Refreshing and development projects

The historic area in Baghdad/ largely requires restoration especially for its infrastructure, to achieve a comfortable living environment. In fact, one motivation of Iraq government has refurbishing and development projects that reflect the importance of historic area which content T.C.H.T. Therefore, in that light this section focused on Al-Kadhimiya projects rather than other historic area. For the defence and improvement of the historical area, there were continuous state-driven building works in Al-Kadhimiya sub city centre between1978-1981. Moreover, the Iraq government had project to conserve and rehabilitate Al-Kadhimiya historical area between 2007- 2010.

The Municipality of Baghdad (2007) has invited many architectural and planning offices to develop the Al-Kadhmiya historical area in the sub centre of Baghdad. Also, the Municipality of Baghdad (2009) presented 6 investment possibilities for refurbishing and development projects in Baghdad in historic places one of them in the Al-Kadhimiya. In (2010) the Municipality of Baghdad suggested that architectural and planning offices form proposals to enhance the Al-Kadhimiya historical area in the sub centre of Baghdad and modernize them according to the lifestyle for the historical cities’ fabric through international competition to develop a culturally and historically sensitive site in Al Kadhimiya, Baghdad, and were chosen from ten pre-selected international and domestic design practices. The winning design was considered to have the most appeal in terms of being comprehensive, aesthetically beautiful, and in keeping with the area’s history, culture and social character.

Acknowledging the importance significance of the historic local market and traditional houses at the Al Kadhimiya site, and the necessity to maintain religious tourism in Iraq, the chosen company combined contemporary and traditional architectural structures. The scheme demolished some of the surroundings of the holy shrine, but maintained and rehabilitated many T.C.H.T for their unique architectural value.

Moreover, the plan suggested the conservation of the Al-Kadhimiya historical area, via high technology such as renewable energy. Mohamed Al Assam, who was the chairman and director of the project, explained that the main concern of the plan was to seek methods which would enable changes to make to the area in keeping with

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modern requirements, without injuring the spiritual history present its extant historic structures. The development must be done so that the place retains its spirit, and this was one of the key concerns in the design process. Another concern during certain religious ceremonies and festivals was that the location of Al Kadhimiya sees many visitors. It is important that the urban fabric is able to deal with these extra demands at peak times, but there is also a need to keep the area lively and attractive for residents during the year. The core urban area contains key parts of the historic urban fabric, which will be improved, refurbished and adapted plot-by-plot, in accordance with information gathered in the future, to retain the scale and the core features of historic Baghdad.

In this way, it is clear that another justification for choosing the Al-Kadhimiya historical area relates to the renovation and development work which has been conducted there.

2.4 Discussion

The different issues and the selected contextual factors are deemed to be relevant to the study because of their relationship to house design, lifestyle and the building performance, which includes: (1) the climate uniquely different elements are briefly described and the implications of these are as follows: solar radiation and sine, wind, temperature, sky condition, dust storm, rainfall and humidity. Iraq suffers from versatile of climate and weather conditions between the seasons and day and night patterns has already become apparent, with greater frequency, more intense weather events, and further environmental decay in the country (see Section 2.2.1). (2) The infrastructure is related directly to this study, because of its relationship to the building performance and the lifestyle. However, this factor has been affected during the last 30 years for different reasons. We have demonstrated that in many challenges there are interrelated respects, such as water and sanitation, electricity, and telecommunication (see Section 2.2.2). (3) Security was another key issue that has a significant effect on the lifestyle in building (see Section 2.2.3). However, these environmental changes, level of services and security need to be control and provide a proper and comfortable healthy interior environment for people in the building, and so eliminate the challenge of the harsh environment and general situation in Iraq.

Iraq has a number of historical areas and much traditional architecture. The historical areas in Baghdad city that contain the T.C.H.T are those such as old Rasafa and Karkh or sub- city centres like Kadhimiya and Adhamiya.

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Kadhimiya was chosen as a case study and other historical areas in Baghdad were excluded because the historical areas were too dangerous for non-locals and women. Thus, this restriction was dealt with by choosing the Al-Kadhimiya historical area as this area posed a lower risk. However, these historical areas possess high value land which has seen many refurbishing and development projects (see Section 2.3.1). Perhaps the most important factor that makes the study area suited to this investigation is the presence of a government plan to refurbish courtyard house types, which has prompted an investigation of the potential relevance of IS in this regard (see Section 2.3.2).

2.5 Summary

This chapter has presented a number of issues about Baghdad, Iraq, as a study area, and then established the reasons for Al-Kadhimiya being chosen, including the historical area; to properly investigate the relationship between IS in the T.C.H.T.

The environmental and social aspects play an important part in the instrumentality of the T.C.H.T for understanding how and why to choose housing technology options.

The next chapter discusses these issues in CH. However, the chapter ends by stating the objectives that underpin the structure and direction of analysis in both the theoretical approaches and the practical works.

Chapter Three: Courtyard houses

3.1 Introduction………... 27 3.2 Traditional courtyard house type……….... 27 3.2.1 Traditional courtyard houses concept……….... 27 3.2.2 Traditional courtyard houses categories……….... 28 3.2.3 Traditional courtyard houses components……….... 33 3.2.4 The responsiveness of the traditional courtyard house…... 39 3.2.5 The traditional courtyard house in Iraq... 49 3.3 Contemporary courtyard house type... 52 3.4 Advantage and disadvantage of the traditional courtyard house. 60

3.5 Summary ……….... 64

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