From the unit to the fabric: analysis of the grouping of traditional housing and the urban fabric it forms

The objective of this work is to value different interpretations of the same space that the city of the 20th century stopped contemplating and that, however, when one observes and studies them, they seem absolutely essential to make the city a habitable place. This graphic analysis with which we will proceed seeks to understand how from the shape of a unit a fabric is formed and this ends up shaping a city. In this way, although the sociological and social consequences that these spaces create will be taken into account, but we will not be placed on them too much emphasis. For this, it will begin with a brief historical analysis of the courtyard house and its evolution from Ancient Mesopotamia to Roman times. In this historical analysis, both the courtyard house itself and its relationship with the street and the city and how it has evolved will be studied. From here, several cities will be analyzed and compared graphically. These cities have been chosen based on several factors to take into account: it was sought that their form of basic grouping and their urban fabrics were sufficiently different, at least a priori, to be able to enrich the study from different perspectives. However, these could not be excessively different in their conception, since this could end up making these examples not directly comparable. With these two points we concluded that the study cases should share a cultural base or a general scope but that each one should reflect a particular culture. I also believed it convenient that each of these cities has been part of my academic training throughout the degree, either through their study at the university or through constant and personal observation. In this way, both cities and their cultures already start from a certain base of knowledge. Thus, it was decided that these examples would be Mediterranean cities. In this way, all of them would share the common characteristics of a Mediterranean city but they would be part of different cultures. To choose the cities of the Mediterranean, we decided that the best thing for the job would be to choose a city on the south shore and another on the north shore, since both shores have experienced different cultures throughout their history. Once this decision has been made, I decided that the third city could be one that had experienced both septentrional and meridional culture, and observe how this overlap has shaped its own fabric. Thus, we finally decided that these three cities will actually be two cities and one town: Naples, Cairo and Bunyola, my hometown. It will be studied how each of these spaces are formed from basic housing units, how they are used, and how they fit into the urban fabric. It is noteworthy that this study does not aim to obtain universal conclusions, but rather seeks to respond to its scale of work. The final intention, therefore, is nothing more than the comparison of specific cases, each one with its specific contexts and all located in the Mediterranean, starting from its form, so that they make the formal conception of each example and the consequences that derive from it.