Modernity in Middle Eastern architecture has led to the secularization and westernization of architecture in Iraq, replacing traditional vernacular styles. In Erbil City in Kurdistan, the unique Kurdish architectural identity and traditions, as seen in the Citadel of Erbil, have given way to modern abstract styles influenced by the West after Iraq gained independence following World War I. While Kurdish areas gained more autonomy in 1991, architects have struggled to develop a modern national style that draws from traditional Kurdish architecture due to it being ignored in schools and by government policy for over a century, leaving a gap in understanding traditional Kurdish styles and how to apply them today.

1. MODERNITY ANDARCHITECTURE:
FROMVERNACULARTO SECULARIZATIONOF
KURDISTAN.
By Sufia Shaikh

2. THE STARTING POINT OF
EVERY ARTISTIC CREATION
MUSTBE THE NEEDS,ABILITY,
ANDACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR
TIME.
- OTTO WAGNER

3. WHAT IS
MODERNITY
IN ARCHITECTURE?
Modernity is thus marked by the
unprecedented pace and scope of
change and the emergence of new and
unprecedented social institutions
structured around the imperatives of
the post feudal society. The creative
response to modernity is modernism.
Given the contested nature of
modernity, it is unsurprising to find
that modernism operates under
similar conditions of ambiguity and
irresolution. In the specific context of
architecture any account of
modernism must be grounded on a
careful analysis of the intellectual
parameters within which the architect
is working.

4. THE EBRILCITY
•Modernity in Middle Eastern society has
emerged in such a way that it clearly indicates
the western form of secularization of
architecture with specifically the Iraq liberation
in 2003 from the vernacular architecture that
comprises the dwellings and other buildings of
the people. 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 that was found in the vernacular Islamic
culture of the Middle east that had the Persian,
Egyptian , Kurdish and Arabic architectural
forms.
Ebril City that had its unique Kurdish
identity and architecture and marked the
rich culture and tradition. Kurdish
traditional architecture can be classified
into three basic categories according to
their location, towns(shar), village (gund),
and nomadic. Citadel of Erbil (Arbil) is a
good example of this old and unique
architectural heritage in KurdistanAfter the
First World War, Erbil became part of the
new established kingdom of Iraq and since
then the city’s urban growth has been
directly influenced by the economic, social
and political process that has lead to
westernization of architecture and from
vernacular art it has been secularised to
abstract modern art.

5. •Large territories of Kurdish area have gained
local control since 1991 following the Gulf
war. Since then, large reconstruction projects
have started in rural and urban areas. Till
2003, the projects were administrated by UN
under the agreement of oil for food that
further influenced the architecture and in the
process of urbanization. Even after the
liberation, areas of Kurdistan got autonomous
identity where the local population have
achieved large control over the their territory.
Yet architects and schools of architecture in
this area couldn’t manage till now to benefit
from this historical change in Iraq that can
support building modern local national
architectural identity. One century of
ignoring Kurdish architecture in schools of
architecture and the government’s policies
has created a gap about identifying Kurdish
traditional architectural style and how to
regenerate and apply it in the present built
environment.

6. vernaculrsecular

7. THANK YOUFOR
LISTENING!