The Challenges of Retrieving the Traditional Courtyard Houses of Baghdad

An invasion of modern detached houses has disturbed the complex, coherent structure of traditional neighborhoods. In modern day Baghdad faces the daunting task of retaining the characteristics of a traditional Arabian city. Have traditional residential units not yet been retrieved? What are the challenges and obstacles of restoration? The courtyard represented the heart of the Arab house. It was located where all habitable and service rooms were grouped and looked toward daily light and natural ventilation and recreation as well. The traditional house was a place for gathering and entertaining. The clustered pattern and spatial arrangement of attached houses had been adapted to serve and accommodate extended families. For decades, this traditional family structure had essentially contributed to building a strong, steady social relationship. The international style of the 1930s in Baghdad and socio-economic changes have lost the residential architecture most of its substantial characteristics, produced Neo-Orientalist architecture. The current political situation in Baghdad has also introduced new practices that represented a fundamental obstacle of restoration. The paper examines the possibility of retrieving traditional courtyard houses in Baghdad in the light of three main challenges: modernization and contemporary Western views, family structure and social mobility, and current political issues.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.106.86

Volume Editors
Amir Ameri & Rebecca O'Neal Dagg

ISBN
978-1-944214-15-9