Post-Conflict Urban Heritage Reconstruction: The Case of Historic Mosul, Iraq

During wars, historic towns have been systematically and deliberately destroyed. One of the main reasons for these systematic attacks is to make cities lose their identity and defeat citizens feeling of belonging. It is also the main reason motivating the related authorities to rebuild what has been lost during the conflict. The reconstructing process presents a different path in each example according to their special circumstances. This research discusses the post-conflict strategies for reconstructing the old city of Mosul, one of the oldest cities in the world, heavily destroyed during the rule of the Islamic State in 2014 and the liberation in 2017. Accordingly, this research used qualitative research methods throughout comparing and analyzing reconstructed cities and outlining their reconstruction methods. In the research, ten destroyed cities by war have been analyzed to examine different approaches regarding reconstruction to be implemented later in the old city of Mosul city. Then six cases have been studied in detail to direct the reconstruction process in Mosul. The cases are of Mostar, Coventry, Warsaw, Dresden, Beirut and Aleppo, that had been rebuilt or are still under reconstruction by different actors utilizing various methods. The selected cases are studied and analyzed in depth through research about their history, destruction, and rebuilding strategy. Each case gave us a different method and lesson that have been employed to propose strategies for rebuilding Mosul's old city. As a result, a paradigm has been presented considering the reconstruction facts and ground rules related to Mosul city. Keywords: Urban heritage, reconstruction, post-conflict, Mosul.