Traditional houses and bazaars

The Danish architect Hans Munk Hansen has been working in The Middle-East since the mid 1950's, building houses, restoring historical buildings and serving as a planning consultant to local governments. During all these years he has studied and photographed traditional buildings and cities all over the region, from Persia in the East and Yemen in the south to Morocco by the Atlantic Ocean. In this book he shows how traditional house building in the region allways reflects countless generations' struggle for establishing the best possible conditions of life under what are often inhospitable climatic conditions. Many of his 300 photos show dwellings and cities that no longer exist. Thus, Hans Munk Hansen's book is a strong argument, not only for the preservation of elements of traditional building culture, but even more so for integrating into modern architecture and planning the experiences inherent in traditional housing.