Sana’a’s foundation dates back over 2,500 years; the city in Yemen is filled with tower-houses built of rammed earth (pisé). | Photo by: Antti Salonen, Old Sana’a, CC BY-SA 3.0
By Carl Elefante featured in Architizer
In the building sector, the mismatch between accepted Global North solutions and the needs of the Global South is pronounced. For a century, the Global North has exported its energy-consuming glass towers and concrete roadways regardless of climate zone or social structure. Still-favored Global North models are far from problem-free today, and opportunities for appropriate regional adaptation remain largely unexplored, neglecting knowledge that could benefit both the Global North and South.
For those in “advanced” countries, it can be difficult to appreciate that less-modernized cultures have ideas and know-how that are relevant and valuable today. The oldest cities, like Damascus and Cairo, have been inhabited for at least six thousand years. Until about 1800, with the rapid proliferation of fossil-fuel-driven, resource-hungry, technology-infatuated modern-era development, cities thrived without creating a global climate crisis, ecological collapse or systemic resource exhaustion…
