An edited dialogue about War & Architecture in Yemen with reporter Iona Craig, editor and writer Madeleine Schwartz, and Professor Salma Samar Damluji
Managed by Nicolas Kemper, and designed by Freer Studio

This book, from the distinguished Laurence King publishers, is more like a magical talisman than a book. It has the power to enchant a child, and convince them that authentic fantasy worlds still exist and thrive, far more spectacular than any disneyland. It will shock an adult unfamiliar with the architectural splendors of Yemen, or excite those who already thought they knew about this far off world. A student of architecture will have a jolt when he sees what is obviously a labor of love, with detailed plans and sections of traditional, but often contemporary buildings, drawings that could only have been produced from painstaking initiative by the author. There is a striking typological similarity between these Yemeni tower houses and the medieval Scottish tower houses, and still another similarity between these contemporary wall bearing buildings and those being done by avant-garde architects in Voralburg and Zurich, like DePlaze, Sumi/Burkhalter, and Baumschlager Eberle. This book has a blithe way of demonstrating that this extraordinary building craft is an authentic living tradition, of which their people are justly proud. Most important, this book is a revelatory window thrown open into another culture, one almost entirely cut off from the West, and certainly one of the most architecturally significant. Highly Recommended.

My work with [Islamic architecture] is like a love affair,' confesses Iraqi born architect Salma Samar Damluji, who has been instrumental in restoring,...

An influx of polyvinyl sheets, damp-proof courses and concrete construction threatens the unique architecture of Yemen, writes Peter DaveyThe Architecture of Yemen. By Salma Samar Damluji. Laurence King.

Nearly as remarkable as the architecture it documents, Damluji’s book takes the reader beyond the carved doors and mud-brick towers for which Yemen is renowned and into the design and craftsmanship of an extraordinary—and vanishing—urban fabric. Readers expecting the usual lavish gift-book treatment of the fabled cities of Sana’a or Shibam might, at first glance, be disappointed. Instead, Damluji illustrates the architecture of a selected number of buildings in seldom-visited villages in four regions, thus chronicling the distinctive legacy of Yemeni architecture. Fellow architects and historians will appreciate the book’s specialist focus, with its abundant architectural drawings and an extensive glossary of Yemeni building terms, but even casual readers will be transported by the stunning photographs of the stone and mud-brick houses that seem to rise naturally from the crags.
Of particular interest are the interviews with the master builders who welcomed Damluji into their homes to discuss the traditional methods and local materials they use. In this respect, the book is a celebration of an architecture imbued with significant socio-economic and environmental values—a style, the author makes clear, worthy of investment and encouragement, and not merely preservation. (Kyle Pakka) (SO08)

Questa mostra è frutto dell'impegno di una donna fuori dal comune, l'architetto Salma Samar Damluji, nata in Iraq e attiva a Londra, che fin dal 1985 ha...