Discovering the Integrative Spatial and Physical Order in Traditional Arab Towns: A Study of Five Traditional Najdi Settlements of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Understanding how traditional societies generated urban and architectural forms requires an understanding of socio-cultural forces: family and clan structure, social organization, religious practices and beliefs, and the collective social relationship between the built environment's members.Examining the Najdi built environment led to the identification of a hidden order that is based on how inhabitants of each built environment within the Najd region responded to the surrounding environmental conditions and how they accommodated their various daily life needs by using operational core concepts.These core concepts were generated by local inhabitants and guided by a holistic hidden order.This study interpreted the process of making places within the hidden order of five traditional settlements in the central Najd region of Saudi Arabia and highlighted the socio-cultural forces that drove the order by surveying how the core concepts were translated into tangible urban spaces and physical objects and the extent to which intangible meanings became embodied within the built form.The aim is to develop an understanding of how culture and human behavior influence the built environment by presenting five Najdi traditional settlement cases and highlighting how the settlements interpreted socio-cultural forces in various ways to shape and characterize their built form by generating a holistic hidden order. .

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