ABSTRACT
Nubia extends from Aswan in Egypt to south of Khartoum in Sudan. As a result of the construction of the Aswan Dam, most civil architecture of Nubia was destroyed by inundation. On the island of Bigge two abandoned Nubian villages have been preserved in a highly authentic state until our times. Their earliest fabric originates from 1912–30 and since 2015 has been the subject of investigations by the German Archaeological Institute and Berlin Institute of Technology in a unique combination of the disciplines of building history and ethnoarchaeology. The objective is the documentation and the analysis of the principles of spatial organisation and the constructive characteristics of Nubian vernacular architecture. Marked by changes in the natural habitat, the living conditions and social structures, and along with them the architecture of Bigge underwent a transformation away from traditional patterns, proving thus insights into the processes inherent in evolution of vernacular architecture.
