing interest in traditional and vernacular architecture. This has been rekindled by the need to develop an architecture that works with climate, rather than against it, to create more sustainable buildings. Earlier research and existing publications on traditional or vernacular architecture have followed an anthropological or archaeological approach, whereas books on climatic design and sustainable architecture tend to refer to contemporary principles and built precedents without direct reference to past experience.