THE TOWER HOUSE SPACE PLANNING AND ACTIVITIES IN OLD CITY SANA’A YEMEN

Abstract

This paper explores the activities of Yemeni people in the Traditional Tower Houses in Old City of Sana'a. Yemen characterized by its unique traditional architecture; it is evident that every region in the country has its architectural character, which influenced by the local context (natural and cultural environments), and has many heritage sites registered with UNESCO heritage areas. The researcher will be focusing on the tower houses type to find the relation between the space planning and the Yemeni people daily activities that affect the space planning of the traditional tower house. Daily activities for Yemeni will be identify to ensure the space planning are designing according to the Yemeni activities as usual in term of the space size and space function. The tower house was design with 4 to 7 storey which is, each storey has a different function and activities. This study will be carried out through two types of data collection started by the observation, interviews, questionnaire's and the measurement by the researcher based on one of the case studies which is Bait Abu Luhum tower house which located in the Old City of Sana'a at Al- Abhar tower house. The conclusion summarizes the Tower House components and its relationship to the lifestyle and activities of Yemeni people the lessons to be learned from this example.