Abstarct: Iraq’s vernacular architecture has evolved through the continuous interaction of climatic conditions, locally available resources, construction technologies, cultural structures, and social patterns of living. This architectural legacy is manifested in such examples as the courtyard houses of Baghdad and Erbil, the vernacular dwellings of the Kurdish regions, the mudhifs of southern Iraq, and architectural elements such as the shanasheel. However, the spread of context-insensitive building models and the increasing dependence on mechanical systems have caused a considerable part of contemporary Iraqi architecture to depart from the climatic, spatial, and cultural logic of its vernacular traditions. The consequences of this discontinuity include increased energy consumption, reduced climatic adaptability, weakened spatial privacy, and the gradual loss of place identity. Accordingly, this study aims to identify and classify the characteristics of Iraq’s vernacular architecture and to formulate theoretical strategies for their reinterpretation and application in contemporary architecture. The study is theoretical–applied in purpose and qualitative in approach, employing a systematic review of the relevant literature. Scientific publications and documentary materials concerning Iraq’s vernacular architecture were searched, screened, and selected according to predefined criteria. The research data were extracted from books, scholarly articles, visual documents, architectural drawings, and studies of selected cases and were examined through qualitative content analysis and comparative analysis. The cases were purposively selected to achieve maximum diversity in terms of geography, climate, function, material, and building typology. The extracted characteristics were classified into six categories: typological; spatial and functional; climatic and environmental; material and structural; cultural and social; and physical and symbolic. The findings demonstrate that features such as the central courtyard, introverted spatial organization, indirect entrance, transitional spaces, climate-responsive orientation, shading, natural ventilation, evaporative cooling, thermal mass, shanasheel, reed-baxsed structural systems, and spatial hierarchy are neither isolated components nor merely historical exxpressions. Rather, they form an interconnected system that regulates environmental conditions while responding to social and cultural requirements. The findings also reveal that Iraq’s climatic diversity has produced different manifestations of these characteristics in the central, northern, mountainous, and southern regions. Consequently, applying a single architectural solution uniformly across the country cannot be considered methodologically or environmentally appropriate. The study concludes that the incorporation of vernacular architecture into contemporary design should not be reduced to the formal imitation of arches, courtyards, brick patterns, or shanasheel. Effective reinterpretation requires the functional and semantic logic of vernacular characteristics to be transformed into design principles in accordance with the local climate, building type, users’ needs, contemporary technologies, and maintenance requirements. The principal outcome of the research is a theoretical frxamework that connects vernacular characteristics with transferable principles and contemporary architectural strategies. This frxamework can contribute to the design of residential, educational, cultural, and public buildings in Iraq by enhancing climatic responsiveness, reducing energy dependence, reinforcing privacy, and sustaining place identity.