Impact of technology and innovation on adaptation of architectonic tradition for a sustainable future in the Middle East

Abstract

The proposed study seeks to establish whether the community is in favour of environmental traditional architecture despite the increase of modern architecture and its subsequent benefits such as indoor thermal comfort. Globally, traditional architecture has a lot of values. In the Middle East (ME), it shows the way people lived in an area and translate their requirements in a distinctive character. The old architecture carries in it very rich design features which if learned and adopted could immensely help in bringing change to current architectural designs. Thomas (2002) maintains that it is important for the Arab world to revisit all their traditional typologies. Sustainability is expected to remain high with the revealing of old identify architecture to current one. The current study is based on the fact that there is an increase in international-based engineers, who are not able to construct building in line with the cultural aspects of the local users in the ME. However, the question remains on whether and how technology and innovation can be utilized to preserve the architectonic traditions intertwined with modern architecture for a sustainable future in the ME. This research attempts to contribute to the environmental design for an improved human well-being in the ME.