Khoos: Crafting a Contemporary Material Language for the Arabian Mashrabiya

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential for khoos, a freehand woven process indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), to reimagine the design and construction of the Arabian Mashrabiya. A culturally and climatically significant feature of domestic Islamic architecture, the mashrabiya is a latticed window screen that traditionally formed a threshold between private and public spaces and is part of a natural ventilation system. Historically the space of the disguised female gaze offering clandestine views of public life on the street, or guests in the courtyard, the mashrabiya provides privacy while allowing air flow and filtered light. A space in between two realms, carved by kinetic light and the hands of skilled craftspeople.

The decline of the vernacular mashrabiya and its substitution within contemporary Arabian architecture and urban design has often reduced it to a superficial, two-dimensional motif pasted onto building façades devoid of purpose, cultural identity, and architectural experience. Beyond the degradation of Arab vernacular architecture, an equally pressing concern lies in the prevalence of contemporary construction across the region that relies on imported, culturally foreign, industrial materials and methods rather than processes of place and people. Originally made from local and imported woods, mashrabiya showcased skilled craftsmanship. The industrialization of regional architecture has displaced artisans from the building process, eroding locally rooted, culturally embedded, and ecologically attuned practices of construction. Khoos, a material practice native to the MENA region, is both environmentally sensitive and human-centered. Traditionally employed in basketry, its potential extends beyond the fabrication of artifacts to the construction of architectural space. Derived from the date palm tree, khoos is locally abundant and harvested during seasonal cycles of regeneration, making the craft a practice grounded in the use of natural, biodegradable byproducts.

Using material investigations conducted with weavers in Upper Egypt and advanced through digital modeling, the paper studies architectural possibilities for reimagining the contemporary artisanal mashrabiya. The research leverages and builds on the knowledge of the weaver to propose a new architectural vernacular that explores the application of basket weaving techniques to architectural design. Through hybrid analogue-digital creative production, the paper will demonstrate the versatility and strength of freehand weaving as a technological process capable of creating robust, volumetric, structural form and surfaces that define spatial conditions. As a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional elements of Arab vernacular architecture, the “phygital” material experiments reinvent the wood screen in the woven language of khoos, a practice that respects the land, contributes to cultural heritage, and celebrates artistry of past and present.