Rehabilitation of Historical Cities of the Mediterranean Using the Notions of Modular Patterns – Case Study of Sidon

There is an increasing need to restore historical cities like those in their original urban layout, subjected to man-made changes, natural ageing, and environmental degradation. This research project aims to advance a practical methodology for rehabilitating Mediterranean historic buildings, particularly those of Sidon's coastal Lebanese city, using modular and pixelated patterns, which are fundamental features of the historic city of Sidon and other comparable Mediterranean cities. These are in addition to replacing the old road, which was the main reason for the destruction of the seafront buildings, with a modern road link designed and located to conserve these buildings. The main objectives are envisaging ruined buildings' modular spatial practices, restoring them to their original state, and studying all relevant conservation and restoration parameters. The methodology used to complete this project is developing and applying modular pixel matching techniques (2D and 3D templates of pixel matrices) to restore the affected historical buildings and urban patterns of the Lebanese City of Sidon. The methodology also includes a topographic survey (3D laser scanning) of the seafront suburb of Sidon and a survey of the residents' opinions of the past and present conditions of the studied area. With the help of Nvivo, the analysis and a set of statistical records are stratified. Finally, the AutoCAD Civil 3D design package was utilised to locate and design the new replacement coastal road. The main findings are that the buildings requiring restoration exhibit similar norms to those of the Ottoman houses and historic structures, specifically in the spatial arrangement of room functions as identical to the central hall typology and Qa'as dimension holding the same architectural setting with repeated dimensions. The patterns in such buildings were found to be modular, which would set a pixelated framework for their restoration. Whilst the discovery of the golden repeated dimension of five metres in the Sidonian historical houses paved the way to develop 2D and 3D pixel matching techniques that contributed much to reinstating the planar setting for the dilapidated buildings even if their original plan was not available in any of the historical documentation. This project restored the destroyed buildings in the Sidon coastal front affected by the development of the existing road. In addition, the road has been re-routed and developed to provide a modern transport link while maintaining the platform of restored buildings. The results produced by applying the developed 3D pixel matching techniques have been found to agree between 80 and 85% with that of the residents' and officials' inputs and opinions obtained from the conducted site survey as reported in Chapter Five, Validation of the Restoration Findings'. The key conclusions are that this project resulted in a robust method to restore the Historic seafront buildings and accesses using the innovative 3D Pixel Matching technique, representing a new Nobel methodology. In addition, the redesign and tunnelling of the existing road near the coastal destructed buildings serve modern transport needs while maintaining the most original seafront modular and pixelated patterns.