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Couple Aims to Preserve Yemen's Past Amid Present Chaos¹

The ancient land of Yemen is known more today for its fight against poverty, tribalism and terrorism.

Perhaps it's not the best place for an American couple to build a house. But that's what scholars Stephen and Kate Steinbeiser recently did, giving themselves the added challenges of making it environmentally sustainable, in a traditional Jewish design, primarily out of mud.

"When we first started, the neighbors around us, who generally have more modern homes built in cement, kind of made fun of me as the foreigner new to the block and not knowing what I was doing," said Stephen Steinbeiser.

Undaunted, Steinbeiser, the resident director of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies, hired architect Abdullah al Hadrami. Together they devised a plan showcasing Yemeni craftsmanship² while paying homage³ to this Sana'a quarter's once vibrant⁴, now dispersed⁵ Jewish presence - a brave statement in a country al-Qaida calls home.

“It was all done by hand and so, for example, there were three workers who cut 2,240 stones from basically this bizarre shape into more like squares," he said.

All the metalwork is handmade, by a blacksmith in Old Sana'a.

"This is kind of a simplified version of a more traditional lock... There is actually a hidden latch⁶ here that allows this to come out from the bottom and for the door to open. Yemenis are very clever with locks,” said Steinbeiser.

There's a traditional mafraj - or room to chew qat, a national pastime.

“We don't use it for chewing qat, but most Yemenis do, and the point is that you're at a high point, you know, of a city or place, and you're surrounded by windows so you can look out,” he said.

The main feature though, from traditional Yemeni architecture, is the use of mud: mud bricks, mud plaster, with, in some places, a coating of animal fat to seal it tight.

“This room is a very cool room of the house, especially in the summer. Mud architecture has that effect. It's basically a type of insulation⁷ that allows temperature to remain constant,” said Steinbeiser.

Not only does the mud make air conditioning unnecessary - it offered another benefit during the tumultuous uprising of last year.

“My Yemeni friends will reassure⁸ me by saying, 'Well, if there is a bullet that goes through the walls, it's not a big deal. It's mud. You just patch it over and it's fine,'” Steinbeiser said.

Few foreigners have stayed during the hard times. And for honoring Yemen's past, the Steinbeisers have changed their neighbors' opinions.

“When they saw the finished product and they saw it was really a kind of testament⁹ to Yemeni craftsmanship, Yemeni ingenuity¹⁰ and Yemeni heritage, they fell in love with it,” he said.

The house also is a commitment to Yemen's future, a small promise of continuity and self-reliance in a country struggling to find its way.