Salma Samar Damluji: Realising past values in architecture [Archives:2000/47/Reportage]

Karen Dabrowska
They are going to see it their way – eventually, insists Salma Samar Damluji. The Iraqi-born architect who now lives in London and frequently works in Arabia, is convinced that her mission in life is to ensure the continuity of the architectural values of the past, especially in Arabia. In recent years her attention has been focused on Yemen, Oman and the UAE.
The condition of the present is impoverished on a cultural level only because the language of architecture has been ignored. We have to use that language again.
Damluji insists that traditional architecture is not an architecture of the past. It is wrong to think of it as something historic. It is a form of work which is alive and related to the social and economic quality of life. If it has been dropped it has to be picked up again and rehabilitated. This has nothing to do with restoring the past or reinventing the past.
Arabian Sites is an institute without wall, bureaucracies or directors. People familiar with the architecture of a region, the master builders, will direct each project. The first priority is the urban and architectural rehabilitation of towns and villages in Yemen and Arabia.
With reference to Yemen, Damluji explained that if you provide water and sewage systems you are precipitating the maintenance of buildings, especially mud brick buildings and preventing the collapse of these structures due to the introduction of water.
Damlujis association with Yemen dates back to 1982 when she was working for the UN Economic Commission for Western Asia and proposed the setting up of a Centre of Yemeni Architecture to safeguard the architectural wealth of the country. But Yemens Kafaquese bureaucrac and the intrigues of ambitious individuals who tried to enhance their reputation at the expense of the project proved detrimental to the venture, which may still be revived under the auspices of Hadramaut University.
I was documenting the architecture but only with a view to doing something about enhancing and promoting its consolidation into new urban schemes, Damluji emphasized. Her major preoccupation has always been the mud brick buildings of the south, especially Hadramaut.
She had a dream, the establishment of a Centre for Yemeni Architecture, which is both a recognized world heritage and a thriving practice. In a detailed proposal for the project, Damluji pointed out that this heritage and its practice in the south is best exemplified in the governorates of Lahij, Shabwah, and Hadramaut. While the architecture of Yafi in Lahij has developed sophisticated technique in building with stone up to seven stories in height, that of Hadramaut has excelled in mud brick construction to eight stories with similar admirable style. The attractive qualities of this architecture are rendered by the creative designs and techniques of building mastered by local builders since pre-Islamic times.
But the architectural practice in Hadramaut and Yafi is being seriously influenced by external design techniques and imported materials. The survival of the traditional art of building is threatened by the extinction of the old builders and craftsmen as well as by the neglect and disrepair of hundreds of important public and private architectural edifices.
A Centre of Temeni Architecture seemed like the ideal solution. It would undertake the rehabilitation of buildings in the governorate of Hadramaut, train master builders in traditional building techniques and expand the range of existing local materials to include baked bricks, glazed bricks, ceramic tiles and ash.
But the establishment of a Centre for Yemeni Architecture is not the only project on the horizon. Damluji is also fascinated by developments in Oman and the UAE. The Omanis have totally forsaken their traditional towns and villages while the princes of the UAE are trying to rebuild sections of a traditional quarter in Dubai, Sharjah and other cities.
I visited Oman in 1993 and, after working in Yemen, I was very disappointed, Damluji recalls. All the old villages were deserted and the vernacular architecture had turned into dilaputated remains more akin to an archaeological site than architecture. The spirit of the spaces has departed.
She returned in 1995 when the Sultan Qaboos University expressed an interest in supporting her research on the architecture of the Sultanate of Oman.
I realized that despite all the coffee table books about Oman there were no academic references or documentation of architectural merit. Oman prides itself on having renovated 99 forts but most of the surrounding urban fabric of villages and old quarters of towns and cities have either been removed completely or isolated from the recent urban development. The people have moved into new towns of cement with modern villas. I am trying to direct research and work towards a new awareness on the national and official level regarding the rehabilitation of traditional towns and villages and to encourage investment in these villages rather than leaving them decay.
In her proposal for the establishment of an art & design craft centre at Adm, in Omans interior region, Damlulji points out that until recently a quarter of the population of Oman were engaged in artisanal work.
Omani crafts include metal work (brass and copper utensils), silver and gold jewellery (and khanjar making), weaving (flat weaving & embroidery), pottery (pots, vessels, decorative items & incense burners) palm frond basketry and mat weaving including ceiling panels, leatherwork (bags, purses, water-bottles, pouches), bone carving (camel bone of kohl vessels), woodwork (carving for doors, column capitals, window screens, hand-painted ceiling beams etc), masonry and plsdyrt work, incense, myrrh and perfume production.
But today there appears to be little respect for artisans and the quality of their work has deteriorated. Foreign workers are taking over artisanal work and under-cutting prices. Official support is ineffective and short term and there is no national coordinating body for the arts and crafts.
Damluji recommends the establishment of an arts and design centre at Adm where a rota system would be set up for artisans in selected fields: metal work, jewellery, weaving, pottery, palm basketry etc. Artisans from all parts of the country would work at the centre, teach and learn to adopt their skills to contemporary market needs in terms of packaging and presentation.
In addition to her architectural rehabilitation projects, Salma Damluji is also a prolific writer and author of six books. Her book on Oman, published in 1988, has a forward by the Prince of Wales, She has also published books about the Holy Mosques in Madinah and Makkah completed in 1994 and Zillij, the Art of Moroccan Ceramics (1993).
She is currently working on a major publication about the UAE, which is presenting architects with the challenge of rebuilding old quarters of cities.
In the introduction to The Architecture of the United Arab Emirates, Damluji notes that the cities of the UAE present a unique and specific case for urban development in terms of the concept, development planning and architectural design.
The two most important quarters, as far as the architectural heritage of Dubai concerned, were concentrated in the housing of Al Bastakiyyah and al Shandaghah quarters. The architecture of the Shandaghah quarter was totally removed four or five years ago. The Bastakiyyah quarter, currently containing the largest number of traditional buildings in one area, including the renovated Palace of the Ruler, is now subject to a renovation and architectural rehabilitation scheme to include 50 houses. A committee for the preservation of the architectural heritage formed in 1995 is affiliated to the Heritage Department of Dubai Municipality.
The question of Dubais conservation, especially concerning the area of Al Shandaghah, once described as having been the heart of the old city, remains a complex issue. It was intended that the demolished quarters buildings constructed on the site point to a short-term commercial prospect rather than a long-term plan. The quarter reconstruction of the traditional residential fabric remains an enigma.
Damluji believes that through Arabian Sites she is in a position to bring the importance of traditional architectural wealth to the attention of international organizations who can assist local communities. A lot of money is being invested in ventures which do not have a long term affect on the environment or the younger generation. I want the local people from a country – the master builders and experts – to be involved in projects in that country and act as project co-ordinators. Arabian Sites could act as a catalyst for architectural rehabilitation.
Damluji pays tribute to the famous Egyptian architect Hasan Fathy with whom she worked in Cairo during the 1970s and mid 80s. He pioneered the idea of returning to mud brick and stone architecture. She recalled his life-long quest for establishing an Institute for Mud Brick Architecture.
On her coffee table in a London flat, a remarkable synthesis of the most sophisticated computer design technology and Islamic and modern artifacts and modern Arab art work, lies an article about Fathys life. One sentence from the Egyptian master summarizes Damlujis life and work: Straight is the line of duty and curved is the path of beauty.

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