The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and some provinces over many centuries have been characterized by attractive designs and buildings inspired by the Baghdadi heritage. However, these landmarks have disappeared during the past years, especially after 2003, as a result of wars and the neglect that affected them, as some of those houses that contain "Shanashil" have turned into Stores for various goods or abandoned and dilapidated houses.

Shanashel is an architectural masterpiece that extends over the street, the alley, or inside the inner courtyard of the house (the hush), and is built with wood carved with colored glass, in order to allow women to see the neighborhood outside from inside their homes, especially when the neighborhood is closed and the design of the houses is directed inwards and not outside.

Al-Baghdadi, 47-year-old Muhammad Ali, who bought a property in one of the capital's districts, is keen to transform it into a building whose designs are inspired by the heritage houses that Iraq was famous for in past centuries, explaining that these designs are part of the Iraqi heritage identity that every Iraqi is proud of.

The last two years witnessed a great turnout of citizens to design buildings and homes similar to those in ancient regions, such as Al-Kadhimiya, Al-Adhamiya and Baghdad streets such as Al-Rashid and Al-Mutanabi Street.

Wide area is the most important characteristic of old Iraqi homes (social networking sites)

Random designs

Engineer Aseel Alwan (31 years old) told Al-Jazeera Net, "In the post-2003 period, random façades were dominated by colors, designs and materials that have no relation to the environment and Iraqi heritage, and there were many facades dotted with annoying colors in central Baghdad and Al-Rasheed Street, in order to obliterate the ancient heritage and history of the most expensive buildings there."

Architect Zainab Shaaban also explained to Al-Jazeera Net that “Al-Baghdadi shanashel have valuable heritage, civilization and aesthetic standards. They started from the time of the Abbasid era (750-1258) and the construction of the city of Baghdad in a beautiful architectural way, but the height of its spread was in the Ottoman era (1517-1805). It reached its most beautiful images and spread widely in Iraq, the Levant, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and even in Malta, where the Arabs ruled for 400 years, and it remained a witness to the Iraqi heritage until today.

Engineer Aseel Alwan: Al-Shanashil Al-Baghdadia has valuable heritage, cultural and aesthetic standards (Al-Jazeera)

"Shanashel and various designations"

Zainab Shaaban added, "Throughout the ages, Shanashil was called by several names, the mashrabiyya and the supervisors, and the chinchool is a word that is not Arabic, and it may be Persian in origin, but it is an Iraqi source of its constructive work and its architectural and environmental art, and the word from (Shah) means king and (Shen) means the cabin, so it was called Shanchol ".

She added that the function of the shanashel is not only aesthetic, as it has an architectural function to purify the air in order to allow it to enter through the mashrabiyas and small openings into the rooms of the house, which helps to cool and purify the air, and it is called evaporative cooling, and it is customary to place in the mashrabiyas clay jars to cool the water through The air passing through a chinchol from outside.

According to the architect's speech, chinchillas have another essential function, which is to introduce light with high efficiency without increasing the temperature inside.

Wood is the main material for building chinchillas, and it is a light and abundant material that contributed to lightening the weight of buildings at that time, and it is also easy to form and enter inscriptions in it.

Designing an old Iraqi heritage house (communication sites)

Architectural masterpiece

And the Baghdadi Shanashel was the only outlet directed to the outside to preserve the privacy of the people, and the presence of such channels helped in the rapprochement of the people of the same neighborhood and the exchange of conversations between the Iraqi families, according to Zainab Shaaban.

She described Shaban Al-Shanashil as "an architectural masterpiece and a mixture of art, architecture, civilization and architectural legacy, and it must be preserved and maintained," noting that "it has been subjected, over the years, to a lot of vandalism and demolition, and it is threatened with extinction and there is little left of it," calling at the same time. To "turn these homes into museums and attractions for tourism."

And the responsible authorities demanded that they preserve them and prevent their transformation in any way to other purposes.

Meanwhile, Aseel Alwan believed that "the resurgence of façades designed and implemented by architects and technicians with traditional touches brings back to our memories the days of the beautiful time and the heritage of our ancestors, as the Baghdadi chinches, the pointed Abbasid or semi-circular arches and the luxurious classic royal style."

She added, "Our professor at the university assigned us to search for known buildings in Baghdad that had distorted facades, document them in reports and attach them to the competent authorities, including buildings in Rashid Street and the building of the Central Bank of Iraq, and the pursuit continued through appeals, preparing designs and educating people. Indeed, the Baghdad Municipality has stopped the distortion operations." .

Stick to heritage style

Aseel, who owns an architectural office in Baghdad, confirmed that society today has become more adherent to the Iraqi heritage style, and said that the role of architects and academics is important in showing the heritage architectural features and highlighting them with taste, so that it appears in its best image and the demand for it increases.

Most of the buildings that contain hooks suffer from neglect, especially in old areas and streets, such as Rashid Street, despite some campaigns that are trying to preserve them.

Renovation is taking place in new buildings in Baghdad, but with a heritage character (social networking sites)

A few days ago, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities obtained a ruling from the Presidency of the Baghdad Appeals Court, Al-Rusafa, to dismiss a lawsuit prohibiting the demolition and renewal of a building on Al-Rasheed Street, considering that Al-Rasheed Street is a landmark of Iraqi heritage, according to the announcement based on the ministry's legal payment of the defendant's lawsuit issued in 2005. 2017.

The Director of the Legal Affairs Department, Karam Hussein, explained that antiquities are protected according to the constitution and relevant international agreements, and that the effort is continuing to preserve antiquities and heritage in coordination with the relevant formations in the Ministry and other official bodies, and to pursue violators before all authorities to impose penalties against them and to take the measures and protection legally established to preserve antiquities. And Iraqi heritage.