La forma del deserto tra strade carovaniere e insediamenti. L’oasi di Dakhla come modello per la conoscenza e il disegno di parti e elementi dell’architettura in terra cruda.

An oasis is the result of the long and patient human work that shapes the soil by building walls, constructing hydraulic and irrigation systems, taking care of the palm grove, and organizing agriculture. Through the oases of the Western Sahara Desert, the caravan routes are shaped as a network of precise geometries, which from the shores of the Mediterranean cross and structure the entire territory. The most important settlements of the ancient kingdom of Saharan Egypt are the five western oases: el-Kharga, el_Dakhla, Bahariya, Farafa, and Siwa. They have a special connotation of identity whose form cannot be separated from the intrinsic relationship with nature. The natural and anthropic landscape develops and articulates, interpreting in continuity, the special and consolidated characters of the places. The streets hierarchy, the sequence of green spaces, the architectural types, and the construction techniques, are the translation of natural order and builds a sustainable and recognizable system. A privileged condition where collective places, houses, streets, private spaces, domestic and public dimensions, the space of ritual, the space of social iterations and culture, find themselves unconditionally connected. These case studies are strongly representative and are considered a tool for methodological definition: the construction of oases as the most complete example of a population in harmony with the ecosystem in the Mediterranean.