Author name:
فائز نعوم عبد المسيح
Supervisor name:
منذر بشير الاعظمي
Abstract:
Construction of towns and cities is the big sign - which prehistoric people left to prove the greateness of their civilizati~n in different areas of the world. Mesopotamia land has been one upon vrhich ancient towns were built, following a certain architectural and planning styles. These styles have charactarized those cities, and were followed in many other towns which were built later. The ruins of those towns are still standing in Babylon, Hatra, Vr, and other places of Mesopotamia.Obviously, there is a great relatien between the society and the urban system in which they live. This relation s~ggests that the design of the h8uses, the streets,and the city as a whole, must meet and satisfy two main criteria, namely privacy, and safety. On the other hand, the design ~f those elements should reflect the socio - cultural, economic, political, and technological stat'US of the society.The smallest urban structure unit which can reflect such statu$, is the neighbourhood unit. Accordingly, different kinds of studies were carried out by specialists to find ~ut concepts and theories for the neighbourhood unit. The aims of such studies were mostly to establish a better residential environment, or a more economical neighbourhood structure. While the social environment is usually not clear in such studies, because of the difficulty of finding out certain social measures which relate human beings - l lAwiththe physical design of the neighbourhood. This thesis attempts ,to.· find : .i · : : , out the social criteria which affect the design of neighbourhoods, and the affects of designs followed in Baghdad city on the social environment. Baghdad city was chosen as the area of study due to two main factors, the first of which was that Baghdad's history returns to the eighth century A.D. This long history suggests that housing in this city has undergone a long - time filteration process, through which many changes have taken place, in the social structure, as well as in all designs of neighbourhoods. The second factor was that Baghdad is a metropolis now, of more than (3) million inhabitants, ·which suggests the presence of different kinds of social norms and characteristics.It was very difficult, if not impossible to identify general social criteria which characterize the social groups of Baghdad city. Besides, it was found that the same social terms had different meanings in their life. Then, the study stressed on the analysis of different designs of neighbourhoods, and on the social environment of each, from which the interaction between the society and physical design.was established.This study was organized in four chapters, the first of which includes a comparison between the neighbourhood concepts which were followed by nearly all modern neighbour hood's developments, and the old Baghdadi neighbourhoods which were developed without referring to any designed concept. The second chapter was compof;ed of two parts. The first part discussed the planning 1 ~ri teria used in identifying the different neighbourbooas, while in the second part, social aspects and measures were established,and correlated with the social planning criteria suggested in the first part. In the third chapter, an attempt cf viewing the community life in the future was made. The attempt was based on the National Development plans, and th" Ba1 ath Arabic Socialist Party policies in achieving its maj - n goals and objectives. I A compartson between the present sccial environment and the aimed one was carried in the fourth chapter. From that, the needs and directions to achieve the form of future neighbourhoods were established.Finally conclusions and recomn1endations were made in the form of statements which could be taken as directions in designing residential areas, in which a certain level of social homegenity and interaction could be achieved.
