The karsheef: Problems of cultural and environmental conservation

The paper will report the results of a research project conducted by the Polytechnic of Bari about the earthen construction in clay and salt in Siwa. This construction technique is known since the 14th Century thanks to the journey report by Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Battuta. The research group applied to the study of the technique of karsheef (mud and salt mixed) in the aim to propose some intervention methods to prevent its decay. The three main themes in this case were: first, to understand the variation of the earthen techniques at the time when a different culture was aggregated to the original Siwa inhabitants; second: to analyze the variation of the climatic environment in the oasis in the last few decades and how it may have affected the earthen construction; and last, to study the behaviour of the population in the use of the traditional material. It is very important to say that in a close environmental system like an oasis, a traumatic change of the climatic aspects, joined to the change of the construction techniques and of the material, and eventually of the use of the ground, in only a few years, could make enormous damage to the balance of the oasis system. For the restoration of the karsheef technique, it is proposed to use the traditional methods, in the line of continuous maintenance, which is the only way to preserve these buildings: renovating the original material with intervention of partial rebuild. But the new settled areas are in a different position from the historical site: they are placed in the valley instead of on the top of the hill, with a very important problem of foundation, and the traditional buildings are no more used, and moreover their roofs are ripped to reuse the wood in new construction.