Floor areas

No building has yet been acquired. This page translates into square metres what the programme requires of each room of the Riad and of Dar al-Hiraf, so that one may know which building can receive it.

All figures are usable floor areas, rounded and given as ranges, calculated from the use of each room and the number of men who use it; the survey of the building finally chosen, with its walls, its levels and its bays, will then fix the exact measure of each.

TWO STATES

Opening and full establishment

The house opens with a single workshop, saddlery (see Dar al-Hiraf), and with four or five shared rooms, that is twenty-five to thirty-five residents; it then grows as the masters and the resources are gathered, up to eight or ten shared rooms.

Each corporation received adds a workshop, a share of the store and the room of its maʿallem, and the full establishment is reckoned here on four to six workshops. The first column therefore gives the area needed on the day of opening, the second the area to be provided for growth, whether by a wing left free from the outset or by volumes acquired later.

THE ROOMS

What each use requires

The threshold

Door, driba and intermediate space — A vestibule with a single turn, and two doors that are never open at the same time. 18–24 m²

Three parlours — About ten square metres each, with its own water point and lavatory. 36–42 m²

Bawwab’s lodge — The keys, the lantern and the register of departures; no one sleeps there. 6–8 m²

Room of correction — A bed and a mat, off the vestibule. 8–9 m²

Government

Room of the Ash-Shaykh and its sitting room — A room of 16 m² and a small sitting room of 22 to 28 m². 38–45 m²

Rooms of the two Muqaddam — 14 to 16 m² each, opening onto the Ash-Shaykh’s sitting room. 28–32 m²

Apartment of the direction — For the direction or an aged master, onto the courtyard and the garden. 40–50 m²

Office of the house — Accounts, registers and correspondence. opening 10–12 m²; full 12–15 m²

Sleeping

Six-bed rooms — 25 to 28 m² each; four or five at the opening, eight to ten at full establishment. opening 100–140 m²; full 200–280 m²

Rooms of the maʿallem — 12 to 14 m², one per workshop, adjoining the shared room. opening 12–14 m²; full 48–70 m²

Study cell of the faqih — The same measure, adjoining the khizāna, with no bed, the faqih sleeping in the shared room with the apprentices. 12–14 m²

Washbasins, showers and lavatories — Placed midway along the gallery rather than at its end. opening 45–55 m²; full 80–95 m²

Linen room — Washing and ironing, reached from the gallery. opening 12–15 m²; full 15–20 m²

Work

Workshop — In a single span on the ground floor, with water point and forge flue; 90 to 110 m² for the first, 60 to 90 m² for each that follows. The heavy crafts remain on the ground floor, around the courtyard or in an adjoining fondouk; calligraphy, bookbinding and fine weaving may rise to the gallery. opening 90–110 m²; full 300–450 m²

Materials store — Leather, cloth and seasoning timber, under lock. opening 20–25 m²; full 50–70 m²

The body

Hammam — The changing room, el-barrani, el-wasti and ed-dakhli. opening 60–70 m²; full 75–90 m²

Farnatchi — The hearth, the borma and the fuel store, with its door onto the alley. opening 15–20 m²; full 18–24 m²

Hall of the disciplines — A clear rectangle at least ten to twelve metres long, open to the sky or under a ceiling of 3.5 m. 100–120 m²

Store for bows, lances and equipment — Upright racks for the shafts, made by the wood workshop. opening 8–10 m²; full 10–12 m²

Knowledge

Room of the books — The faqih’s lessons, with seating for a whole intake. opening 40–50 m²; full 55–70 m²

Khizana — The locked cupboards, where one does not stay to read. opening 12–15 m²; full 15–20 m²

Study rooms — Two at the opening, three at full establishment. opening 30–36 m²; full 45–54 m²

Common life

Oratory — Slightly more than one square metre per man in the row, residents and masters together. opening 40–50 m²; full 60–75 m²

Refectory — A single table, at 1.3 to 1.5 m² per diner. opening 50–65 m²; full 90–105 m²

Kitchen, pantry and scullery — One kitchen for the whole house. opening 35–45 m²; full 50–65 m²

Provisions store — The stores of the house, under lock. opening 12–15 m²; full 18–25 m²

Winter salons — 35 to 40 m² each, with fireplace and accumulation stove; two, then three. opening 70–80 m²; full 105–120 m²

Munya of the Riad — The residents’ room of rest, furnished with carpets, cushions and hangings. opening 60–80 m²; full 90–120 m²

Staff changing room and lavatories — For the masters, the farnatchi and the service staff, who do not reside. opening 12–15 m²; full 15–20 m²

Plant rooms — Water supply, electricity, water reserve. opening 10–15 m²; full 12–18 m²

Usable floor area — opening 1 030–1 280 m²; full 1 650–2 160 m².

BUILT AREA (GROSS FLOOR AREA)

From usable to gross floor area

To the usable areas must be added the galleries, stairs and passages, which in a courtyard house account for about a sixth of the total, and then the thickness of old masonry walls, which takes a roughly equal share.

At the opening the programme thus requires in the order of 1 350 to 1 700 m² of gross floor area, spread over two or three levels around the courtyard; at full establishment, in the order of 2 150 to 2 850 m², the excess going chiefly to the workshops, the shared rooms and the refectory.

OPEN TO THE SKY

The courtyard, the gardens and the exercise grounds

Courtyard — The fountain at the centre and the galleries around it. 100–150 m²

Main garden — The beds, the shaded walks and the sahrij, low and not for swimming. 150–250 m²

Secret garden — The bustan of Damask roses. 40–60 m²

Kitchen garden — Within the walls or in the outbuildings. 60–100 m²

Archery ground — A range of about twenty metres, screened from view. 100–140 m²

These spaces are not counted in the built area, nor are the roof terraces. Riding takes place outside the medina, and the residents swim once a week in a pool of the city.

THE SURVEY

What the figures leave open

Three rooms fix the plan before the others and are the first to be checked on the building: the hammam, with its hearth, its chimney and the chebka that cannot be moved once laid; the workshop, which requires a ground floor in a single span and a service access; the hall of the disciplines, whose length cannot be divided.

الرِّياضُ لِأَهْلِهِ، لَا أَهْلُهُ لِلرِّياضِ