KHADIJAH BAWAZEERLike most old cities, there is something very attractive about Old Jeddah. The old town, or “Al-Balad” is very crowded, yet when I walk down its streets and alleys, I have a sense of awe-inspiring beauty and comfort. I stroll down the intertwined alleys and discover secrets from all over the world. When I get tired, I just sit somewhere and no one raises an eyebrow. Jeddah has changed building styles at least three times in the last 50 years. The 60s and 70s style prevails in the areas surrounding Al-Balad, like Kandara, Ammariah, Sharafia, Bughdadiah and other nearby areas. During this period there was an economic boom and you can still see some beautiful old houses from that era. But it breaks my heart whenever I find that one of these beautiful houses is gone. There has been a lot of effort to preserve Al-Balad but little has been done to preserve the beautiful houses from the 60s and 70s, and I believe a serious effort must be made to preserve these beauties before they are all gone and nothing from that time survives. These houses are normally spacious. They usually have large gardens and balconies with columns and have circular salons. Some of these features were probably borrowed from Europe but the houses still maintained many Islamic architectural features. These houses usually had large shady trees and you will find, in most of them, that the front of one house is next to the back of another house. This was important so that people had privacy and women and children were able to spend many hours in the garden. These houses provided what we classically want from a home: peace, comfort, security and beauty. However, money changed all that and the building styles of the 80s and early 90s no longer reflected a care for women and children or the human being in general. Instead we developed an obsession for money that produced a lot of flat square buildings because land became very expensive. There was a boom of square apartment buildings with very little space for children to play. It did not matter if children had an open area to play in and it did not matter if women could go out in the fresh air to enjoy themselves. People were just lured by money and in exchange for the natural beauty of trees and flowers, they made money and showed it off in things they accumulated: furniture, electronics, clothes, and jewelry. However, all of the showing off did not make us happy and we learned that flaunting possessions does not satisfy the soul. Searching for inner peace and happiness, we began building homes with beauty and harmony in mind again around the year 2000. Now when driving around Jeddah you can see its history in the architecture of its houses. I just wish that we could make a serious effort to preserve the beautiful houses of the 60s and 70s which we risk losing. — The writer can be reached at [email protected] __
