Preservation of Architectural & Urban Heritage of Harar, Ethiopia

Preservation of Urban and

Architectural Heritage of Harar,

Ethiopia

Hisham Mortada, Ph.D., AIADept of Architecture

King Abdul Aziz University

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

CONCEPT OF HERITAGE

Heritage is the memory of

nation, including its events,

which have been

historically affected by

economic, social, cultural,

spatial, and constructional

conditions that form the

cultural elements of the

man and civilization

including changes. It

reflects human

CONCEPT OF HERITAGE

Heritage could be divided into two

types:

Immaterial heritage: It is

everything that is linked to community

intellectual, spiritual and social life,

and has no material base. Examples

of this heritage are poetry, singing,

music, dialects, names and terms of

significance, and other codes of

identity.

Material heritage: It is everything

linked to community life and has

details such as historical monuments,

CONCEPT OF HERITAGE

PRESERVATION

•The concept of preserving and

restoring heritage element is

determined by the acts of

protecting it as artistic works and

historic witnesses.

•Its maintenance must be

subject to the principles and

standards set up by the

UNESCO, either repair or

employment within the

surrounded urban fabric.

PRESERVATION OF HERITAGE

SITES

•Aim: To develop and protect the heritage areas, and

working working on their survival and confirmation of their

character with the social and cultural personality of the

community.

•Methodologies:

•Rehabilitation

•Restoration

•Conservation

•Re-utilization

•Re-construction

•Maintenance

HARAR: GEOGRAPHY

HARAR: HISTORY

•One of the largest

historical cities in Africa,

dating back to the 10th

century AD.

•The oldest Islamic city in

Africa, and considered as

the fourth holiest city in

Islam, based on the fact of

King Negus of Abyssinia

welcomed and protected

the followers of Prophet

Mohamed during their

migration to Abyssinia.

HARAR: URBAN FEATURES

•The way the city planned

and developed, and the styles

of its mosques, shrines and

traditional dwellings indicate

Harar’s special traditional

Islamic heritage and way of

life, which is still preserved

and practiced.

•Its urban pattern and

architecture reflect the impact

of Islamic culture and African

traditions, which together give

the city a distinct character.

•UNISCO has enlisted Harar

as a world heritage site.

•Jugol, the heart of Harar, is a cultural product that

reflects people’s affirmation to their religious identity.

•The International Council of Monuments and Sites

(ICOMOS) has reported several changes that threaten the

architectural character of Harar.


Jugol, organic urban

form

Harar City


City wall and gates


Narrow zigzagged allies and limited open spaces


Commercial activities at major and minor streets and gates


Italian Market

Mosques are the historical heart

of Harar. Out of the 99 mosques,

82 are inside Jugol.

HARAR: ARCHITECTURAL

FEATURES

a. Traditional Mosque: It consists

of two prayer spaces and a yard

divided into two parts, one is a

transition zone at the entrance to

the mosque, and the other is for

prayers when the indoor is

crowded.

•A small garden may exist for the

cultivation of treatment plants.

•Minarets vary in shape.


FEATURES

Mahad Sai Mosque, 18th

century

b. Public Mosque: It is for Friday prayers. Five of them

are inside Jugol, each within a neighborhood. Slightly

different from the traditional as the area of prayer is larger.


FEATURES

c. Small Mosque: It contains one or more tombs, and has

a shrine of one or more of the imams (prayer leaders),

muezzins (prayer callers), or a person believed to be

"Awlia" or saints. The mosque is revived every year in

memory or celebrations.

HARAR: ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

Small mosque: Sayid Abrahim Ahmed Mosque, Harar

Houses

There are 5115 houses within

Jugol, the bulk of the

architectural heritage of Harar.

a. The Traditional House

A rectangle containing three

rooms on the ground floor and

a room upstairs in addition to

the services area (bathrooms

and kitchen) that are open

toward the patio, the living

room of the house.


FEATURES

Mahdi Adous’s house, a

traditional house

b. Indian House

•Indian traders brought this

style in 1887.

•Most of these houses were

built in the highest areas of

Harar, dominating the city

skyline. Currently, there are

about 12 houses of this

type.

•A house of this type

consists of a simple rectangle

of two floors characterized by

a covered wooden porch in

the first floor facing the

courtyard or street.


FEATURES

Rimbaud house, early twentieth century


FEATURES

Ras Tafari’s house, an example of Indian house


FEATURES

Ras Tafari’s house

c. Mixed House

•It is the popular type.

•It combines traditional housing with later

additions of the Indian style on the first or

second floor.

•Access to the added rooms is through a

wooden corridor opens to the courtyard or street.

•The upper floor has the same pattern of

distribution of rooms that are accessed via an

external wooden corridor through a wooden

ladder.

•The mixed house does not have the same

degree of architectural quality of the original

house.


FEATURES


FEATURES

Khadija Ahmed’s house, an example of

mixed house type

CONSERVATION OF JUGOL

HERITAGECurrent

statusPopulation

Soci

al

Econom

ic

Environment

al

Rapid growth, high population density (700 inhabitant per hectare), lack of

infrastructure.

Serious refuse problems.

Poor management of solid and waste water.

Polluted rivers. Littered & deteriorated public spaces. Health problems.

Hararis, Oromos and the Ahmarinyas

Neighborhood communities (afochas) - maintains social cohesion.

Insufficient income for upkeep

Critical state of conservation due to lack of financial resources.

Organization

al

Seven elected administrative urban units (kebeles).


HERITAGE

The Urban

Structure

Elliptic form, 1600 by 800 m.

Rampant, five historic gates, and a

recent one.

Inner city had no significant

change.

2 Distinct poles:

Faras Magala

Gidir Magala

The triangle constitutes the city

center.

Physical Properties


HERITAGE

Street

structure:The east-west street:

Is the only straight street

Links Jugol to the west

Allowed automobiles into the center,

Created new activities.

Reinforced Faras Magala square

It is incorrectly believed that it reinforced

city’s bi-polarity.

Physical Properties


HERITAGE

Main streets run from gates toward

the two centers.

A complex network of secondary

streets, alleys, an dead end streets

that form irregular and spontaneous

urban tissue cover the rest of the city.

Approximately one third of the houses

are served by dead end streets,

distancing the houses from main

streets and public realm.

Accessibility is weak, Lack of access

roads.

Street

structure:

Physical Properties


HERITAGE

Neighborhoods

:Jugol is divided into 5 neighborhoods.

Each is subdivided into smaller clusters,

grouped around a mosque.

They have similar morphology.

The gates and main streets are the only

items that distinguish each of the

neighborhoods.

The new market is at the intersection

point of 4 of the neighborhoods,

demonstrating its central role within the

city.

Physical Properties


HERITAGE

A concentration of commercial activities

around the poles and the straight

street.

The south-eastern zone is relatively

deprived of commercial activities.

Gaps in the grid of the secondary

markets.

The center is moving towards west.

the historical markets (markets of the

entries and the market Gidir Magala)

are declining, as two third of the shops

are closing down.

Land Uses, Commercial

Physical Properties


HERITAGE

Challenges:

Isolation:

Jugol location at the eastern most

part of Harar as well as the

surrounding rampant contributed to

it’s isolation.


HERITAGE

Challenges:

Accessibility

Jugol is only connected to the rest of

Harar via one street.


HERITAGE

Challenges:

Poverty

Prosperous residents moved away,.

Poor people moved in.

Together contributed to Jugol’s poverty.


HERITAGE

Challenges:

Decline

Jugol isolation and poor accessibility

discourages investment in the area.

Prosperous residents moved away,

poor people moved in.

The outcome:

Jugol is in danger of declination.


HERITAGE

Existing locations

Land uses:

Administrative


HERITAGE

Suitable

locationsLocations with similar

accessibility values.

Land uses:

Administrative


HERITAGE

Existing locations

Land uses:

Commercial


HERITAGE

Suitable locations for

global commercial

activities.

Land uses:

Commercial


HERITAGE

Suitable locations for local

commercial activities

1580m

Land uses:

Commercial


HERITAGE

Existing educational

facilities (no distinction

between public and

private facilities),

concentrated at the

north-eastern quarter.

Land uses:

Educational


HERITAGE

Suitable locations

Land uses:

Educational


HERITAGELocal scale:


HERITAGELocal Scale - Proposed:


HERITAGELocal Scale - Proposed:


HERITAGE

Menen House


HERITAGE

Ground floor - Existing


HERITAGE

Ground floor - Proposed


HERITAGE

First floor - Existing


HERITAGE

First floor – Proposal (1)


HERITAGE

Thank you for listening!

Design

Preservation of Architectural & Urban Heritage of Harar, Ethiopia