The change of local culture and its effect on the sustainability of the urban form in Palestine

Dissertant

al-Qadi, Shirin

Thesis advisor

Egbaria, Qasim

Comitee Members

Amr, Jamal
Thawaba, Salim

University

Birzeit University

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department

Department of Architectural Engineering

University Country

Palestine (West Bank)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2007

English Abstract

Palestine had gone through political, economical, technological changes in addition to social and cultural transformations through the twentieth century.

The changes on these different levels left their print on the urban form.

This research addresses the effect of the change of the local culture in Palestine on the sustainability of the urban form.

Three criteria of the sustainability of an urban form were adapted in order to measure the change of the sustainability within the Palestinian context, which are: density, mixed-use and open spaces.

A number of cultural elements were also determined in order to evaluate their effect on the sustainability criteria, which are: family, women's role, privacy, traditions and social interaction.

Hebron was taken as a case study, and a comparison between an old and a new neighborhood was made. It was found out that the local culture at the beginning of the century enhanced the criteria of sustainability of density, open spaces and mixed-use.

However, by the end of the century, local culture depresses the sustainability in terms of density and open spaces, but developed the mixed-use.

Main Subjects

Civil Engineering

Topics

• Urban sociology
• Rural areas
• Society
• Towns
• Palestine
• Architecture
• Hebron

No. of Pages

98

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-302623