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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of different levels of place understanding (primarily typo-morphological analysis) on the nature of interventions within historic urban setting and buildings within the City of Amman.

The research methodology depended on an extensive thematic survey and analysis. The typo-morphological analysis addressed several of Amman's residential hills and their connections with the downtown area. The thematic place survey tool included different units of analysis (e.g. buildings, public spaces, streets and sloped lands between streets) and addressed the values of these various buildings and spaces, their typology, typo-morphology and relation to the urban context, nature of change and transformations over time to mention a few. The extensive survey also included semi-structured interviews about these buildings addressing their emergence, historic context and values.

The paper presents an architectural typology for Amman's architecture and its relationship with the city's morphology stressing the specificity of Amman's historic core and residential hills. The paper also discusses the effect of this level of place understanding on the nature and levels of interventions within historic settings and buildings.

This level of place understanding (typo-morphological analysis) can have a positive impact on the practice of architectural and urban conservation by informing the nature of interventions within historic urban setting and buildings within the city. More specifically, this level of place understanding can, first, inform the development of urban and heritage guidelines within conservation areas in one of Amman's residential neighborhoods (Weibdeh) and, second, inform the nature of interventions to existing historic buildings based on respect of building typology.

This paper contributes to the disciplines of architectural and urban conservation illustrating how place understanding can inform practices of heritage conservation and future policies and strategies concerning new intervention within such heritage places.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a critical assessment of the trajectory and nature of the production of knowledge on cultural heritage on the Arab world. This evaluation of the discipline or field of cultural heritage will focus on both a historic evolution and on current practices in order to understand the nature and politics of that evolution.

The approach and research methodology adopted for this paper depends primarily on a long-term critical literature review and content analysis that took place over the past 25 years concerning key reports, journal articles, books and other publications on cultural heritage on the Arab world.

The paper's main findings centers on presenting current practices/production on cultural heritage which are divided into two categories in terms of production of knowledge: an abundant engagement with a technical sphere dominated with concern for documentation and conservation technology of cultural heritage; and a scarce engagement with epistemological and theoretical spheres that delves into processes of cultural heritage definition, consumption and continuity in the Arab world.

The paper attempts to engage in and commence a much-needed wider discussion on the historical transformation concerning knowledge production on cultural heritage in the Arab world and its related practices and processes. The paper emphasizes the significance of this engagement with theoretical spheres of conservation and calls for an expansion of such engagement in order to elevate the discourse and debate on cultural heritage in the Arab world.