Addition and Expansion in the Architecture of the Holy Shrines (Revaluation)

Abstract

With the emergence of significant changes across various aspects of life and their rapid occurrence in recent times, they have had a profound impact on the transformation and development of functions. This necessitates the possibility of expansion and addition to existing structures, whether they are heritage, historical, or modern. This is to adapt to these occurring changes. It has brought about the need to achieve this adaptation within new or modified functions by using space, structure, or construction beside or above the current building. The architecture of holy shrines emerges as one of the most important examples highlighting the urgent need for expansion and addition to accommodate the increasing number of occupants and the growing and varied functions held within, collectively such as congregational prayers, visits, Quran recitation gatherings, and more. Equally, there's an urgent need for expansion and addition to major religious occasions.While there are numerous global literature and examples that have addressed the concept of adaptive reuse in historical, heritage, and even modern buildings through expansion and addition, there is a lack of local knowledge, particularly regarding the adaptive reuse of architecture related to holy shrines. Hence, diagnosing the research problem related to "the lack of local knowledge, studies, and applications regarding the adaptive reuse of holy shrines through expansion and addition, of all kinds used in them, and reassessing these experiences compared to successful global experiences to meet the needs of their occupants."Therefore, the research necessitates "the importance of reassessing the experiences of adaptive reuse for buildings of holy shrines that have practically implemented concepts of addition and expansion on one hand, and selecting successful strategies in the process of future addition and expansion for other thresholds where this has not yet occurred." The research aims to extract indicators from global experiences and study concepts to create adaptive usage for buildings through addition and expansion to cope with ongoing changes. This will be applied to holy shrines buildings on one hand and reassess local experiences in the holy shrines in the Karbala and Najaf Al-Ashraf governorates, specifically, attempting to identify their points of success and failure to serve as a base alongside successful global indicators for upcoming experiments.This is accomplished through a meticulous plan starting with reviewing and analyzing the previous literature, then discerning and understanding the definitions of the main concepts of the research. Following this, it explores global and regional experiences that addressed the adaptive reuse of various historical, heritage, and modern buildings to accommodate new or emerging functions through different methods, whether by adding structural elements, construction, or utilizing spaces within and around buildings, yielding indicators. Additionally, it investigates experiences of expansion and addition to holy shrines and their reassessment.