Balkans settlements have a very strong relation with their environment because of a close connection between architecture and public space, architecture and nature. This has its roots in the Ottoman attitude toward landscape, so as to establish a continuum of links between different architectural scales. The Neretva territory is representative of this. It is made by a network of settlements based on a variable relation with the river landscape system. Because of its different configurations, it can be divided into at least three regions with diverse natural and anthropogenic characteristics: the region of Konjic and Jablanica, the region of Mostar and Počitelj, the delta region. The chief town along the Neretva is Mostar, which represents its territorial ‘nodality’ (hub), focus of a series of routes that innervate Bosnia and Herzegovina; other small towns and settlements such as Počitelj, Opuzen and Vid are paradigms of simple urban organisms, of smaller ‘nodalities’ along the river course. Because of their territorial structure and urban history, these cities and towns are examples of a set of typical behaviors between architecture and landscape. Počitelj may be considered as the elementary systems at the base of the complexity of Mostar. Opuzen and Vid are the elementary systems of the delta region: because of their lowland location, in their urban organization there is a different relation between architecture and context. To describe the Neretva River landscape system it is necessary to analyze these settlements structure. The aim of this paper is to describe the Mostar region and delta region characteristics, identifying a set of configuration categories between city and territory, mahallas (neighborhoods) and site morphology, mahallas and landscape, which will be analyzed both at the territorial and architectural scale. It follows that it is possible to recognize the Počitelj old town as the elementary system. It can be considered as the very landscape system, whose urban fabric is an example of the typical Balkan relationship between architecture, city and territory. It is a small urban organism on a promontory on the left bank of the Neretva, which building fabric arranges to the orography of the hill overlooking the river; a cluster of public buildings represents its ‘nodality’. Housing, made by stone, at the first floor open with sets of windows to the river environment and to the entire landscape. In the arrangement of each one of the 32 Ottoman mahallas, which were planned in the Stari Grad of Mostar, we can discern the same relationship between architecture, city and landscape, which is legible in the Počitelj old town. The settlement characteristics of the small towns on the Neretva’s delta significantly differ from those in the Mostar region. Here the different urban history and the flat territorial condition led to an urban arrangement much more related to the man-made agricultural landscape than to the natural river confi

Le indagini volte alla ridefinizione della struttura dei tessuti agrari urbani e periurbani mediterranei non hanno ancora definito, da un punto di vista formale, i caratteri individui di questi frammenti di paesaggio nella città. Ciò è particolarmente evidente per alcuni centri del sud-Italia che sono stati storicamente fortemente caratterizzati da uno stretto legame tra insediamento e giardini produttivi. È possibile, allora, avviare una riflessione progettuale sulla forma di questi tessuti che coniughi la necessità della valenza plurifunzionale dello spazio pubblico con i caratteri tipici del giardino produttivo? È possibile fondare questo progetto su nessi di necessità tra forma della città e territorio? È possibile pensare al progetto di un “paesaggio sostenibile” laddove l’intervento sui tessuti agrari urbani implichi coerenza “fisica” con la struttura territoriale? Questo paper si propone di presentare riflessioni ed esiti progettuali su questi temi.

This study is based on an interpretation of Damascus urban morphology based on French cadastral maps. It focuses on the processes of urban fabric from medieval times (on the remains of the pre-Islamic city) to the Ottoman period, paying particular attention to the processes of formation of courtyard houses and their role in the urban fabric. The aim of this study is not to give an extensive description of all the stages and formation processes of Ottoman Damascus; but rather to analyze the most complex urban areas within the walls. It is also an attempt to describe most important transformation processes that were at the origin of the Ottoman urban structure.

An urban organism or a settlement network is ‘sustainable’ if its configuration is closely linked to the structure of its territory. It is therefore difficult to propose possible new configurations – including those linked to systems of rural or urban green space – without taking into account an analysis of their relationship with the territorial structure. It is hard to define a territorial or urban layout as an abstract paradigm to be applied wherever needed, without taking into account ‘self-sufficient’ model to a spatial structure that has its own ‘vocation’ and ‘individual characteristic’. It is hard to believe that such new urban or settlement configuration could be ‘sustainable’ if it needs an enormous amount of infrastructure, energy and maintenance costs. A ‘sustainable system' should be instead related to a ‘homogeneous region’, whose features are compatible with functions of the urban or settlement network we want to establish, as well as to the ‘vocation’ of their own environment. To avoid the ‘Dubai model’ we need a paradigm for settlement development, which is closely linked to the potential of the area in which it is located. To this end, we need to analyse ‘virtuous’ and ‘sustainable’ examples in various historical-territorial contexts. This research leads us to regain not only ‘metropolitan’ but also ‘regional’ models: systems of medium/small settlements as parts of larger networks, located close to regional and international hubs where the agrarian structure played a significant role in defining the urban morphology, and which demonstrate the integration of work-place and dwelling. We can find such networks of small rural settlements in different geographical contexts. Among these, a case study is particularly interesting: the so-called ‘Dead Cities’ in the Limestone Massif of Northern Syria. Here the territorial model is a valley-bottom agricultural system in which the medium-sized / large distribution and trade centres (such as Ma'arrat an Nu'man, Idlib, and Aleppo) represent the ‘nodes’ (hubs) of the Syrian land-use system and the ‘poles’ (peripheral hubs) of the centres on the Limestone Massif (which now have been resettled by new residents and farmers). This system represents a 'paradigm' of possible sustainable 'new urban configurations' for non core areas.

Urbanism in Islamic Mediterranean is deeply linked to courtyard houses characteristics and structure. Consequently, courtyards represent the most important element of the Syrian historical urban landscape determining the dimensional relationships between open spaces and built surface, which depends on the need to effect the best microclimate; the aggregative logics of rooms around the courtyard; the orientation and use of specialized rooms and structures to control the microclimate inside the house; and the steady aggregative logics in elements constituting bayts and ksars, that is houses and palaces. The aim of this paper is to describe the invariant characteristics of Syrian historical urban landscapes, focusing on the structure of courtyards and inner gardens. To this end, the cases of Aleppo, Damascus, and Hama will be analyzed, with the purpose to highlight: the aggregative logic shaping the houses around the courtyard; the relationship between architectural features of the house and structure of the garden; the relationship between inner courtyard gardens and architecture; and the relationship between traditional basic buildings and palaces courtyards and elements. These are the invariants that must be considered and / or preserved in a project of urban landscape recovery or design.