Cultural Sustainability between Traditional and Contemporary Omani Residences – A Comparative Case Study

Abstract

In the twentieth century, majority of the countries were tempted to adopt up-to-date building designs.  The fashionable designs neglected the context of its environment, cultural values, social performance and even economic perspective and sustainability. The year 1970 represented the starting point of shifting Sultanate of Oman from being a closed, listless society to a modern state.  The aim to build a modern society did not compel this historic country to neglect its heritage or cultural principles. The main hypothesis of this research is that Oman has wonderful experience in cultural sustainability between traditional and contemporary residences. This research aims to derive lessons and principles from such  successful models of Oman. This work is dependent on a theoretical foundation of previous related references, analysis, interpretation and a comparative case study.  Some tools used were interviews, analytical site visits and questionnaire. The research succeeded in revealing the procedure used by Oman to keep the identity and continuity of its buildings. The wonderful response of both traditional and contemporary Omani residence to the surrounding, cultural aspects, and human needs is shown. This research provides a current example to researchers, students, designers and decision makers of a humanely oriented house design.

 

Keywords: Traditional Omani  architecture; Contemporary Omani residences, , cultural sustainability, House Moqham, Bait el Dalalil