Cities’ Identity Through Architecture and Arts – Catalani et al. (Eds) © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-05409-7 Towards public identity and climate awareness architecture Ahmed Kaihoul Department of Architecture, College of Earth Sciences and Architecture, Larbi Ben Mhidi University—OEB, Oum El-Bouaghi, Algeria Leila Sriti Department of Architecture, College of Sciences and Technology , Mohamed Khidher University, Biskra, Algeria ABSTRACT: Of all of the arts and technology produced by man, architecture is the most conspicuous of them all. The search for an identity is a difficult endeavour and for a multi- cultural nation the effort is even greater. To search for one’s identity is also something of a peculiar endeavour, since it implies that one has either lost their identity or does not have a clue as to who one is. The Aga Khan Organisation gives awards to architectural projects every three years and there is a large selection criteria; but the most important ones concern the identity issue data. So, his highness the Aga Khan is interested in the heritage and identity of Islamic architecture. This study focuses on the views of architects contributing to the produc- tion of cultural identity in public architecture and analyses examples of their projects. For the purpose of this study, samples of architecture\projects that won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) were selected from a group of international architects expressing Islamic cultural identity in their projects. The methods used for data collection included an analytical framework using standardised thematical axes and the analysis of examples of contemporary international public architecture that represent the expression of cultural identity. The aim of this work and research is to clarify the duality of Identity/Climate awareness in public architec- ture and to define the influence of different variables and indicators on the architectural design of the public projects, such as architectural identity variables and climate data variables. Keywords: Public Identity Architecture; Climate Awareness; Aga Khan Award for Architecture 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 General introduction The search for a public architecture identity seems to be a must for countries that are either newly independent or those with a leadership that stresses that certain groups or races are ‘better’ than others (Baper & Hassan, 2010). In the last few decades, we have often heard about identity in architecture, and this is now a daily concern for architects, designers and deciders. The context of the Aga Khan Award takes identity as a major factor that needs to be respected by the participating projects. ‘We can consider that there are no less than three (3) different identities in any nation’s architectural works; a natural identity, a forced identity and a manufactured one’ (Tajuddin & Rasdi, 2005). This study discusses the concept of identity and the role of modernity in the shift towards globalisation, which became a crucial study in identifying the factors that influence the con- cepts of change and continuity in architectural identity. In this short essay, we will attempt to classify the various approaches towards answering the problem of a national architectural identity (Zarzar & Guney, 2008). The literature study covers definitions of the keywords, which are: identity and architecture, Aga Khan Award for Architecture, climate aware- ness. The definitions include descriptions and issues related to the key words, ‘case studies: 129 CITAA17_Book.indb 129 2/19/2018 10:05:32 AM Aga Khan awarded projects’ and checking whether there could be a climate awareness issue in addition to that of identity representation. 1.2 Public architecture and identity The Aga Khan committee tries as hard as possible during the selection process to select projects that fulfil the standard of ‘Search for Meaning’, which is ‘considered the particular context in which each project has evolved, as well as the unique social, economic, environ- mental and technical factors to which it responds’. The quality is assured by the ‘appropriate and creative utilization of available resources in meeting functional and cultural needs, as well as the higher potential in each project to set a standard for the future’. Gracía Lorca: “time, not man, makes architecture”, one of the best justifications for the specialised skill of the architect is that he or she makes possible the continuation into the future of valuable qualities of the environment, form, texture and materials, and also of details and decora- tions that would otherwise disappear. By signalling buildings and towns for special care, the architect distinguishes them from their fellows, emphasising their potential to serve the ends Lorca proposes for them. But this skill also has dangers. Since the action of time on buildings is judged to be an important factor, it does not do to rebuild them, to create pristine forms and details, to replace the patina of age with spanking new materials and textures or to put newly carved decoration in the place of old (Lewcock, 1989). Societies are organised to ensure their own continuity and thereby to serve the function of preserving something from the past. Society’s awareness of the past is, in fact, society’s awareness of its own continuity. The concern here is to reinterpret the past in a way that is useful and suitable for the present: that is, in a way that will re-establish a sense of continuity and eliminate the rupture and sense of alienation being voiced as a result of the introduction of a contemporary environment. This concern implies that the past has a certain value for the present (Al-Hathloul, 1998). 1.3 Public architecture and the climate awareness issue The designer architect is interested in those aspects of climate that affect human comfort and the use of buildings. They include averages, changes and extremes of temperature, the temperature differences between day and night, humidity, sky conditions, incoming and out- going radiation, rainfall and its distribution, air movements and special features such as trade winds, thunder storms, dust storms and hurricanes (Pradeepa, 2013). Shelter is the main instrument for fulfilling the requirements of comfort. It modifies the natu- ral environment in order to approach optimum conditions of liveability. The architect’s problem is to create an environment that will not place undue stress upon the body’s heat-compensation mechanism. It is the task of the architect to make the utmost use of the natural means available in order to produce a more healthful and liveable building, while also achieving a savings cost by keeping to a minimum the use of mechanical aids for climate control (Boake, 2008). ‘We must begin by taking note of the countries and climates’ in which homes are to be built if our designs for them are to be correct. One type of house seems appropriate for Egypt, another for Spain...one still different for Rome...It is obvious that design for homes ought to conform to diversities of climate’ (Vitruvius, 1st century B.C., pp. 170). What we as architects are aiming for is to take the climate-motivated, environmentally sustainable, valid ideas and practices, from both indigenous and vernacular buildings, and to incorporate them into current architecture that clearly responds to the issues of climate (and comfort) in the design of the building. ‘When the full power of a human imagination is backed by the weight of a living tradi- tion, the resulting work is far greater than any that an artist can achieve when he has no tradition to work in or when he wilfully abandons its tradition’ (Fathy, 1988). This is because the best vernacular construction has always been primarily answerable to natural forces. As Fathy himself once said in a lecture at Dar al Islam: ‘If the architect does not respect the God-made environment, he commits a sin against God. The God-made environment is the landscape; the atmosphere, the flora, the fauna, and the human beings who live in this environ- ment. In this God-made environment there is nothing that is inharmonious. If we become one 130 CITAA17_Book.indb 130 2/19/2018 10:05:32 AM with nature, beauty is defined as it is. Beauty, then, is obtained when form considers the forces that are working on it. It is only when man has ignored the environment and has been cut off from nature that problems arise. We must not distort any of the forces in nature’ (Steele, 1992). 2 THE ANALYTICAL STUDY 2.1 Methodology In this study, we will try to show that, while we are searching to apply an identity in design, inevitably, we are affected by the environment and climate data, and by giving climatic design solutions. To verify this hypothesis, the approach method carried out was a qualitative analysis based on a case study. The adopted approach relies on selecting and analysing a set of public buildings that represent the expression of cultural identity. The architectural analysis was based on design characteristics (criteria) expressing identity and climate adaptation. The criteria used throughout the study of the existing literature were presented in the form of two matrices using, respectively, an ‘identity design’ criteria and a ‘climatic design’ criteria as standardised thematic categories. The matrix is a synthetic visual representation of the data at an intermediate stage of the analysis, which will then be used during the interpretations. It presents the information in a compact and orderly form, allowing the researcher to visualise a set of variables together and draw conclusions accordingly. Thereby, each of the seven projects selected was analysed according to the matrix criteria. The outcome matrices indicate the different criteria fulfilled by each project. By comparing the two matrices, we aim to clarify the duality of Identity/Climate awareness and define the extent to which these two factors influence each other.