Research Article

Post-war sustainable housing design strategies: the case of reconstruction in Iraq

Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal

^* e-mail: manuel.guedes@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Received: 27 March 2021
Received in final form: 14 June 2021
Accepted: 14 June 2021

Abstract

The damage of architecture in Iraq has been caused by a series of wars during the last four decades. The last conflict against the Islamic State from 2014 to 2017 caused severe destruction to the buildings in seven governorates, namely: Nineveh, Baghdad, Anbar, Babel, Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah Aldeen. three years after the Iraqi government has announced liberation, the cities are still covered by tons of rubble and thousands of people are still staying in camps. Several international humanitarian organizations are providing urgent assistance to help some local people to rebuild their homes. This paper presents initial results of an ongoing PhD research, which focuses on the role of architectural design in the postwar reconstruction in Iraq. It addresses an architectural damage assessment of the Post-War in the Old City of Mosul, after liberation from ISIS in 2017. The damage assessment focuses the residential buildings as it is the most affected sector and the most needed to start re-building. As rubble is the main obstacle for the residents besides that it's the first step for the recovery, this paper studies the scale of destruction to determine the quantity and quality of rubble in this historic city. Thus, it presents the current actions taken by locals and examines the government movements towards rubble management. Results show that, the unguided strategy of rebuilding is inefficient causing more damage to the environment and there is no comprehensive plan to protect historic buildings with a high heritage. The aim of this paper is to provide basic guidelines and recommendations for preventing further destruction to the heritage of the Old City.