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EXAMPLES OF
AL-FINA'
IN ISLAMIC CITIES
105
street space
169
•
At the same time some few young Iraqi architects who were
educated in Europe, the USA, and Turkey returned to Iraq and
began to practice architecture particularly in Baghdad. As a
consequence, Baghdad became the first test area which thus
witnessed the application of different design solutions copied
directly or indirectly from these countries
1
�. This contributed
also to make Baghdad the source which influenced all other cities
in Iraq such as Arbil.
2. The people who moved from the old settlement on the hill down
to the surrounding valley. My interviews with some old
inhabitants shows that people's actions were stimulated by an
increasing population density in the old area, an improving
economy, changes in traditional social relationships and life
style, and demands for healthy houses and settlements
n1
•
The first car was introduced to the city in about 1935 by
a rich landlord called Mulla Afandi. At that time there were no
paved streets in the city except the main roads paved in 1930s
and connected Arbil with other cities such as Kirkuk and Mosul.
In the late 1940s there were only some 10 cars which belonged
only to the rich families.
Most of the people who moved to the new areas during this
era built their houses by using new designs and new building
materials, which were copied from other new houses in Baghdad.
These new designs were in turn copies from European countries,
1
6!>ttiwaish, Akeel N. Mulla, 1988,
al-'Ima'rah al-Hadithah fi al-'Ira'q
(Modern Architecture in Iraq), Dar al-Shun al-Thaqafiyyah al-'Ammah, Baghdad.
pp. 47-72.
1
�Chadirji, Rifat, 1991,
al-Ukhaider and the Crystal Palace,
Riad El
Rayyes Books Ltd, London. pp. 26-115.
171
The interviews were done in 1995 and involved some 15 old people.