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Full Description
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Cultures of Making, by Wesam Al Asali, explores the architectural, environmental and social dimensions of building and making in the Arab region, where making is not only a cultural act but a strategy for survival.
Wesam Al Asali is an exceptional writer and scholar who brings together rigorous research and deeply personal storytelling, giving voice to craftspeople, their knowledge, their environments, and the cultural contexts that shape their work. The book presents its subject using a beautiful visual language, including a large body of Wesam's drawings and diagrams that reconstruct craft processes and make this knowledge accessible—not only as an archive, but as a practical resource for the communities where these traditions originated.
Spanning Egypt, Morocco and especially Syria, these crafts reveal how craftsmanship in these regions is shaped by scarcity, conflict, displacement and environmental destruction.
From mud-dome construction, weaving and food preservation to laurel soap production, carpentry and wooden boatbuilding, Cultures of Making documents ways of making that have developed and been passed down over generations. The book brings together craft objects, production processes, the knowledge they embody, the people who make them, and the spaces in which making takes place. In doing so, it records practices and knowledge increasingly at risk of disappearing. At the same time, it reveals new relationships between tradition and innovation, and between craft and technology.
Cultures of Making bridges the gap between scholarly discourse and the lived realities of craft practitioners, aiming to inform future policy on tangible and intangible heritage and contribute to wider conversations on sustainable design and local knowledge. It is rooted in the Arab region while offering a broader reference for the Global South and beyond.
Contents
6 Introduction: Documentation, Preservation, And The Environment
24 Maintenance: Making As Dwelling
30 The Loom Spaces: Tools As Domestic Infrastructure
40 Straw Cycles: Material Paths From Harvest To Household
50 Clay Dovecotes: Parametric Vernacular Structures
66 Mud Dome Villages: Construction As Care
80 Courtyard's Nurseries: Parallel Economies Of Decorative Plants
90 Weaving Hatab Al Hinna: The Shared Labor Of Scale
102 The Ḥānūt: Crafts In Open Workshops
110 Interview With Al-Hajj ʿali
113 Interview With Abu Ibrāhīm
115 Recipe: Traditional Mud For Houses And Making Shelves
116 Sustenance: The Architecture Of Food
122 Mūneh As Dwelling: Traditional Food Spaces
136 Food Cooperatives The Architecture Of Shared Labor
144 The Apricot Of Qamar El Din: Traces Of A Fragile Season
152 Olive Presses Of The Syrian Coast: From Shared Infrastructure To Production Lines
160 Mud Ovens: The Making Of Cooking Spaces
166 Wheat Mills: Archives Of Agrarian Industry
174 Laurel Soap: The Building As Tool
184 Interview With Abū Ayman Al-Zbībi
186 Interview With Rafīq Sukkar (Abū ʿāṭif)
188 Recipe: The Architectural Recipe Of Mūneh
190 Remanence: Architecture, Making, And The City
196 Vendor Cart-Making: A Cart That Maps The City
208 Barem Threading: The City As Tool
218 Interlaced Carpentry: From Hand To Machine, From System To Template
230 Headstone Carving: Grave Markers And The City's Memory
240 Helfawiya Car-Making: Fabricating Alternative Infrastructure
246 Minaret Builders: Craft Roles Outside The Code
256 Wooden Boat-Making: The Afterlife Of A Maritime Craft
268 Interview With Abu Al-Nūr
271 Craft Notes: Carpentry Methods Of Al-Taʿshīq, Al-Taftīq, And Al-Talzīq
274 Conclusion: Working With Cultures Of Making
296 Credits & Acknowledgments
298 Colophon
