Bjaddada was named on a board dating back to the eighteenth century BC, the time of King Hammurabi. Baghdadi was named in a board dating back to BC. At another board dating back to the twelfth century BC the name Bjaddado appeared.
However, the main concern is for functional transformation, which leads to topological depth alteration and can change morphological patterns in an old urban structure. The revolution against what humanity has produced through its long-rooted history has led to unpredictable and unsatisfactory results, with modernism at the forefront of such results [ 37 ]. Cities, however, have many places and sometimes only a few historic buildings or a cluster of outstanding features which merit preservation.
These buildings and elements within their own context afford continuity with the past and lend diversity to cities. According to Cullen, the history of a city involves several historical layers, where most cities are constructed on old foundations, and their fabric exhibits evidence of different periods in their architectural and urban patterns and in the diverse accidents which are recorded and conserved by various layers of history [ 40 ].
It is possible to identify two essential perspectives that determine the relationship of the oldest urban area of Baghdad to the contemporary urban progress of the city.
The first is the vertical perspective, which stands for the modernisation of the city centre itself and its adoption of the modern ideology. The second is the horizontal perspective, which addresses the extended urban areas that are adjacent to the traditional centre of Baghdad.
This relationship, however, could include the fine scale of the city in examining the ability of the street to promote social interaction as a public space for people. Furthermore, different interfacing patterns could also be performed in the street. Since the end of the Second World War, the rapid growth of Baghdad was partially uncontrolled, whether in the oldest zone or the surrounding regions.
The built-up area increased from a mere 6 square kilometres in the first decade of the nineteenth century to about square kilometres in ; this will be extended in the future unless there will be more thoughtful planning.
This has since been achieved since starting the study. The more significant diffusion of Western ideas and the concept of modernity and technology coincided with the colonial and independent phases of Iraq that attempted to instil reform and development. The aim was to open up Iraq to the capitalist global economy by adopting Western patterns of society and their physical environments. The influence of such rapid growth on the old fabric was overwhelming during the last three decades of the twentieth century.
The growth of urbanisation generally led to an increase in demand for more physical environments, which severely damaged the old urban fabric of the Rusafa area. In contrast to Baghdad, a considerable number of other countries with ancient regions intentionally affected urban expansion outside the boundary of their historical regions [ 4 ]. The debate between modernity and identity in the scope of architecture has always been raised, whether by specialists or the public.
To a large extent, the concept of Westernisation is evidenced by modernisation and modernity [ 41 ]. The concept of cross-cultural references would be a more efficient way to drive an active role in reshaping and configuring both imported concepts and local objectives in the interaction between different cultures and counties or societies. This could be considered a healthier transformation in the interrelationship and exchange of experiences among communities [ 41 ].
Reviewing the brief archaeology of firms that worked in Iraq, Doxiadis prepared the development plan for Baghdad in ; the concept adopted was to keep the compact pattern of the traditional central area and to construct new adjacent streets. However, these plans were not largely realised although some housing projects and an Army Canal were carried out [ 41 ]. Despite the storming of the Middle East by modernity, particularly in relation to lifestyle, architecture, urban design, and planning, the traditional themes still gave a sense of balance with their socio-climatic traditional components.
However, in the s, Polservice designed traffic networks for Baghdad that disregarded the old urban fabric in the city centre [ 41 ]. A significant disadvantage in urban space is caused by the intersection between the historic fabric and the power of market orientation. Also, the tendency towards augmentation regardless of the historical and cultural environment generally leads to the creation of a vacant area, which mediates between two contradictory contexts in terms of history, culture, and urban structure.
The old fabric of the city splits into different sectors through creating new urban spaces that unfortunately work as segregation perimeters. The loss of system regulation, control, and monitors on urban development plans, besides the level of bureaucracy and administrative systems, collectively led to more devastation for traditional buildings and street patterns [ 8 ].
Reshaping the city to reflect the Iraqi identity entails a major preliminary survey and the first administrative framing of its heritage. However, a considerable number of architects tended to pervert such legacies by using modern techniques in design, materials, and construction within the framework of traditional Arab architecture.
This procedure has been adopted many times by architects trying to gain acceptance for their designs [ 41 ].
Accordingly, some attempts have been made to employ a local, traditional vocabulary in decorating new buildings in order to reduce the disparity and develop a new iconographical strategy. The Iraqi identity, in general, belongs to the history of ancient civilisations where part of its artefacts emerged as a fertile and fundamental basis for the nation that is undergoing a revival in the modern era. Considering the old area in Baghdad, urban public space can be described through monuments, which include emblematic statements that carry a new iconography through the synthesis of a national repertory with a modern style.
The notion of value in the old fabric of the city seems to be on the opposite side to high-rise buildings, which demonstrate inconsistency with the surrounding horizontal environment, particularly around the central area of Baghdad. The moment that the new European style emerged under the terms modernisation and Westernisation, Baghdad no longer remained a typical Arab-Islamic city. Al-Haidary asserts that modernisation and the implementation of rapid, dramatic changes by increasing economic growth and population sizes resulted in unregulated buildings in the old urban fabric of Baghdad [ 32 ].
Pieri refers to urban identity as a language with a syntax that is composed of both built and natural and tangible and intangible realities. Thus, architectural themes have their own exclusive urban character [ 41 ].
Despite the paradox that the old urban fabric and its characteristics belong to its historical roots, its ability to survive within new urban developments is considered significant in so many countries.
The old structure in a city offers unique opportunities to deal with its urban components to promote and develop an urban environment that meets human need throughout its social, economic, and environmental qualities [ 42 ], cited in Al-Akkam Architecture and urban planning belong to cultural systems of representation and are part of long-term durability.
The urban and architectural history of Baghdad should be taken into consideration as part of global urban heritage. From this point of view, Baghdad faces a significant challenge to the reconstruction of the old part of the city.
According to Pieri, this challenge must be settled for the long term, not only for urban and architectural patterns but also for the people who live in the city [ 43 ].
Mohammed Makiy calls this a micro-vision which plays a significant role in softening the aggressiveness of large-scale developments, where the ideology of the human scale provides a guiding route. The debate of the modern movement has often taken place in architectural reviews as one of the crucial transformation points in the history of architecture. A cross-reading of the literature concerning the emergence and development of Baghdad to the present-day helps to outline the research gap.
The awareness of the value of heritage and history, particularly in the oldest sector of the city, has increasingly become an essential kernel for the emergence and diversity of ideas, which help to maintain and develop this part of the city. The characteristics of the old area reflect a considerable number of criteria, such as limited travel distances, lower car dependence, and greater opportunities for people to walk.
These encourage community life with better surveillance that enhances public safety [ 45 ]. Thus, these characteristics, particularly in the old fabric of the city, underpin the quality of social life by reducing motorised-based use, minimising external pollution, concentrating activities, adopting multimodal street networks, mixing land use, enabling high occupancy rates, and highlighting the value of heritage and cultural elements.
Another incentive is to help forge a relationship between the old centre and the city that reflects the concept of a living museum, based on real, coexisting life. A living museum explicitly offers positive opportunities at all levels, such as entertainment, culture and historical experiences, economic support, and social activities; it provides an attractive location for people and helps to underpin tourism [ 46 ], p.
The traditional core has varied characteristics, which consist of many activities and ancient architectural components as well as a complex urban fabric [ 3 ]. The functional definition of the street is subject to the top-down approach to authority, even in the historical area of Baghdad that originally came from a long-established bottom-up approach. Shamsuddin and Ujang state that streets in an urban context are places of economic and social significance; great cities are often identified by their main streets, and the nature of these streets reflects the image of the city.
Furthermore, one of the key functions of the street is to convey the main characteristics of a city and its particular identity. For fine-scale approaches, particularly in historic towns, the priority is the human scale, which is typified by the enclosure of spaces that are shaped by the boundary of buildings. The thoroughness of the building pattern combined with the design of the spaces is essential to give a sense of identity. In contrast, isolationism and introversion become the main features of modernist buildings.
The influence of the modern wave was not only witnessed on the public space but also on the social and cultural meaning of space, where human aspects were not fully considered. Therefore, transformations in the behavioural system can occur rapidly in comparison to alterations in buildings and the urban context.
Although this does not deny the role of the built environment and its influence on the community, the rate of change seems more explicit in human behaviour than in physical surroundings. For example, specific historical areas or buildings continue to exist as before, while each generation has their own experiences in an urban environment. Gehl and Svarre pose many questions about public life in a city.
These questions are based on the relationship of people to urban spaces and their interactions with the surrounding environment and other people. The final question concerns whether the city can generally provide specific knowledge of the type of activities undertaken [ 49 ]. This chapter addressed the emergence of Baghdad and the stages of its morphology and transformation. The oldest periods began with the Round City; this created the first nucleus that later formed Baghdad.
The city then moved from the west to the east riverbank of the Tigris. Moreover, the main historical characteristics of the urban structure survived until the British occupation in The physical environment was typified by two fundamental urban components: street network and Mahallas traditional neighbourhoods.
These two elements have a close interrelationship and an overlapping pattern. Spontaneity follows the bottom-up approach, where the community manages its own built environment; this is derived from the order and regulation that informed the norms and values of inhabitants and their beliefs. Morphologically, the historical region of Baghdad was distinguished by an organic pattern for both the street network and its built units. Moreover, the street pattern was also subject to a series of definitions according to the degree of privacy and other functions.
This chapter highlighted the main points that differentiate the historical pattern of the city and the modern era. Modern areas in Baghdad follow the top-down approach to generate neighbourhoods that are distinct from the fine-scale or micro level of street life.
However, this mainly depends on the expectations of future programmes through predetermined land use. Due to the new strategies and regulations introduced by master plans, the urban structure of Baghdad drastically changed, not only in the centre but also in the surrounding regions. One of the main aspects of these transformations in the urban structure is its street life and how might people respond to the street edge and how their social interactions are influenced.
Furthermore, this impacts the underlying system in terms of its street pattern and the network characteristics, including the centrality value. First, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Professor Sergio Porta and his thoughtful guidance through this chapter.
His experience in urban design, public space design, spatial analysis, urban regeneration, and adaptive urbanism had a significant effect on the formulation of the chapter. Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3. Help us write another book on this subject and reach those readers. Login to your personal dashboard for more detailed statistics on your publications. Edited by Amjad Almusaed. We are IntechOpen, the world's leading publisher of Open Access books.
Built by scientists, for scientists. Our readership spans scientists, professors, researchers, librarians, and students, as well as business professionals. Downloaded: Abstract This chapter aims to address the emergence of Baghdad and the phases of its morphology and transformation. Keywords urban design historical urban perspective development plan street characteristics old fabric modern trend.
Introduction Since the beginning of the last century until today, Baghdad in Iraq has remained one of the more unstable cities in the world. More Print chapter. How to cite and reference Link to this chapter Copy to clipboard. Cite this chapter Copy to clipboard Haider J. Al-Saaidy January 24th Available from:. It developed into the cultural centre of the world. If Baghdad today is a byword for inner-city decay and violence on an unspeakable scale, its foundation 1, years ago was a glorious milestone in the history of urban design.
More than that, it was a landmark for civilisation, the birth of a city that would quickly become the cultural lodestar of the world. Contrary to popular belief, Baghdad is old but not ancient. Some think the Arabic title for Babylonia, al-Iraq, is derived from its name.
We are told, for instance, that when Mansur was hunting for his new capital, sailing up and down the Tigris to find a suitable site, he was initially advised of the favourable location and climate by a community of Nestorian monks who long predated Muslims in the area. This was a retrospective endorsement. By the time Yaqubi was writing, Baghdad, City of Peace, had already become the centre of the world, capital of the pre-eminent Dar al-Islam, home to pioneering scientists, astronomers, poets, mathematicians, musicians, historians, legalists and philosophers.
Once Mansur had agreed the site, it was time to embark on the design. Under strict supervision he had workers trace the plans of his round city on the ground in lines of cinders. The perfect circle was a tribute to the geometric teachings of Euclid, whom he had studied and admired. He then walked through this ground-level plan, indicated his approval and ordered cotton balls soaked in naphtha liquid petroleum to be placed along the outlines and set alight to mark the position of the massively fortified double outer walls.
On 30 July , after the royal astrologers had declared this the most auspicious date for building work to begin, Mansur offered up a prayer to Allah, laid the ceremonial first brick and ordered the assembled workers to get cracking. The spread of agricultural knowledge and techniques and the introduction of new crops and food stuffs may have, in turn, encouraged population growth. The Abbasids encouraged the gathering of texts and welcomed scholars from many different cultures to translate these ancient works.
In so doing they preserved much knowledge that would otherwise have been lost. They also developed a scientific approach to their work, they were innovative and they questioned earlier beliefs when these were mistaken.
This helped to stimulate new learning and advance scientific and other knowledge. Literacy was highly valued with men and women expected to learn to read Arabic so that they could understand the teachings of the Koran. The spread of literacy and the development of new technologies such as paper making and a simplified script meant that new ideas could reach a wider audience. Islamic art and design flourished during this period. Complex geometric designs involving tessellating shapes adorned floors and ceilings.
Developments in ceramics and glazes led to the production of beautiful pottery. Exquisite calligraphy decorative handwriting was used for communication and ornamentation. Beautiful gardens with water features brightened and cooled the city. The modern hospital has its origins in the Muslim hospitals of this period. These treated all patients without charge and provided them with accommodation until they were cured.
Studies of anatomy led to the development of surgical innovations such as the use of cat gut to sew up wounds and the scalpel , that are still in use today. The study of the eye was particularly advanced with doctors able to perform effective cataract operations. There was also some attempt to treat mental illnesses. Astronomy flourished during the period with the minarets of mosques serving as early observatories.
The need for accurate calendars and almanacs was driven by the need to determine the timing of prayers. Improvements in navigation were important for determining the direction of Mecca.
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