Abu Dhabi, November 16: As a continuation of the emergency conservation program for the historic buildings in Al Ain, the conservation department at Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) has installed recently a temporary wooden frame supports around Abdullah Bin Salem house, in Qattarah Oasis.
Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Director General of ADACH said “preserving historical buildings in Al Ain is as part of the authority’s duty to preserve the heritage in the emirate of Abu Dhabi; Al Jahili fort was one of the first historical buildings preserved and used as a cultural venue, in addition to Hamad Bin Hadi Al Darmaki house and the emergency conservation program that saved many old houses in Al Ain”
The preservation department in ADACH is in charge of the preparation of development policies to ensure the implementation of historic buildings protection activities based on international standards and it includes the activities of preservation and protection of the cultural heritage in Abu Dhabi Emirate which include also buildings, sights and collections.
Dr. Sami Al Masri, Deputy Director General for arts, culture and heritage affairs in ADACH said “the authority has started recently an intensive program to implement emergency preservation for group of historical buildings to save them from expected collapse through developed working methods and protection procedures. Initially threatened buildings were supported with frames”
Abdullah Bin Salem house is one of the old buildings in Al Ain built of dried mud bricks and sealed with palm tree trunks. The structure of the house represents the traditional style of building; surrounded with a wall and include a Mosque.
The main tower of the mud house was suffering from structural problems due to its location on the edge of a secondary road next to the oasis; the safety of pedestrians needed to be secured.
Dr. Al Masri said “after analyzing the structural condition of the house, it was recommended by expert structural engineering consultants to put these supports around the main tower and some other walls. It was the first time that these kind of large frames were used in a historic site”.
The main structural problems were the cracks on the joints of the tower walls, the debris accumulated at the bottom of the tower and the absence of structural elements connecting the main walls of the tower together.
The main purpose of these supports is to protect the building from any possible failure, secure neighboring buildings and secure the building it self for the emergency conservation works to be done by ADACH.
The support works started in mid-February and were finished in the end of July.
One of the main issues to implement the work was closing the secondary road in front of the house, which was necessary as a safety measure and also to secure some space for the frames. At the end it was agreed to close half the road thanks to Al Ain Municipality’s collaboration, safety signs were installed on the site for both vehicles and pedestrians.
Also Khalfan and Saif Al Dhahiri’s house was scheduled for emergency conservation after the heavy rainstorm in the past season. A strategy was devised in order to build a new large mud bricks retaining wall in harmonize with the building’s historic context.
The final appearance and setting of the house was significantly improved, and the project team are satisfied with the results of this difficult job; it was like a test for repairing walls in palm tree gardens or farms, and gave the team a practical experience to protect historic walls inside the oases.
Khalfan and Saif Al Dhahiri House, another building scheduled for Emergency Conservation, suffered from the heavy rainstorm of the past season.
The main reason for this was the absence of a paper retaining wall on the edge of the plot, which can protect the land from moving outward.
A strategy was devised in order to build a large new retaining wall, which should be from mud bricks also to harmonize with the building historic context.
The first task was to excavate around the edge of area, to understand the historic location for the previous wall where the new wall would be located.
The next steps were to clean the area, to build the stone foundation for the wall and to build the actual wall, layer by layer. The last step was the plastering, which protects the wall from weathering.
After all of the above measures were implemented, the appearance and setting of Khalfan and Saif House was significantly improved, and the project teams are satisfied with the results of this difficult job.
The job was like a test for repairing walls in palm tree gardens of farms, and gave us much information for protection of historic walls inside the oases.
—Agencies