LOCAL APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE AUTOPOIETIC COMMUNITIES 20

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LOCAL APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE
Technique: AUTOPOIETIC COMMUNITIES
Local name: Shibam and Wadi Hadramaut
Site: Shibam and Wadi Hadramaut

Location

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Continent: Asia
Country: Yemen
Site: Shibam and Wadi Hadramaut
Coordinates:
Lat: 15.93
Long: 48.68

Description of the local variant of the technique

The city of Shibam is built in flood plain bed of the wadi. The city and the oasis comes from the accumulated knowledge of a people who for the need of cooperation for the water supply expressed a strong united social and a planned control of the space. Thanks to the works of retention of flood waters that since ancient times have been kept and handed down. The integrated system of traditional knowledge that contributes to the survival of the oasis involves every aspect of this community. The town is indispensable to the fertilization of the fields and interacts with them in an unbreakable cycle of proper use of resources. From the type of lavatory to the structure of the homes until the full plan, the city responds to the needs of collecting human waste. These wastes, indispensible to render the desert cultivatable, are left to dry on the sands. With the source of the flood waters, controlled by deviation dams, the excrements are transformed into humus for the cultivation and colloidal material that is dug and used for construction and periodically for renovation, the high houses in raw clay of the city. Depressions encircled by dams and canals are created and are shaded by the palm groves which have the function of producing the agricultural foods and to protect the habitation from floods by absorbing the quantities of water. In the dry season the water conserved in the sediment can be tapped using wells. 

Survival prospects

60% preserved and functional 

Images

Deepening


TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUE DATA

Technique
AUTOPOIETIC COMMUNITIES
Icon
Cathegory
G - Social organization, art and spirituality
Identification code
G14
Other Local applications of the technique

RELATED TECHNIQUES

Author:
IPOGEA, www.ipogea.org
Other authors:
Reference: