Individual houses on complex relief in the province of Latakia, Syria, on a new structural basis

Abstract

Introduction. The current problems of post-war Syria are related to the migration of people from hostility areas where the housing stock is substantially destroyed to the areas which remained intact of the war. Such a region in the country is the province of Latakia, Kasab being the biggest city located in a mountain “bowl”. However, there is almost no flat terrain, and construction is being carried out on the slopes surrounding the city. The paper substantiates the rationale for construction of houses on the relief on the basis of a new structural system called “carrier floor” which allows for significant reduction of the cost of such houses (by 1.5x), as well as for space and layout design solutions based thereon which meet both current requirements for housing and Arab cultural traditions. Materials and methods. The study has been carried out based on statistical and geographical data for Kasab; analyses of Syrian and Russian codes, scientific and analytical sources in literature, as well as on the analysis of the “carrier floor” structural system, its economic advantages and space-planning capabilities. Results. As a result of the study of individual housing on the basis of the “carrier floor” the advantages of this system were determined, which allow for compliance with current requirements of housing shaping in terms of space and layout solutions based on the example of Kasab; examples of space-planning and compositional solutions are given. Conclusions. The “carrier floor” structural scheme has made it possible to develop recommendations for creating space layout and composition solutions for individual residential buildings on the relief in Kasab City located in a mountain valley. The use of this structural system allows for reduction the cost of construction, and for the opportunity of free planning and alteration on demand due to the absence of intermediate supports in the ground floor.