**6. Conclusion**

*Sustainability in Urban Planning and Design*

**5. Deriving the urban gap**

([46], p. 368, [47]).

aggressiveness of large-scale developments, where the ideology of the human scale provides a guiding route. The debate of the modern movement has often taken place in architectural reviews as one of the crucial transformation points in the history of architecture. The theme of reductionism is a modern ideology; nostalgia for the city's past and the characteristics of humanity has become one of the most critical issues in contemporary architectural writings, conservation projects, and the maintenance of the architectural history of the city, both on the level of structural scope or urban design. Therefore, there is a need to move from 'the rationalised modernist views that deconstructed so many towns and cities in the 20th Century' to meet the desire and 'need to unpack and reconstitute the synoptic art of city-making that was substantially lost during the so-called machine age of the 20th Century' ([44], p. 8).

A cross-reading of the literature concerning the emergence and development of Baghdad to the present-day helps to outline the research gap. The awareness of the value of heritage and history, particularly in the oldest sector of the city, has increasingly become an essential kernel for the emergence and diversity of ideas, which help to maintain and develop this part of the city. The characteristics of the old area reflect a considerable number of criteria, such as limited travel distances, lower car dependence, and greater opportunities for people to walk. These encourage community life with better surveillance that enhances public safety [45]. Thus, these characteristics, particularly in the old fabric of the city, underpin the quality of social life by reducing motorised-based use, minimising external pollution, concentrating activities, adopting multimodal street networks, mixing land use, enabling high occupancy rates, and highlighting the value of heritage and cultural elements. Another incentive is to help forge a relationship between the old centre and the city that reflects the concept of a living museum, based on real, coexisting life. A living museum explicitly offers positive opportunities at all levels, such as entertainment, culture and historical experiences, economic support, and social activities; it provides an attractive location for people and helps to underpin tourism

The city centre of Baghdad is a 'mosaic of memory' that contains unique features, whether related to its physical dimensions or collective memory. The traditional core has varied characteristics, which consist of many activities and ancient architectural components as well as a complex urban fabric [3]. The functional definition of the street is subject to the top-down approach to authority, even in the historical area of Baghdad that originally came from a long-established bottom-up approach. Shamsuddin and Ujang state that streets in an urban context are places of economic and social significance; great cities are often identified by their main streets, and the nature of these streets reflects the image of the city. Furthermore, one of the key functions of the street is to convey the main characteristics of a city and its particular identity. A street can represent the general perception of a city's character, identity, and image due to its bonding with individual experiences [48]. For fine-scale approaches, particularly in historic towns, the priority is the human scale, which is typified by the enclosure of spaces that are shaped by the boundary of buildings. The thoroughness of the building pattern combined with the design of the spaces is essential to give a sense of identity. In contrast, isolationism and introversion become the main features of modernist buildings. The influence of the modern wave was not only witnessed on the public space but also on the social and cultural meaning of space, where human aspects were not fully considered. Four objectives were identified by Gehl with respect to the human dimension,

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This chapter addressed the emergence of Baghdad and the stages of its morphology and transformation. The oldest periods began with the Round City; this created the first nucleus that later formed Baghdad. The city then moved from the west to the east riverbank of the Tigris. Moreover, the main historical characteristics of the urban structure survived until the British occupation in 1917. The physical environment was typified by two fundamental urban components: street network and Mahallas (traditional neighbourhoods). These two elements have a close interrelationship and an overlapping pattern. Spontaneity follows the bottom-up approach, where the community manages its own built environment; this is derived from the order and regulation that informed the norms and values of inhabitants and their beliefs.

Morphologically, the historical region of Baghdad was distinguished by an organic pattern for both the street network and its built units. Moreover, the street pattern was also subject to a series of definitions according to the degree of privacy and other functions. This chapter highlighted the main points that differentiate the historical pattern of the city and the modern era. Those points were considered under four main headings: (1) the essence of Baghdad City, (2) its streets' characteristics, (3) the old fabric and modern trends, and (4) the dialectic between traditional and modern concepts. Modern areas in Baghdad follow the top-down approach to generate neighbourhoods that are distinct from the fine-scale or micro level of street life. However, this mainly depends on the expectations of future programmes through predetermined land use. Due to the new strategies and regulations introduced by master plans, the urban structure of Baghdad drastically changed, not only in the centre but also in the surrounding regions. One of the main aspects of these transformations in the urban structure is its street life and how might people respond to the street edge and how their social interactions are influenced. Furthermore, this impacts the underlying system in terms of its street pattern and the network characteristics, including the centrality value.
