HAMMAMED

“Raising awareness for the HAMMAM as a cultural heritage for the Mediterranean area and beyond”

To promote the concept of a contemporary usage of the Hammam, we organised hammam and neighbourhood days in Mediterranean cities, an exhibition and a documentary film. The whole Mediterranean region shares a mutual object of cultural value – the hammam, the public Turkish bath. The aim of Hammamed is to raise awareness for the hammam as a common cultural heritage in the Mediterranean area and beyond. Among the many valuable cultural heritage sites, the hammam has very specific features which reflect its importance and call for its promotion among the public: it is part of the collective memory in the Arab Islamic world and thereby contributes to the identity of the urban — and also village — culture; it is an architectural legacy and a living cultural heritage and as such it combines both a tangible and an intangible heritage; it is well embedded in urban communities, filling an important role for neighbourhoods and, in many cases, for the Medina as a whole, and yet for many reasons, it runs the risk of disappearing.
The management of the neighbourhood hammams often need support in order to face the challenges of a changing urban and societal environment, especially concerning hygiene and religious practices. This project therefore aims to put forward actions targeting urban dwellers, as users of this heritage, and authorities, as responsible agents for its management and safeguarding.
Among the results, we wait for sociological studies, a management concept, and rehabilitation design on ecological basis, “hammam and days of neighbourhood” in Mediterranean cities, an exhibition and a documentary film.