The Revival of Mashrabiya in Contemporary Architecture
Architecture passed through many notable changes since the beginning of the twentieth century; the industrial revolution and the globalization movement have played a key role in shifting away from the important elements in traditional architecture, like Mashrabiya.
Some of these changes were helpful and others were unfavorable, in particular with regard to globalization, which damaged the cultural identity of peoples, along with the industrial revolution and the trend for the use of materials and structural systems which were not considered eco-friendly.
In recent decades these issues have forced a lot of architects to find alternative solutions to keep pace with modernity and yet benefit from the cultural heritage. Thus Mashrabiya became one of the leading environmental traditional and architectural elements that have been revived. This has meant a re-focusing on the study of its concept and functions to employ it through the most effective images, and thus adopting it in contemporary projects, by using a high-tech interpretation of the original model, or through a contemporary expression of the original model.
Factors of Mashrabiya revival
There are three main factors that have led to the re-use of Mashrabiya in the field of architecture, which is widespread, but especially found in Arab Gulf countries which have a hot, harsh climate (Figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1: Factors influencing the Mashrabiya revival (Alothman, 2016)
The disadvantage of the alternative solution
As mentioned in the first chapter, air conditioners were alternative solutions to the Mashrabiya at the beginning of the industrial revolution and the spread of the globalization movement. But the idea, unfortunately, has failed in some way, due to the fact that air conditioners require a lot of energy and have expensive running costs, compared to Mashrabiya, that have proven highly effective for many years in several fields. They were not limited to the task of cooling alone, but also controlling the light, humidity, airflow, visual privacy, along with aesthetic and social properties, which mechanically driven cooling cannot provide.
In many of these [hot climate] countries, air-conditioning accounts for more than 70% of the national electrical power consumption. However, less than a century ago, the inhabitants of these countries lived in buildings that incorporated only natural-cooling (i.e. far cheaper) techniques for achieving thermal comfort (Batty et al. 1991).
“When the modern architect replaced these decorative elements with air-conditioning equipment, he created a large vacuum in his culture. He has become like a football player playing football with a cannon. If the purpose of the game is scoring goals, then assuredly he can score a goal with every shot. But the game itself will disappear, and so will any diversion for the spectators, except perhaps in the killing of the goalkeeper.”
Hassan Fathy theories
Thanks to the revered architect Hassan Fathy (Figure 5.2), a resurgence of interest in Mashrabiya has taken place. He did a great deal of research on the origins of traditional architecture and he extracted many important lessons and ideas, which he benefited from later in his architectural applications. Fathy worked on reviving the heritage values and concepts at the level of the foundations, not only as modal vocabularies, but he included in his methodological philosophy the study of history and the advantages of the old tradition in its ability to adapt these principles and experiences intergenerationally, while not losing sight of the present and its requirements, and thus his methodology is logical, acceptable and valid.
He also praised the necessity of dealing with the appropriate technology in order to maintain development, and the need avoid neglecting social factors, as well as the importance of the role of heritage, and the need to re-dedicate the national and local identity through architecture.
Many of his writings reflect his own philosophy towards heritage, the contemporary Arabic architecture and modernity in general, which can be summarized in a set of main points:
To Fathy, heritage means all inherited experiences and a group of "decisions" that have been taken to solve specific problems in a certain period of history, then those decisions were developed and adapted to serve a community purpose, and the community accepted them unanimously, in stages. Thus they became a relatively constant part of the heritage.
In Fathy’s vision of modernity, he believed that modernity does not necessarily mean vitality, and that change is not always for the better. Modernity versus heritage as seen by Fathy is to “co-exist at the same time with the other". This concept is in line with the theses of many thinkers in the philosophy of tradition and modernity. It means that modernity does not necessarily include a conscious choice and the exclusion of traditional solutions does not always create evolution (Alsayied, 2010).
Fathy considered that there is considerable confusion and misuse of the idea of modernity based on chronology; Western architecture subscribed to modernity because it was the most recent in time, compared to Arab architecture to which is attributed the idea of failure, due to its ancient history and originality.
With the appearance of the sustainable architecture trend, Fathy gave a strong foundation for the return of traditional architectural elements, especially the Mashrabiya. He deemed that traditional architecture is closer to the natural environment rather than the global architecture that swept through the Arab world. The traditional one, in his view, respects and observes the natural environment and all spatial, temporal and social circumstances; it also reflects the requirements and needs of the cultural and civilizational reality.
In his book (Natural Energies and Environmental Architecture,1986) he shows many of the experiments that he conducted using the traditional vocabularies in the Arab house, like the Mashrabiya; from a scientific basis he studied wind speed and temperature in different parts of Arab houses as examples. He worked hard in his research to include the extent of the complexity of the thermal problems and capabilities of thermal insulation which were achieved in the simplest traditional houses. These buildings efficiently took into account the harsh climatic nature and at the same time preserved the cultural values of local communities and reduced the adverse effect on the environment.
Figure 5.2: The Architect Hassan Fathy (Alsayied, 2010)
Mashrabiya as a powerful environmental element
There is multiple, duplicated research concerning the green roof, that makes it seem that it is the only environmental element in current sustainable architecture, while in fact, the Mashrabiya can also play an important part in this field.
This fallacy is partly due to the fact that the studies regarding Mashrabiya were mostly historical and regurgitated theory, scattered and not focused, instead of being practical and more related to direct implementation.
Modern Mashrabiya, the magic of the East and the dynamism of the West, will become an architectural element that is capable of becoming a new feature in sustainable architecture.
The economic and the socio-cultural variables in the Arab region within the recent years, and the ideological and cultural openness to the Western world, has led to sustainability becoming an unavoidable trend in Arab countries.
This trend has taken different modes of expression, which were known as sub trends: modern technology, the neo-traditional, and the contemporary interpretation trend (Abdelsalam and Rihan, 2012). These trends have had a noticeable effect on the Arab architectural identity.
At this point, it is important to point out that the Mashrabiya is presented through contemporary sustainable designs in three ways:
Firstly; it is offered in its original traditional style, using the traditional shape, materials, and characteristics.
Secondly; its concept is displayed through a high-tech solution, where the main function is achieved by using advanced technological means.
Thirdly; a contemporary interpretation of the traditional model is presented relying on new materials, styles and features, while maintaining its original concept (Abdelsalam and Rihan, 2012).
