Mohamed Gamal ABDELMONEM, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Hundreds of heritage sites in the Iraqi city of Mosul were damaged and destroyed between 2014 and 2017 due to ISIS occupation and war. Although there has been a range of heritage recovery projects in Mosul, including collaborative projects of the UNESCO, they are limited in scope and scale, leaving the majority of historic buildings and the old city largely in ruinous state. This study presents a critical analysis of the to-down reconstruction programme and reports on a community-led participatory approach we deployed connecting local communities, academic institutions, and the national government to record, raise awareness and preserve invaluable heritage sites in Mosul.
This research managed to trace the journey local communities, markets and trades managed to use to rebuild their disappeared cultural heritage and reinvest into more economically viable models and community-led programme of heritage recovery. Based on an intensive exploration of international heritage charters and recovery programmes, this study developed and examined architectural, social, historic and authenticity values of buildings, documenting successful examples of small initiatives with private investment to preserve and re-envision new modes of cultural heritage economy in Old Mosul. This study demonstrated that due to the absence of a reliable heritage assessment system or framework for rebuilding programmes in Mosul, highly valuable heritage structures have been left destroyed, whilst structures of low value have been recovered, whilst many suffered from spontaneous concrete reconstruction of heritage assets causing further damage to their historic values.
Mots clés : Cultural heritage|Post-conflict cities|Heritage Preservation|Participatory approach|Mosul
A103611MA