Resumen de Impact of contemporary rebuilding process on changing architectural genotype

Ameera Ahmed Abdullah, Wrya Sabir Abdullah

• The rapid economical, socio-cultural changes in Sulaymaniyah city, Iraq in the last three decades promoted radical changes on both urban and architectural level. Several traditional houses in the historical center of the city have been demolished and replaced with rebuilt modern houses leaving negative impacts on the old fabric at both formal and spatial level. This paper aims to investigate the role of the contemporary rebuilding process achieved by landowners within the traditional neighborhoods of the city on changing the underlying genotype constants of housing spatial configuration through examining the morphological characteristics of the architectural layouts of both original and rebuilt type. To achieve this aim five traditional houses’ plans built from (1900-1960) were selected to compare with five modern rebuilt houses (1990-2022) within the same neighborhoods, their spatial arrangements have been compared following analytical quantitative methodology using (A-graph software) as one of space syntax techniques also known as (Gamma analysis) to determine the characteristics of houses layouts in terms of (Symmetry/Assymmetry) and (Distributness/Non Distributness) of the whole system. Results suggest existence of different structuring modes based on genotype distinction despite similarities in some organizational principles.