‘Omani Burqa’ vs. Decorated Façade of Modern Omani House; the Case of Salalah, Dhofar Region, Oman

Abstract

Visiting Oman, one firstly encounters wide roads and exaggerated decorations of house façades—situated behind high walls. These broad roads and decorated dwellings are unlike traditional Omani architecture which can be identified as very sensitive to scale and climate. Omani architecture can also be visualized from the narrow streets and low height buildings across many well-preserved villages; built using humble mud or stone structures. Another encounter one might have is the traditional ‘Omani burqa.’ It is worn by some Omani women, originally designed for protection from dust and sand, which mimics the features of a falcon. Lately, the ‘Omani burqa’ has developed into a true fashion-item and is used as a ‘face mask’ with different colors and shapes. Fashionable burqas are often decorated with shimmering crystals or diamonds which differs from the traditional design. What is visible behind the ‘burqa’, the ‘eye’, and the ‘burqa’ itself, become quite embellished, subsiding the importance of the other parts of the face. The façade design of a modern Omani house and its walls are like the modern ‘burqa’ and the ‘eye’. Even though the house is separated from the street by high walls, the importance of visual access from the street to façade can be perceived from the highly decorated house façades, and decorated walls at the same time. This study—using visual analysis of house façades in Salalah, Oman—attempts to identify the architectural elements used in architectural design. These elements are repeated all over Oman, to accentuate visibility from the street to the façade. Eventually, the study concludes that the importance of the visuality from the street to the façade, in a changing ‘closed’ society, is the leading factor for the embellishment of the wall and the façades, rendering the overall design behind the wall insignificant.

Residential Architecture: Evaluation of Tenants’ Satisfaction in Private Culture

“…Formerly well known for exporting frankincense and Arabian horses, Mirbat currently exhibits a blend of old inhabited and/or abandoned stone houses designed in local Islamic style, and newly evolved modern structures. Through a comparison of old and new quarters of Mirbat and traditional and contemporary residences, the authors expose the differences in design between the old and the new, and how those unique features that were employed in traditional housing design are no longer employed in contemporary residences' design (or employed only as decorative elements) [5] compromising the privacy of the residents. Furthermore, two surveys were conducted using young and older residents (as focus groups) of traditional and contemporary housing in Mirbat.…”