Vernacular architecture stylings in Khasab.

Especially after having the “Should I go or should I go?” excitement building in my mind about the next day’s wedding festivities, the rest of the afternoon proved a lovely walking experience in Khasab. The tough anti-pedestrian vibe of the morning subsided, and I found myself walking in smaller back alleys and more shaded areas.

I started noticing that there was a beautifully consistent and yet various vernacular style to the architecture here. By vernacular I mean it isn’t designed. It is simply done a certain way by the local craftsmen. Style is a designation that someone like me gives to it, after the fact.

You see the metal door in the photo above? Here it is, a little closer.

There are a lot of these doors in Khasab, all related and yet, as far as I could tell, each one different.

You get the feeling that these literally are not designed, in the sense of there being working drawings that are then realized in metal. You have the sense, instead, that the door shape is a familiar frame, and that they do things with metal (and with color) inside that frame.