Conceptualise Strategy and Guidelines for the Preservation of Housing in Old Aleppo City Based on Renewable Energies
Promotors: Uta Pottgiesser
The cultural urban heritage in the Middle East deteriorated dramatically by wars and waves of terrorism, while at the same time, projects of urban modernization frame threats to it. The architectural heritage of Aleppo City that is protected by UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as part of this critical issues, will be the subject of this PhD research. The PhD will focus on courtyard houses in the residential quarters of Old Aleppo City taking into account that any physical modification to its typologies requires review and approval by the official bodies, In this context - when designing an intervention aimed to improve the energy performance of the post-civil-war courtyard housing - the methodological tools for this intervention must consider a number of factors the historical features that must be preserved, the type of energy that will be used and the modernization and comfort requirement for inhabitant. The main research question of this PhD thesis is how the energy efficiency measures can be improved in order to update the damaged courtyard houses to modern living standards, while conserving their heritage values. The aim of this PhD thesis is to identify appropriate strategies for reducing energy requirements through passive design and incorporating renewable energies, trying to achieve an optimal result by exploiting the very features of the traditional housing and of the surrounding environment. The final objective is, already during the post-civil-war (re)construction phase, to find a mechanism for preservation the traditional housing in order to reinforce the housing function in Old Aleppo City by finding the best way to combine the authentic and the local housing identity with the contemporary functional, energetic and social requirements.