The Earthen Vernacular Architecture of Al-Ula Oasis (Saudi Arabia)
Résumé
Al-Ula oasis (KSA) contains, beside purely agricultural plots, hundreds of complexes, called “farms”, established between the end of 19th and the mid-20th century AD. These farms and their components are subject to an in-depth study conducted within the Al-Ula Cultural Oasis Project (UCOP) led by Archaïos, funded and steered by the French Agency for AlUla Development (AFALULA) and conducted in close partnership with the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). All built with local materials, mainly earth, these farms reflect the ingenuity of vernacular architecture and its evolution during fifty years. In this presentation, construction techniques developed within the oasis farms will first be discussed. Secondly, focus will be on farms dwellings: Al-Ula oasis houses present a range of possibilities, from single-cell to multi-cell buildings, with interior and exterior courtyards, terraces and upper floors. The examination of a large number of these dwellings according to a typological, functional and ethnoarchaeological approach has enabled us to identify the function of certain spaces and to consider the daily life and the societal structuring of the populations who settled in the palm grove until around the 1970s. This research aims to fill a major gap: at the scale of Saudi Arabia, rural buildings have never been subject to comprehensive studies while they are currently threatened by urbanization in many places.