Formal characteristics of vernacurar architecture in Erbil city and other Iraqi cities

Abstract

Related to their environmental contexts and available resources they are customarily owner- or community-built, utilizing traditional technologies. All forms of vernacular architecture are built to meet specific needs, accommodating the values, economies and ways of life of the cultures that produce them." (Oliver, 1997, p.ii)
 In another definition Oliver gives a description about the context of vernacular architecture: "Within the context of vernacular architecture it embraces what is known and what is inherited about the dwelling, building, or settlement. It includes the collective wisdom and experience of a society, and the norms that have become accepted by the group as being appropriate to its built environment." (Oliver, 1997, p.ii)
 In his book (House Form and Culture), Amos Rapoport makes a comparison between the
 buildings that belong to the grand design tradition and those of the folk tradition. (Rapoport, 1969,p.2)
 According to Rapoport, the monument- buildings of the grand design tradition- are built to impress either the populace with the power of the patron, or the peer group of designers and cognoscenti with the cleverness of the designer and good taste of the patron. The folk tradition, on the other hand, is the direct and unself-conscious translation into physical form of a culture, its needs and values as well as the desires, dreams, and passions of a people.•lt is the world view writ small, the "ideal" environment of a people expressed in buildings and settlements, with no designer, artist, or architect with an axe to grind (although to what extent the designer is really a form giver is a moot point). The folk tradition is much more closely related to the culture of themajority and life as it is really lived than is the grand design tradition, which represents the

Erbil City Built Heritage and Wellbeing: An Assessment of Local Perceptions Using the Semantic Differential Scale

“…Sanoff (2016) found significant differences comparing two different styles of residential buildings [62]. Khayat and Khaznadar (2016) implemented the SDS in the context of Erbil city using a single case study method [63]; they focused on social aspects that may have caused the neglect of the traditional and vernacular heritage of Erbil by using a questionnaire survey. This study has a sample size of 17 architecture department staff members and concludes that Erbil's built heritage is "not the core of interest", because the respondents do not share a common standpoint.…”