Strategizing Rehabilitation of Historic Residential Buildings in Akre Historic Area

Aveen Haji Ahmed; Shireen Younus Ismael

doi:10.65542/djei.v2i3.96

Authors

Aveen Haji Ahmed Department of Spatial planning, Collage of City and Regional Planning, University of Duhok, Duhok 42001, Kurdistan Region, Iraq https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9670-8053
Shireen Younus Ismael Department of Spatial planning, Collage of City and Regional Planning, University of Duhok, Duhok 42001, Kurdistan Region, Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5421-669X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.65542/djei.v2i3.96

Keywords:

Historic residential structures, Rehabilitation; Adaptive reuse, Heritage planning, Urban revitalization, Akre Historic District

Abstract

Historic buildings play a crucial role in enhancing cultural identity and urban revitalization and sustainability, yet their long-term survival increasingly depends on effective rehabilitation and adaptive reuse. The research investigates the main issues of rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic residential buildings in Akre historic city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Five dimensions were studied, including legal-institutional, financial barriers, socio-cultural aspects, technical aspects, and physical layout factors. A qualitative case study methodology was used based on 54 semi-structured interviews with key informants, analysis of governmental documents, and observations from field visits. Thematic analysis was used to analyses the interview data. The findings show that although the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse are legally supported, their implementation is still constrained by low community awareness, limited conservation master plan, lack of clear rehabilitation and adaptive reuse guidelines, weak institutional coordination, financial constraints, technical and knowledge gaps and building physical spatial limitations. The study concludes that an integrated planning framework is needed for the rehabilitation strategy of residential historic buildings in the historical area of Akre.

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