Abstract
In traditional Jordanian settlements, the rapid urban development and the abandonment of most of the rural areas, due essentially to the lack of national policy in controlling the process of planning, has caused serious variation of architectural character and urban landscape. Local territorial laws and building regulations have contributed both positively and negatively to this accelerating transformation.
This paper illustrates some aspects of Jordanian villages concerning their typology and architectural traditional elements. Particular attention is given to the urbanization impacts on the local communities, in light of the transformation of rural activity due to the reduction of agricultural areas, which has negatively affected the physical integrity of the productive lands, altering the characteristics of the ecosystem and the social system. This process is irreversibly threatening the rural character and natural landscape of valuable and rare areas, whereas 97% of Jordanian territory consists of desert areas.
The objectives of this research are to highlight the importance of conserving the original habitat of these villages and to support the characteristics of their rural activities, introducing sustainable concept in Jordanian planning strategy. This research also advocates the need for the enactment of specific law for integrated planning -at different levels- and introduces specific guidelines for intervention methodology, concerning landscape and architecture, with scrupulous interest in European experiences (especially the Italian) in respect to the protection of tangible and intangible cultural human values, in terms of conservation of memory of places, traditional identities, in a process of sustainable development. Particular attention is given to the process of formation of the Landscape Territorial Plan with regard to the European Landscape Convention.