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The
dwellings of Shibam are tall tower-houses made of raw earth. Each
house is inhabited by a single family which is able to build the
massive construction thanks to the low cost of the material.
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Urban
plan of Shibam (Yemen). The harmonious distribution of
squares, streets and blind alleys is the result of the
sewage collection used as fertilizer. Each house has a
waste disposal system provided with external outlets (marked
in black). The latter overlook narrow back streets, blind
alleys or perimeter paths (drawn in brown).
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Shibam
(Yemen). The sewage disposal system: a) organisation of
a blind alley (in yellow on the urban plan, fig. 346)
to discharge the solid and liquid waste dropping from
the houses; b) the two-outlet toilet which allows the
separation of liquid and solid excrement; c) the façade
of a building equipped with sewage shafts and excrement
collection baskets.
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Diagram
of the waste treatment system. Modern use of a traditional Yemenite
two-outlet toilet.
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The
residential complex of Hsb in Vasteras, the ecological courtyard
and the waste and wastewater management systems.
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In
Shibam the habitat is important for the fertilisation of the fields
with which it interacts in an indissoluble cycle of careful use
of the resources. The town is able to meet the need of collecting
human excrements, thanks to the kind of closet, the fabric of
the houses and the whole planimetry. Excrement, essential in order
to cultivate the desert , is dried in the sun. Thanks to the supply
of flood waters impounded by deviation dams, the excrement turns
into humus and colloidal material, which is dug out and used for
building and periodically renovating the tall adobe houses of
the town. Depressions are made, surrounded by embankments and
channels and shaded by the palm-grove. Their function is that
of providing agricultural foodstuffs and protecting the habitat
from the floods by absorbing and storing quantities of water.
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Each
traditional technique, classified and safeguarded, is an exceptional
heritage of experience and knowledge which is in danger today
but which may be spread and reused. However, it is not a question
of reproducing exactly the solutions in each context but rather
of adopting the logic within which they operate also by using
advanced technologies. Natural cycles and traditional urban ecosystems
show processes based on a harmonious use of resources wherein
each manufacturing process produces wastes which are not a problem
but are a source of materials for the other components of the
overall activity. Sustainable management of the territory and
of the towns derives from the application of these principles
learnt from tradition. The latter has always been a dynamic system
able to incorporate innovation put to the test of long term use
and of local and environmental sustainability. Traditional knowledge
is, therefore, re-proposed as innovative, appropriate and advanced
knowledge for the elaboration of a new technological paradigm.
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Application of the phytodepuration system by means of terraces in wadi Hadramaut (Yemen). Below the town a system of consecutive terraces (A) in harmony with the traditional landscape drains wastewater that would otherwise stagnate in the environment that lacks rivers able to collect them (Laureano, 1993).
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