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Abstract
This paper presents an empirical study conducted in a small traditional city, Salt, Jordan. An investigation was made to examine residents' ‘images of the past’. The objective was to identify building attributes that influence these residents' images. A survey research design using multiple sorting tasks with open‐ended questions was used to identify these building attributes. The images were elicited through the observation of coloured photographs of a sample of older buildings in the city centre. Images of the past were examined within three content areas: knowledge of the past; date of construction; and character of the past of Salt City. The building attributes investigated were: contour, size, shape, surface quality, signage, visibility, use, and significance. The results of the study suggest that older buildings in the centre of the city evoked similar images of the past focused on public or social buildings along with residential settlement building. Attributes relating to images of the past were original use, date of construction, historic signage, and historic integrity. This study presents an approach for operationalising an image of the past.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges with thanks the role of the Deanship of Scientific Research, Jordan University of Science and Technology, for its support of Research Grant No. 12/99 that made this paper possible. The author wishes to acknowledge the willingness, even eagerness, of more than 100 family and non‐family households in Salt City, who shall remain anonymous, to participate in this study. Thanks are due to a number of insightful anonymous reviewers who made valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Any deficiencies in the paper, however, are my own.
Notes
Ahmad Y. M. Al‐Zoabi, Jordan University of Science and Technology. Correspondence to: [email protected]
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