The Epidermis

As already stated, this research aims to compare the characteristics of traditional courtyard houses in Baghdad with those of modern houses. The first task being to identify both the advantageous and disadvantageous characteristics of both house types and following a thorough evaluation of both house types in the modern-day context, it is intended that those positive characteristics be combined to inform guidelines for a modern vernacular housing for Baghdad.

To this point, this study has focused on traditional courtyard houses and modern houses commencing with desk based research where key secondary data, sources included books, journals and building industry publications as well as relevant academic and architectural journals in both print and electronic forms. To this end, Chapter II has already achieved objective 1 of this research and has identified and evaluated the social and environmental issues as well as architectural and neighbourhood characteristics of both the traditional and modern houses and how these houses have or indeed have not satisfied the inhabitants’ needs, as described in the literature.

Further Chapter II has explained that the traditional courtyard houses were designed to satisfy the historical functional needs of their inhabitants as well as the social factors and the cultural/religious demands of the inhabitants. In particular, this was manifest in the provision of both indoor and outdoor privacy regarding use of habitable rooms and spaces and the courtyard for their daily activities, social gatherings and religious occasions; and finally in terms of privacy and comfort when householders use the roof terrace as a sleeping area during the summer. However, given the age of much of these studies it remains necessary to explore to what extent these original requirements are still valid for current occupants and the society of the twenty-first century.

Also Chapter II has explained that modern houses in Baghdad have not been designed to satisfy these social, cultural and environmental requirements for their inhabitants.

Indeed, the built form of modern homes has largely been imported from other climates and cultures. The question as to the relevance of the historic socio-cultural norms to current society remains, if we are to provide responsive built environment. For both

56 contexts this responsive environment must also be appropriate to the climate, which has changed since the design and construction of the traditional courtyard homes.

Chapter II has therefore established the necessary findings to achieve objective 1:

Identify the current understanding of the architectural, environmental and socio-cultural characteristics of traditional courtyard houses and modern homes in Baghdad.

This chapter aims to both explain the development of the proposed mixed methodology and will then go on to describe the approaches to be applied within phase 1 of this proposed method. Phase 2 method and phase 3 method are found in Chapter V.

It can be seen in Figure 3.1 that a case study based methodology has been selected for this research as this will provide a framework to develop a detailed description and analysis of a group of buildings and as such will enable the delivery of a well structured analysis of the housing types and their occupants that are the focus of this study (Zainal 2007).

As such, it is considered that the case study method will enable the researcher to closely examine the data within a specific context, where the design of the detailed methodology applied to the case studies is very important. This must follow a set of clearly defined procedures with proper application and produce a chain of evidence, either qualitatively or quantitatively, that is systematically recorded or achieved. This is particularly necessary when direct investigation or observation by the researcher is the main source of the data. Therefor the subjects to be evaluated through this research phase were informed directly by the literature review, while the questions were developed in line and guidance from questionnaire writing literature, most importantly Oppenheim (1992).

It is asserted that establishing the case study approach will enable the researcher to carry out the following:

• Method 1 – Physical Survey of the case study houses to understand their architecture, structure and materials.

• Method 2 – Occupant Survey in order to understand the occupants’

perspectives about their house, in particular, attitudes to thermal comfort and

57 socio-cultural responsiveness throughout the four seasons of the year.

• Method 3 – Occupant Observation in order to understand the occupants’

behavior in the case study houses; this will inform the emerging understanding of the occupants’ comfort and satisfaction (Schell 2012).

In order to achieve objectives 2 & 3–4 Primary Data Collection will be required.

PHASE 2

PHASE 3

Fig. 3.1. The research methodology process LITERATURE REVIEW

PHASE 1

Traditional Houses 7 No. Case study

Modern Houses 7 No. Case study

Method 1 Physical Survey

Method 2 Occupants

Method 3 Occupant Survey

Analysis

Traditional House

No. 1 & 2

Modern House

No. 1 & 2

Thermal Monitoring Occupant Diaries

Analysis

Optimal Design & Evaluation

58 The types of data to be collected by this phase of the research are therefore both quantitative (housing survey and occupant survey) and qualitative (occupant survey and occupant observation). Burrel and Morgan (1979) argue that quantitative and qualitative research methods are mutually exclusive because their underlying assumptions are seen as contradictory. Taking an opposing viewpoint, writers such as Gable (1994), and Remenyi and Williams (1996) disagree, insisting that these alternate research methods should be seen as the ends of a continuum. Consistent with the writing of Gable (1994) and Remenyi and Williams (1996), as well as with the view of Easterly–Smith et al. (2000) who draw a thin line between qualitative and quantitative techniques, this research will adopt a mixed methods approach. In particular:

Method 1 – Physical Survey in order to achieve objective 2 to establish the