الفهرس 
Research outlineOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The architectural identity of any city is a representation of the characteristics of its societies, such as the local culture, traditions, values, and other circumstances of these societies. However, these characteristics are constantly changing as a result of many events that affect the city over time. Therefore, architecture kept evolving through the course of history and displaying the characteristics of each era it has witnessed. That architectural evolution over time is what formed the current shape of the architectural identity of cities and granted continuity to their architecture. As globalization kept changing the world politically, economically, and culturally, architecture has been evolving in parallel to these changes in the world. Many major global events highlighted each era of drastic change in architectural history until the present time. Therefore, the current shape of architecture is actually an accumulation of evolutionary ideas and concepts that kept crystallizing over time. Arab cities’ architectural identities were affected by globalization forces as well. In fact, many factors shaped their architectural identities over time, which produced distinctive features for their architecture. However, many of these features were neglected in contemporary designs and foreign concepts conquered the architectural concepts. Therefore, there should be a method to evaluate the architectural identity relevance of the design before its execution. The study highlights the main characteristics of architectural identity, then demonstrates the effects of globalization forces on the political, economic and cultural statuses of countries worldwide and in the Arab world as well. Then it classifies the main cycles of architectural evolution through history while focusing on the architecture of Arab cities, as it discusses the main factors that played a role in shaping the architectural identities of these cities, then it derives the main characteristics of the architectural identities of Arab cities from these factors. In order to produce an analytical method for the architectural identities of Arab cities, the study connects the general characteristics of architectural identity to the specific characteristics of Arab architectural identity, which creates a validation checklist that can be applied on existing projects to check their relevance to the architectural identity of the city, or on projects’ designs before their execution, to help architects relate their architectural designs to the local identity.Lastly, the study applies the checklist on contemporary architectural projects in Alexandria city. As it’s one of the oldest cities in the world, it has been famous for its diversity of cultures that shaped its unique identity. However, as population growth rates became higher, the need to construct more homes grew bigger as well. Therefore, the public sector controlled the real estate market and produced architectural products suitable for the different social rankings of the city’s inhabitants. That made the architecture of the city under the threat of losing its distinctive identity feature.