The Art of building construction in Al-Alkhalaf village, Saudi Arabia

This paper illustrates the “Art of Building” in Al-Alkhalaf settlement in Asir region, Saudi Arabia. Here, people’s efforts over the past history of traditional building and village development have produced structures with notable technical, functional and environmental qualities. Social norms and cultural values of people in this village along with the inherited traditions of building have produced “A Pattern Language” with its related components and systems of arrangement visible through Al-Alkhalaf built form. The paper concludes that with respect to modem standards of scale, amenity, safety and permanence, the accomplishments of vernacular architecture can mainly serve to merit our study for its principles, not its froms. A basic re-orientation of the architectural curricula of schools of architecture in Saudi Arabia is necessary in order to introduce architectural students to the inherent viability of preindustrial theory and practice. Reconciling the past with the challenges of the present is necessary within which contemporary architecture of Saudi Arabia can be created