THE INHERENT SUSTAINABILITY OF TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE CITADEL OF ERBIL: WITH REFERENCE TO RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN ERBIL CITY

Abstract

This paper is supported to analyse sustainability inherent in traditional architecture in the Citadel of Erbil through developing Sustainability Assessment Method (SAM) suitable to the natural environment and social values in the region. The Problem of this research is the need to form a set of guidelines for planning policies and design decisions for contemporary architecture, especially residential buildings with regard to the potential of sustainability evident in traditional architecture in the Citadel of Erbil. This paper aims to evaluate the sustainability inherent of traditional architecture in the Citadel of Erbil city, with particular reference to residential buildings in Erbil city. To achieve the aim, this paper is related in developing Sustainability Environmental Assessment Method (SEAM) and Sustainability Social Assessment Method (SSAM) suitable for Erbil city through analysing existing sustainability assessment methods. The methodology that used in this paper is the Comparative Analysis (CA) for six houses, three traditional and three contemporary, in Erbil city using descriptive, qualitative and spatial analysis for these case studies. Two of these case studies were chosen, one each from the traditional and contemporary categories, to be tested in the experimental part of this study. The two chosen case studies were assessed using the proposed SEAM and SSAM to investigate environmental and social sustainability performance of traditional and contemporary houses and to test suitableness of the prospective SEAM and SSAM. This paper are divided into three parts.