Abstract
Abstract. Syria has been struggling through a continuous conflict for more than nine years so far. This conflict has had a disastrous consequence, for not only Syria urban areas but also its world heritage and historical sites. Moreover, the ongoing conflict resulted in the displacement of over 13 million people that is more than half the population; including more than 6.1 million internally displaced. This long-term encampment is a growing aspect of a growing refugee crisis. The Syrian refugees have to face another crisis in the camps due to a significant shortage of resources and support. One solution was using earthen buildings that have been a traditional architectural style in Syria for 11 thousand years. As a part of the cultural heritage, it depends on community participation and achieves environmental and economic efficiency in addition to preserving memory and identity of the place. This paper discusses the creation of sustainable shelters through the revival of heritage vernacular earthen architecture in northern Syria. A comparative analysis was conducted between the humanitarian agencies shelters (HAS) and different historical vernacular dwellings (HDS) from the same region with an arid steppe climate (hot summer and a short cold winter); they were modelled in numerical thermal simulations framework as a means to assess the shelters’ building energy demand and indoor comfort quality. The comparison resulted in the superiority of the heritage dwelling. The paper is concluded with passive approach optimization to the different historical earthen domes with consideration of the historical characteristics and background.
Highlights
Syria is the scene of the most massive humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time, a continuing cause of suffering for millions, which is garnering a groundswell of support around the world (UNCHR, 2020a)
Caravans constituted 8%, (Northern Syria CampsDynamo Report, 2019) which are equipped with screed flooring with the walls and roofs made of 40 mm polyurethane insulated sandwich panel with inner and outer surfaces of 0.35mm steel sheet (Albadra et al, 2017)
Earthen domes habitats in northern Syria are traditional architecture shared by east and west The earthen dome villages, which were founded by nomadic people to follow the flock grazing, are located in the north, northeast, and the south of Aleppo’s region (Rovero and Tonietti, 2012)
Summary
Syria is the scene of the most massive humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time, a continuing cause of suffering for millions, which is garnering a groundswell of support around the world (UNCHR, 2020a). The pace of internal displacement in Syria remains relentless; over 1.8 million people were displaced in 2017 only (UNHCR, 2020). It is not a short-term displacement; some of the IDPs have been living in conditions of internal displacement for eight years at the end of 2019 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2019). In 2019, over 500.000 displacements took place in northern Syria. Within this number, some people have been displaced multiple times.
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