Maintenance management of heritage buildings in Iraq
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
ISSN: 0969-9988
Article publication date: 16 December 2020
Issue publication date: 2 November 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Heritage buildings, as any other buildings are subject to decay and deterioration. This issue increases significantly when a country undergoes complicated circumstances of unrest, as is the case in Iraq. The purpose of this study is to rethink the maintenance approach to heritage buildings in Iraq from a systematic management standpoint. It proposes the development of a management system through the functions of proper planning, organizing, directing and controlling. The study aims to scrutinize the weak areas of performance in the investigated work process in Iraq and provide suggestions to address them.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper opted for an exploratory study, using interviews with responsible people in Iraqi heritage buildings administration to investigate the procedures applied on maintenance work for the heritage buildings. Besides, maintenance reports were reviewed and three case studies of buildings recently assigned for maintenance were visited and examined to identify the current course of actions at work and to uncover the points of weakness and strength.
Findings
The researchers identified a kind of unreal planning in the maintenance process, which appeared to be a manifestation of corrective maintenance (CM) rather than a preventive one. Such an aspect was highlighted due to several causes, among which most important were as follow (1) the lack of sufficient allocated budgets and (2) the shortage of hand labor and building technicians in this field, including professionals with an architectural training background, who could make practical choices to heritage maintenance thus preventing improper solutions that would harm the authenticity of the asset. Such factors could be mitigated if a good maintenance management system is to be adopted. A proposed system is hereby suggested, upgrading the current guideline and laws by the specialized authorities in addition to recommending the application of digital documentation.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills an identified need to study how maintenance management system can be applied for heritage buildings
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.The researchers are greatly thankful to Matt Saba, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Haitham Askar, University of Northampton, for their linguistic revision of the research and thank all who helped in the completion of this research.
Citation
Kashkool, A.M.H. and Al Ali, S.S. (2021), "Maintenance management of heritage buildings in Iraq", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 28 No. 9, pp. 2448-2465. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-03-2020-0157
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited