Joris Kila

Heritage under Siege, winner of the Blue Shield Award 2012, is the result of international multidisciplinary research on the subject of military implementation of cultural property protection (CPP) in the event of conflict. The book considers the practical feasibility as well as ideal perspectives within the juridical boundaries of the 1954 Hague Convention. The situation of today's cultural property protection is discussed. New case studies further introduce and analyze the subject. The results of field research which made it possible to follow and test processes in conflict areas including training, education, international, interagency, and interdisciplinary cooperation are presented here. This book gives a useful overview of the playing field of CPP and its players, as well as contemporary CPP in the context of military tasks during peace keeping and asymmetric operations. It includes suggestions for future directions including possibilities to balance interests and research outcomes as well as military deliverables. A separate section deals with legal aspects.

More than one third of the world's population lives in houses made of unfired earth bricks or stamped earth, materials also known as mud brick, adobe , terre crue , pisé , or rammed earth. Houses in the middle east have been made out this material for at least 10,000 years, but in many places this form of architecture is slowly being superceded by more recent building techniques using reinforced concrete and concrete blocks. This study contains a description of the remaining mud brick architecture in several villages in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt. It includes a brief history of mud brick, a discussion of the distinct local building techniques of the Oasis, and three architectural case studies of traditional mud brick houses in the Oasis, and it has many plans and photographs of local houses. The study was carried out as preparation for the design and construction of an archaeological working and training centre in the Dakhleh Oasis, which has been made according to the local traditions in mud brick vernacular. It is based on a field trip carried out in 1997 by Wolf Schijns (architect), Margriet Schijns (architect), Olaf E Kaper (Egyptologist) and Joris D Kila (art historian).