There are two dominant concepts about traditional cities, first, the physical traditional environments reflect the lifestyle form of their individuals and vice versa. that means, in one respect, the urban traditional form explains and supports the unity of the society’s nature which is manifested in social cohesion. Second, those cities with their societies are able to preserve themselves over time, in spite of forces of change. So, the paper is interested in exploring the mutual relationship between the physical built environment and social cohesion in traditional cities as the socio-spatial Phenomenon. Its problem is that some development projects for traditional cities do not care about social cohesion and do not deal with these cities as one of the socio-spatial types. The paper's question is, how can additions and development projects enhance and promote social cohesion in Traditional cities? The hypothesis of the paper is that social cohesion results from seven factors that pressure individuals to be under a relatively clear and defined social Order, these are (Customs, kinship, values and ethics, law, interests and conflicts, responsibilities, and rights) and that there is correlative compatibility between the phenomenon of social cohesion and the features of the physical Built environment for traditional cities. The project of developing the traditional city of Kadhimiya in Baghdad was taken as a case study, The paper concluded that all urban environments have seven factors, but their arrangement is what determines the socio-spatial Type. The results of the project’s assessment weren't suitable to promote the traditional socio-spatial type, but it was promoting the modern type according to the arrangement of its seven factors. So, there is a special arrangement for traditional cities that must be taken into account in any addition or urban development.

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Successful urban interventions in traditional cities must be thoughtful, accurate and wise intervention, so the research assumed that urban sustainability represents a contemporary development intervention that tries to regulate the performance of urban products (components - dimensions) in traditional cities within three factors which are, the right time, right place, and positive performance. The traditional Alnajaf city in Iraq was taken as a case study, morphologically; the general shape of the city was classified into five main parts and examined them with physical dimension that was depended on the concepts of sustainability threshold according to the descriptive data. From this analysis the research determined the right, time and place to achieve the best sustainable intervention. The research found that there is a variation in the level of sustainability in traditional Alnajaf city resulting from the different type of intervention at the level of the constituent parts of the urban fabric. Thus, it is possible to take advantage of the limits of urban sustainability (The Threshold) in creating a balance between the type of urban intervention and the needs of the original city to preserve the traditional cities, including traditional Alnajaf city.

The frozen architectural heritage products refer to the products that cannot be repeated or continued for more time. This phenomenon caused by many factors such as inability to use, inadaptability, unrepeatability, collapsibility and the products classified as masterpiece. This paper adresses this phenomenon as a negative power inside the traditional urban fabrics. The main question is how the impact of this negative power could be reduced. This paper conducted a questionnaire to evaluate the architectural heritage products in Alkadhemiaa city in Baghdad. A large part of its fabric has been removed and the local architecture of Alkadhemiaa city has been affected negatively. The results obtained showed that the loss of this heritage fabric could have been avoided.

Local architecture could be seen as a group of buildings that belong and present the place and the community features. The research problem focuses on the weakness of contemporary local architecture as a main source to generate the architectural heritage. The aim of this paper is to establish a criterion for sustainable contemporary local architecture that is qualified to create the future architectural heritage. The hypothesis is that the sustainable local architecture represents the main source to create the future heritage. The case study has been conducted on Al-Mustansiriah University campus in Baghdad. It has been evaluated by a sample of 50 specialists. The research applied the statistical method (factor analysis) to interpret the data. The results demonstrate that four main factors were extracted from many variables. These factors are authenticity, popularity, utilization and durability. The first two factors form the power of community satisfaction and the second two form the power of rational solutions. These two powers are the base of creating the future heritage.

In vernacular cities. People are the ones who make their places, such as housing and work, and their entertainment places as third places in which various activities are held. Vernacular cities are unplanned and informal patterns, suffering from the poor determination of the emergence of third places, with a poor appreciation of their role in achieving spatial delight which represents the feeling of (happiness, comfort, Benefit, and beauty) in the place. The paper's question was, where and how do the residents of vernacular cities spend their free time? The paper focuses on the absence of perception of the third place's role to achieve spatial delight in those cities. The hypothesis was that the third place is the basis for achieving the urban spatial delight known as those public places where optional activities are held, generating joy for the residents. It assumed that the spatial delight rate is the quotient of dividing the sum of the third places with their optional activities into the dwelling units in vernacular cities. The paper highlights the importance of presenting contributions to measuring spatial delight in minds of people, which is created by the third place and its events. It used descriptive and Empirical approaches, and the hypothesis was tested through the old Kadhimiya city in Baghdad/Iraq. The paper concluded that spatial delight can be measured in terms of the third place, as the higher the three places, the greater the delight rate. The paper found that the rate of spatial delight depends on the nature of optional activities and the number of times that visit those places by people. In addition, it found that the vernacular old Kadhimiya city was almost identical to the proportion of recreational use in the modern residential areas.

The contemporary products of the Iraqi architecture were no longer keeping pace with modernity and global developments. It was mixed with many styles of architecture over periods. The entry of modern architecture into Baghdad led to an accelerated change in the general morphological shape of the city through multi-story high buildings in the middle of the horizontal fabric. The aim of this research was to bring Iraqi architecture from the narrowness to the open ends as adaptive architecture. The research assumed that any building consistent with its general contents could be modified to the resilient selection procedure. The study used a descriptive analytical method in conjunction with a critical approach. A survey of architects and planners in Iraq was also performed. The method divided into three items; harmonization obstacles, the foundations of adaptive architecture and general Iraqi cultural contents. It made an evaluation and estimation the characteristics of the modernity movement within the concept of adaptive architecture. The methodology used qualitative approach based on the survey method (questionnaire). The results extracted indicated that the positive characteristics can unify the vision of modern architecture and urban trends towards adaptive architecture. The research concludes that adaptive architecture in Iraq was a sustainable and valuable in harmony with the contents of the common local culture. So, it could be considered as an adaptive architecture.