RELEGATION 2من اصل3

AND OUR ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSIBILITY
Architect
Hamdy al Setouhy
It is a systematic relegation that deepens the gap between what we are and
what we have to be. And increase the gap between our potentials and our
understanding of its values.
The destruction that happens to the Arab countries heritage, because of
wars, terrorism or neglecting, transcends the limits of the monument
destruction and other than what is happening is an attempt to destroy
civilization. Iraq, Syria and Yemen are real example of demolition through
wars, and gourna is another real example of demolition through neglecting
and ignorance, in this regard, some specialists, interested parties, and some
governments and civil institutions are seeking to preserve and revive again.
After all, we are facing a very dynamic equation: the two terms of the
equation are the Arab identity and the globalization. The second party has
been allowed to sing alone, while the first party has not played its role so
far as required, accordingly, a set of questions appear and the most
important are: how is the Arab identity being fortification in front of cultural
colonization? Is architectural globalization one of the instruments of cultural
colonization? Can Arab identity be integrated with architectural
globalization? Or is the equation in a permanent collision situation? And
what is our role as architects?
On the order hand, the value of Arab heritage cities exceeds the boundaries
of walls and streets and all the elements it contains, to reach on area far
beyond the limits of time and place in which we live, and we will see this
clearly when we enter through the architecture of the ancient cities’s walls
to discover the value of what we own, yet we don’t recognize unless
otherwise we have a desire to recall our civilization.