A spatial analysis of domestic architecture in Khartoum : transitional praxis of colonial to post-colonial private houses

Abstract EN

The intricate changes on domestic social patterns around the time of independence (1956) in Khartoum represent the focus of this paper, which aims at providing space syntax-based viewpoint of the transition.

The built representation of the political change, which had towed economic, cultural and social transformation, has not been well investigated in Khartoum.

The domestic architecture is envisaged here to reflect the change from a liberal and secular British lifestyle to a conservative and religious one, characterized by the natives.

The study hence, explores twenty representative samples from the two periods in order to reveal the hidden nature of these patterns, employing the Space Syntax method of analysis; particularly the convex mapping.

This analysis seeks to both decipher space transition and identify patterns.

In order to interpret the social meaning of these configurations and to factor out the historical context of the transition, several interviews were conducted.

The analytical comparisons revealed that these socio-cultural changes had subtle effects on the transformations experienced in the use and organization of spaces.

The change shows that the emerging dominance of privacy in relation with exterior has started to diminish, and some interior spaces were redefined.

These privacy-centered patterns, in many post-colonial cases as well, have pushed the core of integration deeper in the access ‘graph’.