Renovation Project

Ghazi Bin Hamed, Razan Faouri, Lara Ridolfo, Sa’ed Hammoudeh, Zaid Salfity, Abdullah Khalifeh

Introduction

Definition of Terms Renovation: Restoring something old, especially a building, to a good state of repair. Whereby the existing structure is not demolished but rather worked upon, and around.

Heritage Site: Sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity.

Natural Environment: A term that encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof.

Built Environment: A term that refers to the man made surroundings that provide a setting for human activity.

Softscape: Is a term that refers to the elements of Landscape that comprise live, horticultural elements. Such as shrubs, trees, flower beds etc...

Hardscape: Is a term that refers to areas where the upper-soil profile is no longer exposed to the actual surface of the earth. Such such as paved areas, sidewalks, housing developments.

Anthropic: Of or pertaining to mankind or humans, relating to human’s influence on certain matters.

Abiotic: Non living chemical and physical factors in the environment; nor derived from organisms.

Biotic: Relating to, produced by, or caused by living organisms such as animals, plants, and humans.

Stonehenge: A Heritage Site

Renovation process of a kitchen

Natural Environment: A lake

Built Environment:

The City

Softscape: Trees, Bushes

Hardscape: Pavement

Biotic Elements: Mushrooms

Abiotic Elements: The Sun

The Heritage Site

The town of Fuheis lies between rolling hills of what once was lush green. It is relatively small, consisting of 600 families. Whereby all families lead a simple life. Trees that bear the town’s history line the sidewalk, against newly constructed apartments and houses that bear the town’s history.

Fuheis bears the fingerprints of the Romans, the site in fact is situated next to an Ancient Roman Amphitheater, and an ancient Roman Aqueduct. Historically the town is known for it’s aesthetic side. Ceramics, jewelry, textiles, and antiques have all propelled the name of Fuehis as to being an aesthetic settlement.

Most families are employed by a cement factory, ironically though it causes major pollution around the whole town. This factory is rather a notorious one, increasing rates of skin cancer, and lung related diseases such as Asthma.

Most people know each other. One can see people waving hi to other people on the street. Some deserted avenues witness a soccer ball continuously being tossed from side to side.

An infamous heritage site, was actually successfully renovated and turned into a restaurant that goes by the name of ‘Al-Zuwwadeh’. It now witnesses a huge turnover of guests, and tourists alike.

An annual festival entitled ‘The Annual Fuheis Cultural Festival’ takes place. Whereby it attracts a large number of people, both foreigners and locals alike. The festival is largely ethnic, and colorful.

The factory is a major source of pollution in the town of Fuheis.

It is part of the hardscape of the town of Fuheis, and therefore built environment of the town.

Due to it dealing with cement, it’s emissions cover the surroundings with a very unaesthetic cover of white dust. This has resulted in the death of most of the vegetation of what once used to be a town infamous for it’s greenery.

The factory can then be considered an abiotic factor, stemming from anthropic interests of the french company that holds the major shares in it. That aims to destroy the biotic elements of the town.

Considering the impact of this factory, statistics show that over the years, the number of visitors has slightly declined due to the increasing pollution. This is an external factor, that is going to be taken into consideration whilst renovating the heritage site: That we have to make the site aesthetically appealing as much as possible.

Looking in detail at the factory, the shapes of the buildings that make it up; are largely out of place. Since the town mainly consists of low rise buildings that are built from natural stones from local quarries.

The colors of the factory are largely out of place, this in turn makes the factory an abiotic and anthropic element to a further extent.

Obviously part of the built environment, this basically was an old building that was renovated into a school and a church.

The only biotic elements are the stones which originally formed the school. These stones are exactly the same stones that are constantly used throughout the city. It’s interesting

how the architectural features were kept and maintained such as the arches, and some columns, however, when adding the windows,deteriorated the natural look and thus the biotic look

of the building. Considering the white aluminum of the windows and the blue fencing they are abiotic features thus decreasing the overall biotic look of the building, They are

exactly what we are going to try to avoid whilst renovating the building. Possible improvements to the building include adding

softscape that is suitable, considering the softscape of the town. Since the building largely lacks it. The playground of

the school houses stalls that are used in the festival, which in turn display some of the artwork that has been produced by

the community. However such a multi-purpose area is largely inadequate.

This is the entrance of the renovated ‘Al Zuwwadeh’ restaurant. The restaurant completely uses old stones from the area, in order to allow it

to look as local as possible. And thus biotic to some extent. An interesting feature is that even though the purpose is anthropic; this

contrasts with the softscape and the hardscape that all tend to mix to create some sort of biotic feel. For example, the hanging plants tend to

create an image of plants growing out of the stone, as weeds. In the restaurant floor tilings are actually mosaics; and this reflects the culture

of the city of Fuheis.

This Roman amphitheater is located opposite to the site (compound). The site is actually built

of the same stones that the roman amphitheater is made of, and thus both

buildings blend in together. And form some sort of landscape. The aqueduct is surrounded

by some softscape, whereby the rest of the amphitheater that meets with the aqueduct is actually hardscape. Considering the fact that

this has been there for such a long time, although being classifed as built environment; in our personal opinion it actually is part of the natural environment. Surrounding the aquaduct

and the amphitheater are certain newly built houses that actually look abiotic when

contrasted with the duct. The use of roof tilings on some of the houses, as seen in the photo, is

out of place. Since it does not fit with the landscape. The shapes of the buildings newly

constructed also are out of place, since none of them actually employ the use of archways;

which is dominant in the old housing.

This is the other half of the area that houses the aqueduct and the roman amphitheater. The roman amphitheater is pretty minimalistic, with softscape

covering large areas of it. Therefore this turns the built environment(the amphitheater) into actually looking like the natural environment. Manipulation, is what we are thinking of adapting in renovating the nearby complex.

Whereby serving anthropic needs, in a biotic and natural way is one of our aims. One major abiotic element that is prevalent is the use of the metal seats. This is a failed

attempt by the municipality of Fuheis at trying to unsuccessfully restore the area. The colors prevalent are all natural colors, such as green and beige. This in turn

adds to the biotic element, and thus makes the amphitheater look like the natural environment.

An abiotic element, that does not go with the biotic feel of the

surroundings

A trailer parked right infront of the main entrance. (The entrance in

this photo is not the main one, the trailer is blocking the main one). This is destroying the aesthetic

appeal of the compound. Moreover the trailer park is anthropic, thus

contrasting with the surroundings.

Hardscape renovated using cement; the hardscaping looks abiotic, and is part of the built

environment.

The hardscaping is inefficient, and poorly done. Whereby poison ivy is creeping out

of the surface. This is a safety hazard, even though it adds some softscape.

Archways that resonate Roman architecture ,

and that also resonate some sort of Islamic

influence. A combination of both

Christianity and Islam.

Poison ivy, yet again. Deeming areas unaccessible, and thus posing as a safety hazard. Moreover they are unregulated.

Deeming them as some sort of litter, and visual pollution. This shows that the area is prone to weeds. And therefore needs proper

paving before actually working upon.

Bare concrete walls, that were built by the owners of the abiotic apartment next

door. This adds to the feel of a built environment, and thus takes away from

the local heritage site. Possible improvements would be to cover the

wall using the stones from local quarries. This can be defined as visual pollution.

Even though it’s a built environment it gives an impression of a natural environment,

due to the stone’s natural colors, and hues. These colors and hues are earth tones,

whereby when combined with the softscaping creates the look of it being

natural. What we are thinking of adopting, is getting am organized garden yet making it look unorganized. Just like in this photo, in

order to get the natural feel for the place. And let it- blend in with the hills next to it.

An abiotic element that does not fit in with natural surroundings. It creates the

sense of a built environment that opposes the natural environment

impression emanating from the heritage site. An improvement would be to use lighting that is not visible, for example ground lighting covered by the shrubs.

Poison Ivy: part of the softscape. The poison ivy however is a major

obstacle. As well as being a safety hazard.

Poor urban planning at it’s best. A four story apartment was recently built, and thus is part of the built environment, next to the

heritage site. However one needs to keep in mind the anthropic drive behind actually

building this building. It is considered as an abiotic element. Made from concrete, which is not properly finished, as well as using bad metal for some of the roofing. We consider

this visual pollution. As it actually is a hazard to the eye.

Constant use of arches. This is a reminder as to the great influence the romans exerted at the time of their rule on this area. And thus

one has to take into consideration the historical context of the area.

Different hues and tones of the same color of stone are used. This

creates a sense of harmony, however dissuades the viewer

from the sense of repetition. As well as creating places of contrast,

that tend to fit in together.

It was noticed that there were metal bars protruding out of the roof of one of the buildings. Other than being a safety hazard, these metal rods interrupt the line created by the roof’s border creating a break in the smoothness of that line, consequently disrupting the sky line. Assuming that the previously mentioned clothes and barrel were not present, and that people actually visited the place for inspection (before renovating), this would have been noticed. Now, this undesirable is easy to eliminate, they need not do anything other than cut them off using whatever tool it is that is used to cut metal and seal the gap from where the rods protruded with a stone similar to that used to build the rest of the site. The fact that the task is so simple to carry out is evidence enough that the locals are not interested in improving the area by a possible renovation; any of the men responsible for the house could have done the job in a fairly short period of time and carried it out quite well for that matter. This lack of interest in the site would cause the potential ‘renovators’ to reconsider their decision by making them think that the rest of the buildings would be ‘infested’ with small faults that individually need nothing to be fixed but when they are combined, they will not only add a significant sum to the expenses, but they will also be time consuming to repair.

The clothes hung out on the line along with the plastic barrel do nothing to improve the aesthetics of the site, especially since they were being displayed on the side facing the road were they would be visible to any passer-by thus making the site a place people would not consider renovating; people look for places with a lot of potential before considering renovating in order to minimize expenses as much as possible. Though the site could be transformed into just about anything that would bring in a steady flow of income, the image given by the clothes and water container are those of shabbiness and untidiness, therefore making people wary of even considering the buildings for a renovation project.