Publications

As a general rule, the historical cities in the Middle East have a very rich and unique urban fabric. However, due to the rapid changes of the architectural built environment, some of these cities have not had the chance to develop or upgrade to follow the effects of the new architectural and urban changes. The historical city of Tripoli in Lebanon is among the most important Arab cities, with a distinctive urban planning, and it has not changed since the Mamluk period.The urban fabric of the old city is historical but some of its buildings are modern and have no distinctive architectural or historical character. In addition, the new, modern buildings that have been built instead of the old, historical buildings have different heights in comparison to the old fabric. This difference in building heights leads to a different shade on the old pathways and streets, which has subsequenly concluded to some solutions being developed by the occupants of historical regions in order to meet their environmental needs in this urban fabric. Based on the above, the aim of this research is to observe and analyse the effect of new buildings within the historical urban fabric on the environmental needs of users in terms of shaded spaces, with Tripoli in Lebanon providing a case study.