Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies - Department of Anthropology

The house is the most significant construction to human being, as there has been always an intimate relation between man and his house. Finding the suitable house is first priority to man. 2Culture3 is more important in wants than in needs, and also in how both are satisfied. Therefore, housing have to be culture-specific. The study discusses the impact of culture on the house design, examining how the values, ideals, traditions, etc. of a group as reflected in their notions of an ideal environment are reflected in space organization, size of space, more specifically, the house. Focusing on the relation between human behavior and the built environment, mainly the house, it can be concluded that there is quiet a relation between the human behavior and the built environment; as people have influence on their environment and are influenced by it as well. It also examines how processes of culture change affects the built environment, and how these changes are reflected in new ways of organizing space, focusing on the house The City of Fes, taken as a case study, gives a good example for cultural heritage, as the traditional houses of old medina express the cultural characteristics of the society back when founded. In Islamic old houses, as is the case in Fes, basic features influencing the house design allowed for inhabitants{u2019} privacy, day to day activities, climatic treatment, and acting within Islamic tenets, where different architectural treatments were adopted to achieve these goals like the {u2018}cranked entrance{u2019}, {u2018}inner court{u2019}, etc. In most Muslim societies, the traditional house is gender specific, i.e. it has different male and female spheres. However, influence of the western cultures has led to cultural

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