The impact of additions and modern changes on historical buildings in the city of Hebron-Palestine

Abstract

عنوان البحث باللغة الإنجليزية: The impact of additions and modern changes on historical buildings in the city of Hebron-Palestine

ملخص البحث باللغة الإنجليزية: The Historical Buildings (HBs) are considered as a reflection of the community’s identity in general and the Palestinian one in particular, which in its turn formulates models of the community’s cultural heritage that has been passed down by generations for centuries. In the context of current Palestinian circumstances, we have to ensure the transmission of this identity over generations without losing its values. To do so, the HBs should be inhabited by the Palestinians, and such HBs might be subjected to many interventions and additions to meet the local residents’ contemporary needs for additional space and facilities. As a result of occupying HBs with all expansions implemented in an arbitrary manner without giving attention to the value of HBs and their surroundings, we will end up with the loss of this architectural heritage. In the absence of awareness of the negative impact of additions and visual distortions on HBs, the sense of harmony in the Historical Old Towns (HOTs) in Palestine has gradually been lost. The HOT in Hebron is the most obvious example where (HBs) are exposed to that problem due to the urban expansion of the city during the last two decades, and thus, I chose Hebron HOT as a case study for my paper. The current paper started with a brief introduction regarding the historical and urban development of Hebron HOT. A general review was made as well, identifying the problems of the HBs in Hebron, most prominent of which is additions and visual distortions. Moreover, reasons for such additions were specified and classified according to locations and designs’ style applying (as built) maps. During this study, a paper is conducting to identify the recent additions and their visual distortion on HBs and the treatment methods aiming at the reduction of negative impacts on historical environment, based on international conventions as well as local legislations. The paper provide the analysis for two facades of the einsara Street which is considered as a transitional area (sort of a Buffer zone) between the historic fabric and new urban expansion of the city, noting that it contains a number of HBs that have been subjected to additions and visual distortion of different shapes which was noted on panoramic photos and elevation drawings. The paper proposed a group of solutions with drawings to avoid visual distortion in Hebron HBs.

الكلمات الدالة انجليزى:traditional buildings ,old city, Visual distortions