Conservation of Coral Buildings

The northern Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia is known for its distinct traditional buildings made from coral stones. Oil wealth and changing lifestyles have largely rendered these buildings redundant and many have not been lived in for 30 years. A lack of maintenance and ongoing weathering is causing the buildings to progressively deteriorate and a valuable cultural heritage asset is being lost. Evidence of recent attempts at conservation of these buildings further highlights the loss of knowledge base and skills in traditional building and repair techniques. This paper examines the traditional building techniques of the region in order to start making pragmatic recommendations for how these buildings can be conserved and meaningfully re-used.

Figure 1 A typical Red Sea coastal house in Al Wajh with rendered coral walls laid with horizontal timbers. The cut-stone arches over the doorway on the left would have been left exposed. The top floor is a later addition built with breeze blocks.

Aylin Orbasli

Aylin Orbasli trained as an architect in Turkey and then specialized in conservation. She is Reader in Architectural Regeneration at Oxford Brookes University and also works as a consultant in historic building conservation and management. She has been advising the Supreme Commission for Tourism and the Municipalities of the four historic towns in Saudi Arabia on the conservation of their urban heritage. Her most recent book, Architectural Conservation, is published by Blackwell Publishing (2008).

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Donhead Publishing 2012