The Village Where The Roofs Are Also Streets | Show Me Where You Live Compilation

[Music] my name's Philippe C May I'm a philosopher and I'm interested in what architecture can tell us about our lifestyles I'll take you to explore some of the most remarkable habitats on the planet in order to discover their meaning and to share their riches [Music] thank you [Music] the Gillen province in Iran has a lush green landscape far from the desert climate of the country's interior [Music] here everything is different climate landscape architecture so much so that Iranians call gilan Iran upside down [Music] I'm going to the Village of masule one thousand meters above sea level in the albores mountains north of the capital Tehran [Music] sulay was built in an area of high seismic activity on a steep piece of land with a height difference of 100 meters [Music] this Village of 900 residents is architecturally unique the roofs are all interconnected to form pedestrian areas like a street or Courtyard where people can meet [Music] I've come to explore the architectural style of this Village the only one of its kind in the world [Music] hello shoja is a restaurant owner he loves his village his family has lived here for many generations this is a beautiful village with its houses built into the Mountainside this is the historic village all of the houses are interconnected and built looking south facing the Sun if you look here you can see that this path hugs the slope of the mountain and all the houses next to it are built on the same slope the roofs of the houses are designed so that residents and visitors can easily use them as a pedestrian space but what exactly do the residents do on the roofs the rooms are essential to the way of life here which means that for the people living in these houses these roofs are part of their daily lives it's become sort of a habit for residents to walk side by side on the roofs walking on the roofs allows people to discuss various things about the culture economy or local business Etc are often amazed that people here meet on the roofs to talk and discuss business so they stroll on the roofs as well they go back and forth enjoying the scenery [Music] the village of masole has existed since the 16th century no motor vehicles can enter the city the entire town is for pedestrians narrow streets where locals can stroll on [Music] goods are transported using wheelbarrows there are special ramps for them everywhere from this side of the roof you can get a better view of how the village was built what I really like here is that when you're on a rooftop Terrace you feel isolated but simultaneously connected to the Village both visually and physically by this system of walkways for me that's what ties The Village together yes wherever you set foot in you have a panoramic view of the city is a multi-dimensional place it's made up of several different neighborhoods bizarre which is down below is the Heart of the City I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 50 2 layers watch on mobile devices free no subscription required everyone shops it's located right in the center of the city's four neighborhoods foreign [Music] [Music] the village houses are built on Floors of natural rock allowing them to mold to the shape of the mountain and to blend seamlessly into the landscape many of them have deteriorated because of bad weather or lack of maintenance the people of masile are now aware of their architectural Heritage and have begun restoration work here they're in the process of restoring an old house this house had fallen into disrepair and they're rebuilding it completely uh when the structure of the house is completed they'll cover the facade when the mud has dried they add a kind of clay that is yellowish Clay is taken from a location nearby they extract the color and then they cover the facade with it you can see that the facades of the houses here are ocher colored close to Yellow like the color of mud putting on that color is the final step of construction thank you come in please thank you here's the inside of my house this main room serves as a living room a place to receive guests or relax and over there is our kitchen where we prepare meals I'm surprised by the thickness of the wall it seems like it's at least 50 centimeters [Music] the walls of the houses on the ground floor are very wide we only use local materials here when these houses were constructed they used Stone and clay and to make the walls extremely resistant to earthquakes the thickness could be anywhere from 70 centimeters to one meter is that the slope is located at the back of the house this is because the whole weight of the house rests against the mountain in a way the mountain supports the house and protects it from natural disasters these walls in the rear part of the house really lean against the mountain they're called which means Mountain walls and they are rooted to the mountains [Music] here the weather changes very quickly this morning it's snowing and the village is covered in thick fog foreign I go above the clouds to the ruins of the old masole six kilometers away there I meet with siamak a young researcher who's passionate about the history of the village [Music] the old masoulay was located on the Silk Road which was the main trade route between Europe and Asia from 2nd Century BC to the 16th century [Music] the first inhabitants of massoulet were craftsmen who created weapons and iron work so the village was established on an old Iron Mine whose traces are still visible about one thousand years before Christ this is a very isolated spot here on the very top of the mountain range it's hard to imagine that this was such a strategic location that's true but what you must understand is that it was very well located on a strategic Central axis [Music] they were able to generate a huge amount of business with the neighboring regions and since they mined iron and the neighboring regions needed tools this was then a thriving industry for them if the village was in a strategic location for trading and business why wasn't the new Village rebuilt here the migration happened in two stages the first migration was because of an outbreak of the plague in 636 and four centuries later around 1012 or 1013 a major earthquake shook the entire region the old masule was hit by the earthquake and was completely destroyed that is when the city moved into the valley of gamar with the current muscle a was built but I wonder why the new Village of masole was built directly into the Mountainside the best place to settle and build was the middle part because 60 to 70 degrees with time people understood that they would have to use this type of architecture to protect themselves from heavy rain and earthquakes that the architecture of muscle is a balance between artificial and natural by natural architecture I mean it's in harmony with a Mountainside landscape and the many nearby sources of water and by artificial architecture I mean the homes built by man agers [Music] [Music] roofs are both private and public spaces depending on the time of day in the afternoon for example roofs may be used for walking around meeting friends or even playing soccer at night however they are closed to the public to protect the peace and privacy of the residents [Music] I admire the Ingenuity of the villagers who with limited means have created a flexible space that works for their daily needs [Music] shoja takes me to the oldest house in the village built 300 years ago he introduces me to one of his neighbors rolama hello please come here thank you can I keep knitting yes you can please have a seat turn on it we have two rooms here one for winter and one for summer which is called the chugum in masule dialect the summer room stays cool and the winter room stays warm you know it snows a lot in winter here it's really cold very cold me doesn't it bother you that so many people walk around on your roof not at all actually I like it it's a courtyard for everyone people pass by and that doesn't bother me at all the roof has several layers it's very strong don't worry it's very sturdy you know it's always been this way here for a long time here nobody will bother you the roofs are a space for everyone they're homemade I made them myself great okay I'll try this one I love the little drawings on it thank you the unique way the village is organized with its roofs that also serve as streets does that improve relationships between Neighbors we're all friends there are no problems between us none glitter these shared roofs are part of our way of life the residents have always coexisted peacefully there's one thing about the architecture of masule that is unique the residents had such good relationships that the houses were often interconnected in several different houses would share one common door you will not see a single house here that's detached from others all the homes are connected by a common wall so the people of Missouri live in a friendly and coexistence in the best sense of the term [Music] [Applause] the bazaar is the True Heart of masole and the base of the city's Revenue here they sell anything you might need this is where residents do their shopping and where tourists flog you can still find signs of the craftsmanship that once made the village Thrive but today these Goods have mostly been replaced by the sale of imported items aimed at tourists [Music] I asked xiamak about this change and its impact on The Village's future where most of the residents of massoulet merchants bordered several different cities that explains why so many people settled here in the past the location brought a lot of people here to do business I would think that the city's Multicultural Dimension is reinforced by the spatial organization of the village with all these shared spaces these roofs that are filled with people it must create a sense of togetherness yes you're right because of the topology of the village a uniform architectural style was created which made integration easier for the inhabitants a unique City Style was created here so the fact that common spaces are shared by everyone in the village has strengthened the bond between the people that come from elsewhere and the locals [Music] today masule is a place for different groups of people to meet and interact [Music] business owners are now focused on tourism and attracting Iranian youth [Music] today Iran is a country that is opening up to the world and soon there will be a massive influx of tourists especially in Massillon it's going to completely transform the way of life here that's the current challenge the economy here is centered around tourism and if it continues to increase that will obviously lead to change to preserve the lifestyle here we need a business model but the plan has to be Community minded I think our first priority is to work on a sustainable community-based tourism model in order to preserve the site I see [Music] business is doing well but paradoxically the village is losing its inhabitants in 60 years the population of masole has decreased from 3500 to 900 people residents are concerned by the social and economic changes foreign it is a recurring topic [Music] there are lots of people in this Cafe are they all residents of masulate yes most of them are from here but there are some who come from neighboring Villages they're workers who come to work in the village I've always lived here there used to be a lot more people living here but now we get more visitors people just passing through there are fewer and fewer residents of muscle many people have left to find work elsewhere but their houses remain so did this have an effect on the transformation of the village is one of Iran's historic cities it has the qualities of a site that should be preserved operations are underway for it to become a world heritage site we can't just make changes to the city there are restrictions for Developers you're in a paradoxical situation because on the one hand the protection of masile's architectural Heritage creates income from tourism but on the other hand it hinders The Village's potential for physical transformation I'd say that a new phase has begun and the way of life has changed and it's true that we may encounter real difficulties in preserving both the historic village and daily life here to preserve historical sites there are strict rules to comply with are aware that the village belongs not only to the people here and to the country of Iran but also to the entire International Community thanks to its unique architecture that you won't see anywhere else in the world baby boy [Music] experts say that you should build the roof last because it completes the house providing protection and privacy to its residents [Music] but here the roof is the foundation of Village Life a space that's both public and private it's the link that bonds the villagers and the symbol of masules opening up to the world [Music] by strolling on these roofs visitors are woven into daily life here discovering with each step A New Concept of space based on sharing and the desire to live together [Music] go ahead help yourself please can I taste a cookie they all seem really good I'm gonna taste this one yeah this one oh it's got sesame [Music] my name is Philippe simay I'm a philosopher and I'm interested in what architecture can tell us about our lifestyles I'll take you to explore some of the most remarkable habitats on the planet in order to discover their meaning and to share their riches [Music] Louisiana a Southern state of the United States where the Mississippi River ends its course its meanders spreading out into a huge delta formed by alluvial deposits carried out by the river to the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico this is the Bayou Country an area of land and stagnant water measuring a quarter of the size of France possessing an exceptionally Rich ecosystem and the most fertile fishing ground in the United States foreign [Music] subjected to seasonal hurricanes and flooding of the Mississippi the region is now facing another threat the land is sinking little by little the causes are predominantly man-made flood barriers levees canals and swamp draining are blocking the sediment deposits that strengthen the land level it's estimated that the equivalent size of a football field disappears every hour at this rate Louisiana will have lost 30 percent of its territory before the end of the century how do people live on land that's disappearing at such a rate [Music] [Music] after a two-hour Drive south of New Orleans I arrive at Puerto chambayu renowned for its abundance of crabs shrimp and oysters it's also one of the most exposed zones to storms and flooding [Music] Dwayne is a boat captain on the Mississippi and he spends all his free time fishing in the swamps I feel that the way of life here in the bayou is closely linked to Nature Don hey you got a lot of freedom you know like me I wake up in the morning for like when shrimp season open I'll go shrimping or like this one I woke up at four o'clock I went crabbing you know all your surroundings uh it's all there you know whatever you want to do it's almost like a kid with a new toy you know you wake up in the morning he just glass it and like I said I've been doing it for 30 years now and uh enjoy it enjoy doing it and uh open Live a few more years to keep doing it again [Music] there are some with blue Claws and some with Red Claws I've caught a whole bunch here let's go guys he pinches hard huh [Music] yeah foreign [Music] so what's changed the salt water been coming from the North Shore and all and I guess it's killed a lot of vegetation that that crabs at all live on I'm thinking plus hurricanes and stuff so let's see a lot of that salt water coming in with the storms it takes about half foot away every year and sometimes we get like one or two maybe three hurricanes a year Dwayne's house has been destroyed three times by hurricanes rather than move away he and his wife Sherry have decided to stay and rebuild I go to puento Shen a nearby Village to take a look at their new house how are you your house is magnificent when did you build it the house originally is like 25 years old but we had three hurricanes that flooded the home I've lost my home three times so the first time the water reached this height no the house was originally on a cement slide it was a brick home and for the first hurricane we had about three inches I see about three inches so we had to cut the inside of the walls to three feet we ended up cutting it three feet and we pulled all the insulation out then another storm came a few years later then I had about a foot of water so we had to cut all the walls again take all the insulation out well the third time we had four feet of water so that was it I was ready to run but with all the new guidelines and insurance companies for for the regulations for you to be able to have electricity in the home you had to go uh 10 feet above sea level so that's why my house is now 10 feet I'm impressed by the number of stilts your house is built on and by their thickness they're much bigger than the ones you see on the neighboring houses I was worried about if another storm came or just a bad thunderstorm that the wind would shift the house back and forth so we put forth the money extra to go with 12 by 12 and we have 76 under this home and this house ain't going anywhere it doesn't shake it doesn't move whatsoever welcome Philly thank you did your husband build all of this a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears I can imagine are we going over there no okay but despite all these catastrophes you decided to stay here regardless at first I was upset and I rode for sale with a spray can of paint but like who's gonna buy it whenever you have four feet of water in it so um my husband's not a carpenter he's a boat captain but he uh very handy and he rebuilt our home it took three years to rebuild with him working seven seven on the tugboat but we was able to do it and I love my home I wouldn't trade it for anything it took two two days for the water to get out the house so we can before we get to start cleaning up and as you can see that's the big pile of in my front yard of all my belongings and when you came back everything was destroyed what did you think at that point I wanted to leave I didn't want to stay so we lived with my mom for for months before we actually came back down here but um the people were just not as friendly in town as they are down here and that's what made our decision we need to come back home so we decided to elevate oh the fact that everything is raised here the houses the public buildings the churches do you think this gives the Bayou a new architectural identity oh yes it's just our way of life nobody really wanted to live but we knew if we wanted to stay together as a family in this community that that's what we had to do and I was so against lifting I really really was but now that I'm high I'm I'm good that's definitely our identity now if you want to live on the Bayou you're going to have to elevate you're gonna have to live up [Music] by raising her house Sherry protects it from flooding but this seems to me to be a temporary solution what will she do in a few decades time when the waters permanently at the foot of the stilts in order to prepare for the situation the residents of the Lafourche Bayou District located farther east have opted for a radical solution surrounding themselves with huge levees measuring 80 kilometers in circumference Wendell coroll is in charge of this Levee system oh so we're right on the Levee here and we can see both sides inside the levy system we haven't floated since we closed the system so people can build a little bit differently on the inside the system on the outside you have to build with the understanding that water is going to be over your property once in a while if you build up and water goes into your yard that's an inconvenience water coming into your house is a disaster but the people who stay they deal with that that risk of the water but they love the lifestyle the rest have moved away and travel to the lifestyle you have to work a little bit harder to live the way we used to live but in the past did all the people who lived in the bayou have houses like these no the houses weren't built that way they basically were on the Ridge and the ridge had some decent elevation and they built above the ridge so there was some height there too but not to this high but because the land has dropped so much they have to build this high if you're not inside of a levy system so uh with that to change how we build we always build with some elevation but since the ground is going down we have to build the high the houses higher above the natural ground because we've stopped the river we're getting some tremendously fast geologic changes in water that might have been our land that might have been above sea level uh just a few years ago now is Volusia this phenomenon of sinking land is due primarily to a combination of man-made factors underground mining of hydrocarbons by the oil companies but also the increasing number of dams levees and canals upriver from the Mississippi Delta is preventing the River from carrying the sediment that naturally cemented the land [Music] the water here is at eight feet below sea level okay and the water here is at sea level or plus actually almost plus two okay and when was this Levy built started in uh in 1976 and uh we've finished the circle in 1993 and since that time we've been increasing the height and making it better we flooded in 1985 but since we closed the system we've not floated and it goes from where to where uh it goes from the royals Louisiana to Golden metaphor communities about 27 000 people just further down we don't have a levy system in Louisville and Louisville no longer is really a community because of subsidence and then with some sea level rise it became more and more necessary to build the levees and that's going to continue I'll have communities that will either have to build levees or abandon their communities but how do you explain that on one side the sea levels rising and on the other the land sinking well actually on both sides of land the whole platform is sinking we have uh if you look leaving the last 100 years lost four feet three feet to subsidence and one foot to sea level rise we're losing land faster from that and losing elevation faster than sea level rise so combined it's a very bad problem to prevent flooding you build levees but what can you do to prevent land from sinking oh really you just have to deal with it you deal with the again you know that the land is sinking nothing lasts forever as long as it makes sense here we will live here and when it does makes sense we'll continue to move but we have been moving with Generation by generation have moved and there will come a time when we will move again window has a pragmatic approach for him wherever there's a parcel of land left you stay here and build protective walls around it but what does this represent for the people who live here NYX an oyster fisherman and lives inside the Levee system [Music] we're actually in a bowl is completely Circle you know it keeps the water out wait and uh that's our protection from the hurricanes hopefully it works hello hey baby how you doing I'm Philippe pleased to meet you it's surprising that you're on the right side of the Levee yet you still raised your house yes we do I mean for the most part unless you get something really severe you know we are protected we are within the Levee so yeah what's going to protect you from Katrina you know nothing I don't stay right just because because you never know when that hit's gonna be so every time there's a storm or a hurricane you leave she lives in North Texas or enough yes it's hundreds of kilometers away and what about you Nick you don't leave you stay here no I'll stay here um and we got to take care of all the boats in the houses we got five boards seven houses and you just got too much stuff to leave for and uh and for the business for the oysters I I welcome the Hurricanes I love hurricanes because they might kill 30 of my oysters but they'll give me a thousand percent back [Music] but if there's a flood can you move your house somewhere else to move it now it would be very expensive but it can be moved I think if they moved it now they would move it on a board I found this house up the road about 15-20 miles and I uh I bought it and it was an old house this old man an old lady lived in and it was real it was a shotgun house just the big part and then this part was a shed we put Cedar on the outside because it's natural it's it's durable it lasts long it's low maintenance so um you know and then here we are but when I look at this house it seems so light and it's just raised on stills it's as if you've decided that nature was more powerful than man and that it was useless to try to fight it really I guess it's a hit and miss I mean it's Mother Nature yes didn't miss anywhere you know 1930s if the people would have been smart they would have left the river flow in the bayou Lafourche land would still be building and we would all live in houseboats and our houseboats would go up and down with the with the tide and there I think is where the corps of engineering the government maybe made a mistake down here close to the coast I always said that growing up why don't we live on the side the Maya because that's where everybody lived at first about a buyer what's left of the Bayou I feel that with The Disappearance of the swamps the inhabitants are speaking of a landscape that doesn't really exist anymore going a few dozen kilometers farther north to Grand Bayou Noir I learn of the existence of a preserved by you recognized as a protected Nature Reserve Pershing was born and raised here inheriting the cultural wealth of his Cajun ancestors who lived in harmony with the swamps the Cajuns were French speakers coming from Acadia in Canada evicted by the British in 1755 they found refuge and settled in the French colony of Louisiana did the entire Mississippi delta look like this I believe that most of it looked like this uh you know the natural before the the white guys came the white man came uh when the Indians lived here and there was no levees along a river the natural flooding from the river Every Spring over the thousands of years caused the land to build up that's what built all this Delta area who were the first inhabitants of the Bayou and how did they live first and happiness were probably Native Americans Indians those were the first folks they kind of mingled with the acadians when the acadians came in in fact the acadians probably learned a lot about living off the land from those folks you know a lot of the the Cajuns who moved here and they were fishermen and they could live off the land and when these two populations became intermingled what type of habitat did they live in I guess one of the differences between what happened in a lot of places in American here is that they had to raise the structures uh for a couple of reasons uh one was the flooding it was a lot of flooding going on uh and then with the flooding comes came snakes and things like that so they had to raise the houses to get those animals uh keep those animals out but also it kept them cool too so you'll find even the poorest structures some of the old structures from the 1900s that were built with the old growth Cypress and even the the mansions had similar characteristics but they couldn't live there and also live off the land because it was a huge amount of diversity the Bayou is gradually disappearing and that's a true catastrophe at the same time I've witnessed an incredible energy from the inhabitants do you think that they are capable of Reinventing their way of life how they live the only issue that might be severe would be a direct hit from a hurricane that would destroy the land take places out like El Jean Charles and so that could that could have a profound impact upon you know how people are here and what they do but the culture goes everywhere man it's it's a culture people love it's not gonna it's not gonna ever get lost the land may get lost but not the culture [Music] that Pershing mentioned is located in the southernmost part of Louisiana the situation here is critical the island has lost almost half of its land mass over the last 15 years for the Native American community that lives here it isn't just the land but their entire culture that's living on borrowed time [Music] who are the inhabitants of this island they're mostly uh cherimachi and Choctaw Native American some of my grandparents and they married uh French people that came from Canada so I'm not full native so that means you speak French yes I speak French does everyone here speak it the old people still do the older people and but some of the younger like in the 30s or 40s do but like the young ones that are going to school now no [Music] I'm struck by the height of these houses how high up are they three or four meters this house here is 15 feet above sea level well there used to be uh barrier islands in the Gulf and uh that that did a lot to protect this land and all around but there are they're all eroded they're all gone do you feel much more exposed now than before definitely yes I think so oh yes there's nothing left you know and uh they're not building us uh that uh big big Levy around us because they said to include the island it would cost too much money so it's true that when you look all around here you see that there's really nothing left there's no land no trees and you can see that the water is gaining ground yes they used to be a piece of land because we used to fish on the other side of it and it's not there no more [Music] I can imagine my neighborhood changing my town changing but I can't imagine that the land I live on could just one day totally disappear do you see yourselves ever leaving here it's good to come to that we all know it so we just have to prepare ourselves I guess [Music] a lot of people have already left at the risk of the community becoming dispersed Albert the chief tries to convince the remaining inhabitants that it's time to leave the island do you think that your community can continue to Exist Elsewhere if we can take the people here reunite all those that was pushed off the the this community did what we call an island if we can get the people to back together to reunite this community Will Survive our kids are going to call that new community home just like we call this here at home so it's it's just going to be a different place kind of a different generation but the kids there that we could teach him was Paradise and it was because we could run all over this island here it was ours [Music] I joined Nick in his boat again for a last sail on the river inundated by the Sea The Bayou appears something of a paradox full of Vitality and life even though everything that makes up its wealth is disappearing more and more each day naturally this was all land my daughter used to dive into that middle pipe in my Walker and I couldn't go you know I just go around so I've been on this boat this boat all my life and uh you know I I grew up I couldn't wait to be an Osterman next year that much land gone obviously when I listen to you I can feel that you have a very strong almost intimate relationship with this land I love the land I wish I could rebuild it I wish we wouldn't lose it I I mean it's what are we going to do in a hundred years what are my grandkids gonna do they'll never know the stories I tell them to be true there won't be no land to justify you know uh I brought y'all in these canals back here because I wanted to show you all the trees but there's no more they've all gone very few trees so yeah I have a strong tie with the land you know I'm not an Indian but I feel like an Indian I love the Earth the sea the air you know and I think more people should respect and love it and maybe we would have more of it as I leave the Bayou I'm struck by the resilience of its inhabitants by their ability to deal with an extreme situation the gradual destruction of their Island hasn't destroyed their will to live here but has reinforced their sense of belonging to the same community who's trying to get me this one [Music] he pinches hard [Applause] even with gloves on

Channel: TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

Views: 539,681

Keywords: travel documentaries, tracks travel, tracks, beautiful travel, full travel documentary, full documentary 2021, tv shows - topic, culture, travel, tourism, Documentary movies - topic

Id: DK6mE0Hh2nU

Length: 51min 59sec (3119 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 22 2023