The Selective Dialogue with The Other and Its Impact on

the Strategies of Urban Renewal for Contemporary Iraqi

Cities

Thesis of Ph.D. in Philosophy of Architectural Engineering Science

College of Engineering-University of Baghdad
2013

Researcher: Supervisor:
Nadeen Nidhal Ameen Hannosh Prof. Ghada Mousa Razzoqi Al-Salaq
(M.Sc. in Architecture-Urban Design 2002)
Nadeenh76@yahoo.com ghadamrs@yahoo.com

Abstract:
The Fields of philosophy and architecture are the main two concepts that the research
deals with."The dialogue with the other," is the first concept which has received interest from
the philosophers and thinkers in various intellectual fields such as (Political - social - religious -
cultural etc.). Recently, invitations appeared to embrace this concept against the backdrop of
what was caused by the current scientific and the digital revolution with its cosmic conquests,
which leads to different changes in various fields of life,including architecture. The selective
concept appeared with respect to the multiplicity and diversity. so that ,the in dependent variable
that mentioned in this research is the the selective dialogue with the other.

On the other hand, the "urban renewal strategies referred to the dependant variable
which also received a lot of studies and researches. Moreover, many inveterate cities both at the
regional level, the Arab and Muslim world or at the global level have gone a long wayin the field
of urban renewal projects and strategie. At the local level, this concept was not absent as
debateswere and still exist in professional institutions as in academia for decades. The studies
have been conducted to renew urban areas and old city centers in general, specifically city
centersand development projects identified in Baghdad in particular. In recent time, a debate
inscientific conferences as well as the professional seminars are repeatedwith the growing of the
importance of this concept globally "and the urgent need to promote Iraqis importantancient
areasthat are falling every day".

The research aimed to build a cognitive framework about the two main variable
(dependant & in dependant variables) study the principles associated with the first concept; "The
selective dialogue with the other" which is represented with "the concept of dialogue - parties of
the dialogue" self - the other "- the formulas of the emergence of dialogue in studies through
various fields - selection down to the operational definition of the selective dialogue with the
other and to determine the general problem of the research in " to know the formulas that
shows the selective dialogue in the field of architecture in the light of the complexity of
recognizing the concept selective dialogue with the other and the need to know who is
the other in architecture".From the study of variables associated with the concept II
"strategies of urban renewal" which is represented by "study of the concepts: strategy - urban
renewal - down to the operational definition of the strategiesof urban renewal - and from
criticizing the studies and architectural proposals in this area, the research problem has been
determined. Which is :"The deficiency of studies about the impact of selective dialogue with
the other in the field of architecture in general and its application in the strategies of urban
renewal for Iraqi contemporary cities in particular ".The research aimed at clarifying the
impact of selective dialogue with the other in the field of architecture in general and its
application the strategies of urban renewal for Iraqi contemporarycities in particular.
Accordingly, the research hypothesis has been formulated as follows: "The selective dialogue
with the other which is part of the strategies of urban renewal could be performed between
two cities. i.e., one of them negotiates the other intellectually and materially, representing
ideas of urban renewal and strategies of intellectual dialogue, and represent the experience
of urban renewal dialogue and material according to stages of consistent dialogue
temporally and spatially. Eventually, any Iraqi city could establish a selective dialogue with
another city that has an urban renewal experience.

The indicators of the selective dialogue and the indicators of strategies for urban renewal
have been extracted to apply on the field of study. After the selection of Baghdad city Self as
an Iraqi prototype; and the city of Barcelona as the other, the research concluded by using
practical study that the dialogue of the cities refers to the to the dialogue of ideas which allow to
benefit from the experiences, ideas and the executable tactics in the field of urban renewal that
done by the other cities. Also, it contributes to find new methods that capable of developing
urban regions, formulating and establishing a suitable base for planning situations.
Furthermore, it is capable to provide the possibility of trial and error method and also to get not
only an advantage from the failures of other cityin order to avoid them in the future but also it
has the ability to introduce new cities.

Moreover, this research presented a number of recommendations, and one of the most
prominent recommendations is the one that depends on this kind of dialogue that uses the study
of comparison and analysis as a way to apply in our Iraqi cities, this will increase the efficiency
of the way that we use to deal with our buildings and traditional cities by taking into
consideration the privacy of the form that we deal with.

Nadeen N. Ameen