Urbanism between the past and the present

Any reading of the economic, social, and cultural conditions of the Asir

Region during the foreseeable period in its modern history must note that the changes that the region witnessed in these areas were great and accelerating, during which the region moved, with the sincere will of the wise leadership, local officials, and its people, from the era of nomadism, herding, and agriculture to the era of comprehensive development and progress, and the use of modern technologies in all areas of life, which created a new social formation based on building the

Saudi human being while building the land, cities, and villages, even the smallest structures of population centers.

According to a state of conscious blending between social values, pure and authentic heritage customs and traditions, and new civilizational concepts.

The urban development in the Asir Region was one of the most rapid manifestations of growth, as it moved, with the sincere will of the wise leadership and officials in the region and its people, from the era of nomadism, herding, and agriculture to the era of comprehensive development and progress, and the use of modern technologies in all areas of life, which created a new social formation based on building the

Saudi human being with the construction of land, cities, and villages, even the smallest structures of population centers, according to a state of conscious blending between social values and pure heritage customs and traditions.

Authentic and new cultural concepts. The region witnessed a wide urban movement in which engineering designs of great beauty, precision and creativity were used in their external appearance or internal implementation.

Modern planning of neighborhoods, streets and squares contributed to creating homogeneous aesthetic urban formations, and new ideas were added to them derived from the concepts of ancient architecture in the region, which gives a direct impression of the aesthetic unity of urban patterns, and to the awareness of officials in the region, headed by His Royal Highness Prince Khalid Al-Faisal.

Prince of Asir, due to the importance of this heritage, there was a constant insistence on adhering to it in all its forms, and it was recommended on every occasion to adhere to the Asir architectural style mainly as it is the cultural interface that meets tourists and visitors, and thus even modern buildings preserved the heritage spirit inherent in Asir architecture.

The distinctiveness of the style of traditional residential architecture in the Asir Region is a reflection of the distinctiveness of its environmental, economic and social conditions, which clearly influenced the pattern of urban formation in terms of form, function and building material.

The visitor to the Asir Region must have his attention drawn from the first glance by those distinctive urban forms that are spread everywhere, as they are unique in a distinctive traditional urban character that distinguishes them from the rest of the regions of the Kingdom.

It is considered one of the factors of tourist attraction due to its uniqueness with special components and they are distributed according to the regions as follows: Traditional buildings built of mud and stone: This urban style is widespread in the areas of Abha, Al-Sha’af, Al Wadiyeen, Sha’af Jarma, Al-Fara’in, Sarat Abidah, and Bani Bishr. The height of the building ranges between two and five floors.

These houses are distinguished by their unique architectural art, as the house is founded on a base built of clay and stone, then built with a mixture of clay, sand, and hay in the form of rows, one on top of the other, called courses, and is separated between One and the other are stacked, straight lines of stone called (raqf) to protect them from rain and give them a unique and distinct shape.

They are roofed with wood and grass, decorated from the inside with what was known as “smelt” and vegetables, and the walls in the rooms and entrances are engraved with artistic carvings of great beauty. Traditional buildings built of stones: This style is widespread in the areas of Balqarn, Bani Amr, Al Namas, Tanomah, Ballahmar, Al-Souda, Rijal Almaa, and parts of Al Majardah.

The buildings are usually close together to be built on the tops of mountains and hills, and the foundation building material for these houses is local rocks.

Traditional buildings built of mud: This architectural style is widespread in the areas of Dhahran Al Janub, Al Harajah, Ahad Rafidah, Khamis Mushait, Tandaha, Al Areen, Tareeb, Tathlith, and Bishah.

It is similar to the building style in Abha, where it relies on mixing clay, sand, and hay and using wooden roofs and stakes, but without the stone base due to the quality and solidity of the soil, and without raqf for the lack of Rain, and while the building height in Bishah and Tathlith does not exceed two stories, it reaches five stories in other areas.

Al-Isdaar buildings (the shed): This style is widespread in Al Majardah, Bariq, Muhayil Asir, Al Farshah, and Wadi Al Hayat. The shed is built of stones in a less elegant and durable way than in Rijal Almaa, and usually consists of one floor. Traditional buildings built from tree trunks (Al-Asha): This style is widespread in the Lower Tihama region near the Red Sea. It is similar to the styles in Jizan, Al-Qunfudhah, and Al-Laith.

It is characterized by simplicity because it is a hut made of tree trunks in a conical shape that allows rain to slide off.

Traditional buildings related to defence: They go back to the ancient period when there was no security or stability. They are called kasbahs and forts. This distinctive and unique style varies in form, use, and quality of building materials.

Some of them are circular and square, and some are built with clay and stone, or with clay or stone, in strategic and fortified positions inside or outside villages, on main roads or on wells and farms for the purpose of protection.

This building is distinguished by its large and small windows, and the height of the building reaches seven floors.

The home of the Asir woman, as a plastic artist, is distinguished by its classical engravings and drawings, its abundance of decorations, and the variety of its colors from the inside.

These unique colors and aesthetics are the responsibility of the southern woman, as she decorates her home from the inside by painting the house with white light or plaster, painting the floor and walls of sticks (qat), which is called clover, and placing exquisite decorative touches, thus completing the role that the man began in building, and placing the panels and circular lines in the canes., palaces, and houses, to form artistic paintings inside her home that tell the bright aspects of the

Asir woman, such as the cat, which is the ancient pattern inside homes, using natural colors that the Asir woman extracts herself and excels at crystallizing her artistic potential through these colors.

The colors used in interior decoration are prepared from products of the environment surrounding the construction site as follows: White paint: It is called (plaster or plaster). It consists of limestone veins brought from the mountains. These limestone veins are soaked in water, then the gum found in some trees in the region, such as acacia trees, is pounded until it softens well and mixed with (plaster) after filtering it.

Blue Nile is used with it and is called (shweet).

After it becomes a substance with a resinous consistency, the walls are painted with it and they appear smooth, smooth, and bright white. Green paint: Green clover is used and is called (al-qadab). It is used either by rubbing it directly on the walls to give them the green color, or by squeezing it and adding its water to the white paint mixture, which gives it a gummy shine. Blue paint: Nile blue, which was sold in the region's markets, was used.

It was soaked in water and painted with it as is, or glue was added to it and then painted with it.

Black paint: The woman beats (the clover stick), squeezes it, and filters it. Then she lights a candle or kerosene lamp and places a plate or something similar on the flame so that she collects the black and adds it to the juice of the stick and it becomes black. This is in addition to black tar oil, which is extracted from the atmat tree and burned while it is green, then the oil is distilled.

The other colors were brought from Aden in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, and types of black or red clay may be used for coloring.

Some of it is extracted from Shader stones. Red color: It is extracted from ashmat stones ((Mashq)) and crushed until it becomes smooth, then water and glue extracted from the gum of acacia trees are added to it. Yellow color: It is taken from the mustard plant, where it is left to dry, then crushed and water and glue extracted from the gum of acacia trees are added to it. Coloring method: The woman performs the process of decorating and coloring.

She first paints the interior walls of the house with white plaster, then she paints approximately half a meter of the walls, floor and stairs of the house green with clover (rods). Then she begins the decoration process using the rest of the colors according to her own taste and creates attractive patterns that give the house joy and elegance. She also engraves the windows from the inside and outside, while the doors are painted with tar oil.

The woman repeats the process of decorating and coloring on holidays and occasions and it becomes her home.

Beautiful and bright, reflecting her artistic ability and competence as a housewife. A woman who specializes in this procedure may be commissioned for a fee if the financial ability is available. As for the outside of the house, it is sufficient to paint it white around the windows in most cases, and women also perform this process by placing stairs from the outside and climbing on them.

Although the situation has changed today and the winds of comprehensive change have blown to affect everything, carrying with it the civilization of the twenty-first century that entered the village and expanded and permeated the city and grew, it is clear that the region’s society was able to adapt to the requirements of modern and urban life in its various forms carried by the winds of social, economic, cultural and scientific progress that blew on the region and the comprehensive renaissance that was achieved during the prosperous Saudi era.

The great achievements witnessed by the Asir Region are only part of them, which included the establishment of hundreds of schools for various educational levels, and dozens of colleges and institutes for boys and girls that were distributed in its governorates, in addition to King Khalid University, and the modern road network that linked the cities and villages of the region, and between them and other regions and cities of the

Kingdom and included bridges, tunnels and obstacles that are considered among the achievements of civilized engineering, in addition to paving the streets of cities and villages, and distributing electricity to all areas.

Cities, villages and villages, and the modern communications network that linked the region to all parts of the Kingdom and the world, and advanced health services represented by hospitals, dispensaries, health centers and modern ambulances, and the establishment of pure water projects, the most important of which is the project to deliver desalinated water from the Red

Sea to the region, sanitation projects, and the establishment of dozens of equipped gardens and parks, in addition to the great interest in tourism as a basic industry in the region due

to its tourism components, where tourist facilities have been established that match the latest in The world, such as cable cars, tourist villages, hotels, restaurants, and rest houses, with the increasing interest in agriculture through the establishment of agricultural companies and dams to take advantage of heavy rainwater and the mechanization of agriculture, in addition to the industries that received a great deal of attention.

The environment also had a large share of attention, represented in caring for forests and natural green spaces and increasing them, and paying attention to public cleanliness and combating insects and rodents.

To keep pace with the increasing expansion in cities, villages, and population centers, the efforts of the Asir Region Secretariat and the municipalities in the southern region are highlighted, whose services cover 516 cities and villages in the Asir

Region, as it directly and indirectly supervises construction and planning projects, public facilities, and some roads, and designs and studies these projects, and takes implementation, follow-up, operation, and maintenance procedures.

In cities, villages, and rural population centers, the Asir Region witnessed a major development in urban formations, shapes, and patterns with a new civilizational character, while preserving the foundations and aspects of the distinctive urban style of the Asir House.

This in itself was one of the important urban achievements in which the raw materials available in the Asir environment and the beautiful heritage roads of the region were relied upon in implementation.