Fotos: Tocho, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (Qatar), 23-25 octubre de 2022
La exposición Ciudad del espejismo. Bagdad, de Wright a Venturi 1982-1982, fue una producción de la Demarcación de Barcelona del Colegio de Arquitectos de Cataluña (COAC), Casa Árabe (Madrid), Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, la Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB), el Departamento de Teoría e Historia de la Arquitectura de la ETSAB, con la colaboración y ayuda de la Embajada de España en Iraq y la Universidad de Bagdad, con el patrocinio de la Casa Real.
Se presentó en el COAC de Barcelona y Casa Árabe de Madrid en 2008, antes de emprender una itinerancia por el Colegio de Arquitectos de Murcia, la propia ETSAB, el Centro de Arquitectura de Nueva York, la Sociedad de Arquitectos de Boston, y la Bienal de Arte de Ramala, entre 2010 y 2012, pudiendo finalmente ser presentada en el Instituto Cervantes de Bagdad (sin las maquetas, por temas de seguridad) en 2019.
Una versión actualizada de la misma se acaba de inaugurar en el Museo de Arte Islámico de Doha, en Qatar, dentro del programa cultural ligado al Campeonato Mundisl de Fútbol de 2022, y en concreto formando parte de unos actos que destacan que la capitalidad mundial de la cultura que Bagdad poseía en el siglo XII, no solo en el mundo islámico, sino en todo el orbe (la primera universidad mundial de estableció en Bagdad en el siglo IX, y aún existe) Doha espera obtener hoy en día.
La muestra que en los difíciles y violentos años de 2096-2008 trataba de mostrar una imagen de Bagdad no marcada solo por la violencia (una ciudad troceada, mutilada por altos muros de defensa de hormigón que trataban de contener los desplazamientos terroristas, y que aún no han sido retirados del todo), hoy destaca la recuperación, al menos parcial, de la capital iraquí (en la que han cesado los atentados mortales, aunque no el desgobierno y las protestas, y en la que milicias pro-iraníes siguen lanzando de tanto en tanto proyectiles contra instituciones gubernamentales y extranjeras en la llamada Zona Verde altamente vigilada y defendida), con las bondades y los peligros de la modernización ( que persigue una imagen de ciudad que desatiende el cuidado del entorno y las duras condiciones climáticas y geográficas, y se olvida de los logros de las soluciones constructivas y urbanísticas de la arquitectura y las ciudades del pasado), marcada por el reflejo de las nuevas ciudades de los Emiratos y del propio Qatar, una ciudad en que la cultura ( museos, bibliotecas, universidades, en gran parte para una élite, pero también un nivel de educación, para hombres y mujeres -especialmente- qataris -de la que no gozan los trabajadores emigrantes que constituyen el 85% de la población, que no se alcanza en otros países orientales y occidentales) se entremezcla con los excesos y la a menudo impropia relación entre edificios, clima y vida urbana, regida por la presencia del vehículo privado (aunque es necesario destacar la existencia del transporte público: metro y tranvías, con una calidad a la que las viejas ciudades europeas no llegan).
La exposición, en Doha, ha sido producida por Qatar Creates, una empresa gubernamental dedicada a la promoción cultural y educativa, dirigida por la madre del actual emir, diseñada por el estudio de arquitectura holandés Opera-Amsterdam, inspirada en el montaje original de los arquitectos Luis Amorós y Miguel Orellana, y construida por la empresa española dedicada a la museografia Espai Visual.
El préstamo de las maquetas ha corrido a cargo del COAC y de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura del Vallés ( ETSAV)
Agradecimientos a la directora del Museo de Arte Islámico de Doha, la Dra. Júlia Gonnella, por su interés y esfuerzos en llevar la muestra a Doha, a todo el equipo del museo, al Archivo y el Departamento de Cultura del COAC y la ETSAV, a la gerencia de la ETSAB, a ediciones UPC, a la embajada de España en Doha, a la embajada de España en Iraq, a la profesora Dra. Ghada Siliq de la Universidad de Bagdad por sus constantes informaciones, y a Qatar Creates, y a todas las personas e instituciones por haber permitido la actualización de la muestra y su hermosa presentación hoy en Qatar.
Los errores e imprecisiones son solo imputables al autor de esta entrada.
TEXTOS DE LA MUESTRA:
“The years stretch out in front of us; blood and fire,
I
forge bridges with them,
But
they become a wall, (…)
For
ten years now, I have not ceased walking
Towards
you, ‘City of Mirages! Destruction of their life!’
Badr Shakir as-Sayyab (d. 1964), City of Mirages
City of
Mirages: Baghdad, From Wright to Venturi
For many people today it is difficult to imagine that
Baghdad was once a flourishing, cosmopolitan city that attracted some of the
world’s best-known architects. This exhibition reveals Baghdad’s surprising
architectural history, introducing the young King Faisal II (1935-1958) and his vision for
a modern metropolis filled with monuments by figures such
as Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), Le Corbusier (1887-1965) and Walter Gropius (1883-1969). The assassination of the king in 1958 put an end to
most of the projects but some, like the Baghdad University campus, were
implemented and constitute Modernist masterpieces. A second flourishing took
place in the 1980’s with a series of projects intended to transform Baghdad
into a capital of the whole Middle East.
Baghdad in the 1950’s:
Modernising the City under King Faisal II
Following the discovery of oil in the late 1920’s, Iraq witnessed a great economic boom and embarked on a period of rapid modernisation. Baghdad saw major transformations as a growing secular urban society emerged, civil rights were allowed to women, a new generation of avantgarde poets and artists appeared, and public services were developed. When King Faisal II came of age in 1953 and established independent rule, he was determined to turn Baghdad in a modern capital with a university, an opera house, an Olympic sports complex, and new infrastructure. Social and political changes led to a realignment after his assassination in 1958, however. The country allied itself with the Communist Soviet Union, and most of the architectural projects launched by the king, considered wasteful, were cancelled.
Baghdad in the 1970’s
and 1980’s: Modernising the City under Saddam Hussein
In 1979 when Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) came to power in Iraq, he
dreamed of establishing Baghdad as the capital of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM), the body founded to create a sphere outside of Soviet and American political
influence. At this time, a second wave of modernisation began, financed by a
sudden rise in oil prices. An urban plan was drawn up with new residential
neighbourhoods, large avenues that cut into the traditional maze of streets of
the old city, and several ambitious public buildings. Some of these developments
were designed by high-profile international architects such as Ricardo Bofill (1939-2022)
and Robert Venturi (1925-2018). At the same time, however, Saddam Hussein had
to appease a growing faction of religious extremists, for whom such projects as
the world’s largest mosque were commenced. It was never finished, though,
because of the never-ending series of wars and invasions that followed.
BAGHDAD GYMNASIUM,
FORMERLY SADDAM HUSSEIN SPORTS COMPLEX (1955-1965, 1979-1983)
Le Corbusier and George Marc Présenté
In 1955, King Faisal II commissioned the well-known
Swiss architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) to
design a large sports complex for his bid to host the 1960 Olympics. The complex was intended to include a stadium and sports
hall along with fairgrounds, gardens,
restaurants and the Phillips Pavilion, a structure for musical performances
that Le Corbusier had designed with the avant-garde musician and architect
Ioannis Xenakis (1922-2001) for the World Fair in Brussels in 1958. There was
also to be a second stadium similar to the one built by Spanish architect
Francesc Mitjans (1909-2006) in Barcelona in 1957.
King Faisal’s overthrow in 1958 was followed by Le Corbusier’s death in 1965, and the project stalled. It was revived, however, during the presidency of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (1968-79) and completed in 1983 under Saddam Hussein. In this form the complex was reduced to a single building and moved to a site near the Al-Shaab stadium, designed by Portuguese architect F.K.D. Amaral (1910-75), that had opened in 1966. Initially named for Hussein but now known as the Baghdad Gymnasium, the project was revised and overseen by Le Corbusier’s former engineer Georges Marc Présenté (1917-84). It includes a sports hall, an amphitheatre, and a signature element of Le Corbusier’s original design: a long, spiralling access ramp inspired by the ramps of ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats but most useless under Iraq’s blazing sun.
PLAN FOR GREATER
BAGHDAD: THE OPERA AND THE URBANISATION OF “EDENA” ISLAND (1957-1959)
Frank Lloyd Wright
The American modernist architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was invited to build an opera house in Baghdad on the recommendation
of then Prime Minister Nuri al-Said (1888-1958) and the architect Rifat
Chadirji (1926-2020). When Wright met King Faisal II for the first time in
January 1957 to discuss the project, he asked about an uninhabited island in the
Tigris River which he had seen from the air on his arrival to Baghdad. It
happened that the island was royal property and the king offered it to Wright for
his project, which the king hoped would bestow some glamour on Baghdad.
Wright did not limit himself to the opera house, a fantastic round building covered by a fanciful dome with an “Oriental” flair. Instead, he designed a much larger cultural centre that involved the development of the entire island. He called it Edena, in reference to the Biblical paradise, and dedicated it to different Sumerian cities. Wright’s design included gardens, a bazaar, an archaeological museum, an art gallery and a post office. He also envisioned a large monument dedicated to the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid (whom he wrongly believed was the founder of Baghdad), as well as a university that would have competed with the one Walter Gropius was building nearby. Surprisingly, the entire complex was oriented towards Mecca, which is most unusual as this was not a religious site. Wright’s entire project was a colourful Orientalist dream, mixing Mesopotamian and traditional Islamic references with opulent fantasies from the stories of the Thousand and One Nights. It was never built.
UNIVERSITY
CAMPUS OF BAGHDAD (1957-)
Walter Gropius, TAC and Hisham A. Munir
The first public secular university in Iraq was an
ambitious project that King Faisal II hoped would accelerate the country’s
progress. He chose as its architect the German Walter Gropius (1883-1969), founder of the Bauhaus school
who had been living in the United States since 1934. The project was approved
in February 1959 but construction moved was slowly. Gropius died in 1969, and
the project was eventually finished by his studio, The Architects´
Collaborative (TAC), together with the Iraqi architect Hisham Munir (b. 1930).
The site for the university was on the outskirts of
Baghdad at a bend in the river Tigris. Gropius based its plan on three concentric
circles that were arranged around a central piazza with a total of 273
buildings. The innermost circle was to include a large library, an auditorium
with a natural science museum, a theatre, and an art gallery. One tall
multi-storeyed building, the ‘minaret’, was dedicated to administrative
functions. The second circle included separate dormitories for male and female
students, and the third had sport facilities and a stadium. The entrance to the
campus was signalled by a high archway, called ‘The Open Mind’, that symbolised
Iraq’s progressive future.
Gropius devoted much thought to how to cope with Iraq’s unbearable summer heat, eventually introducing sunscreens and placing the buildings in close proximity to one another to provide shade. He also planned for fountains, water sprinklers and pools following Middle Eastern fashion. As it was eventually built, the plan deviates from Gropius’ original vision, but is still a gem today.
PROPOSAL FOR
THE FINE ARTS MUSEUM (1957-1963)
Alvar and Aino Aalto
In 1954, Alvar (1898-1976) and Aino Aalto (1894-1949) were
invited to participate in the competition to design a building for the National
Bank of Iraq. Instead, three years later, they received commissions for The
Mail and Telegraph Building and the Fine Arts Museum that were meant to have
been part of a grand Civic Centre being designed by José Luis Sert (1902-83).
Aalto wrote: “It is something exciting. I discovered
that, for a Nordic architect, like myself, a certain simplicity is possible
here, a simplicity that does not habitually exist in the European climate,
where, on occasion, winter destroys even the proportions of the buildings. The
objective of the building is to promote cultural activities and to help the
development of the arts in Iraq: a meeting place for the artists and the
public, presenting their creations of painting, sculpture, jewellery etc. as
well as music, recitations and movies.”
The Museum was intended to hold the outstanding art
collection of the Armenian Calouste Gulbenkian, founder of the Iraq Petroleum
Company. It had an open exhibition space on the main floor and a Greek-style
theatre on the roof. As Aalto explained, a major concern was the climatic
control: “I tried to minimize the use of air-conditioning in Baghdad and to
look for support from Mother Earth, designing a solid building which becomes
part of the ground. The roof consists of
a double parasol of blinds, and the slats are covered with pieces of ceramic
according to local tradition. The entire project tries to act with tact, in a
way that does not defame the character of the city.” The museum was never built,
however, and the Gulbenkian collection is now in Lisbon, Portugal.
THE AMERICAN
EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD (1955-1959)
José Luis Sert
The Spanish architect José Luis Sert (1902-83), exiled
to the United States at the time of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), was dean
of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and had good ties with the US
government. This is probably why he was commissioned to design the embassy
complex in Baghdad, intended to promote the American values of modernity and
simplicity through architecture.
The embassy complex - a true Sert masterpiece - was
built on a narrow piece of land perpendicular to the Tigris, in a green suburb with
other embassies and the homes of Baghdad’s wealthy citizens. The administrative
buildings were near the entrance, while the ambassador’s residence was close to
the riverbank, in a huge garden featuring a canal, fountains and ponds. The
overall design followed the concept of a traditional Islamic medina by grouping
the buildings close to each other in order to create shade against the blazing
sun. The harshness of the climate, especially in summer, required the use of
lattices, pronounced eaves and double roofs for air circulation.
Sert’s main concern was to keep the buildings cool rather than to ensure security, which is why the American government eventually abandoned the complex. Ownership was transferred to the Iraqis and it was used as visitor residence by Saddam Hussein, who lived nearby. Badly damaged during the US-led 2003 invasion, the embassy was nearly torn down. However, in April 2021, it was handed over to the pro-Iranian militia Al-Ḥashd ash-Shaʿbi, which is currently restoring the interior according to its original design, with changes only affecting the façades.
SECTOR 10 OF THE PARTIAL PLAN FOR WESTERN BAGHDAD (Plan and Partial Construction: 1957-1958). NEIGHBORHOOD OF AL-THAWRA (“SADR CITY”), PART OF THE PARTIAL PLAN FOR EASTERN BAGHDAD (Plan: 1958; Construction: 1961-1963)
Constantinos A. Doxiadis (Doxiadis Associates)
Constantinos Doxiadis (1913-75) was a Greek architect with a large studio in Athens made up of an unusual team of 500 urban planners, architects, archeologists, historians, sociologists, economists, and geographers. In the 1950’s Doxiadis’ studio was commissioned to create the National Housing Program of Iraq as well as the Master Plan of Baghdad in order to handle the large influx of rural immigrants into the city. The resulting plan involved creating new residential areas arranged on canals built on either side of the Tigris River. Broad avenues channeled traffic around their perimeters, and they were each equipped with all the requisite services such as markets, sanctuaries, schools, day care centers, recreational centres and sporting areas. Within them, residential quarters were arranged around public plazas, unusual in the Middle East. The houses were quite inexpensively built using traditional techniques and local materials such as brick and reed. However, the use of huge, prefabricated concrete lattices, and the decision to place the courtyards on the sides rather than in the centres of the houses, unfortunately turned them into ovens.
Most of the thousands of houses
Doxiadis built in Iraq have been destroyed by war or have been buried under later
developments. These include Sadr City, the overcrowded, mostly Shi’a suburb that
in the 1980’s became particularly notorious for poverty and unrest after the
Sunni president Saddam Hussein neglected its upkeep.
Headquarters for the Development Board and the Ministry of Planning (1958)
Gio
Ponti in collaboration with Antonio Fornaroli and Alberto Rosselli, and
Giuseppe Valtolina and Egidio Dell’Orto
One of the primary goals of Iraq’s modernization was the improvement of the city’s infrastructure: water purification, irrigation, dams, reservoirs, public buildings and social housing were all badly needed. To oversee these projects, King Faisal II established a new Development Board, and the design of its headquarters was given to the great Italian architect Gio Ponti (1891-1979). Ponti never went to Baghdad himself but left the project in the hands of Italian engineer Antonio Fornaroli who worked at Ponti studio and Iraqi engineer Hisham Madfair (1927). They advised on the building’s design, including the suggestion of a ceramic covering as an effective solution for the extreme contrasts in temperatures in Iraq.
The resulting building was inspired by Ponti’s own Pirelli Tower in Milan. It is composed of two horizontal blocks resting on a giant porticoed platform covering the entrances and the parking lot. It was located near Al Jumhuriya Bridge, halfway between the old city and the new areas to the east of the river. Ponti said about this project that “architecture is not based on local stylistic motifs that, interpreted by foreigners, are at times naïve and not valid. My intention has been to contribute to the development of Iraq with a perfect building that for climatic reasons is based upon local architecture, an architecture that, for historical reasons, has not preserved genuine examples to which architects can refer.”
The building was bombed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by American forces but was restored by the Ministry of Construction, Housing, Municipalities and Public Works in 2008.
IRAQI HOUSE IN LONDON (1960-1961)
Alison and Peter Smithson
Iraqi House was commissioned by the Iraqi government as the national airline’s headquarters in London. The British architects Alison (1928-1993) and Peter Smithson (1923-2003), who designed the building, were well-known exponents of New Brutalism, a style characterized by the use of raw gray concrete and simple and massive geometric shapes. They explained their approach as such:
“Iraq has an excessively rich
history to be inspired by, a climate that displays a sudden flowering in the
desert in spring, an architecture as varied as the history of the country, a
legendary capital, objects of trade as old as dates. All this remains somehow
gathered in the Iraqi House project, but it is subdued, secretly arranged.”
The resulting building made many references to Iraq’s heritage and invited London visitors to fly to its far-off lands. It had a glass façade with a sign in the colours of the country’s flag and a neo-Assyrian relief of a bird- man that evoked both to the country’s history and the notion of flying. There was a sunken courtyard into which visitors were enticed to enter and find, as in an archaeological excavation, the statue of Bedouin holding a falcon. Inside, the long and narrow interiors, accented with curved walls and ceilings, conjured an airliner’s carriage, while sand-coloured walls, woven furnishings, and tiles with desert flowers suggested the Iraqi landscape. The building was torn down in 1970.
PLANS FOR POLICE HEADQUARTERS, PALACE OF JUSTICE, PROPERTY REGISTER (CIVIC CENTER) (1957-1959)
Willem Marinus Dudok
In 1958, the Dutch architect Willem Dudok (1884-1974) sent a letter to Time magazine complaining that his projects for the Iraqi capital were being ignored by the press. Indeed, the three projects he designed for the Civic Center of Baghdad—the General Police Headquarters, the Palace of Justice, and the Property Register and General Settlement Headquarters—are hardly remembered today.
For many, the choice of Dudok came as a surprise, given that that he was advanced in age and not particularly well-known. His experience with large municipal and state buildings was extensive, however, and the three projects were designed quickly, though sadly never built. They were supposed to have been located in the Civic Centre, a new area for cultural and administrative buildings being designed by José Luis Sert (1902-83). The Palace of Justice was the central building, twelve storeys high and meant to dominate the surroundings. An open space in front, with ponds and lush but isolated trees, framed the project. “Brise-soleils” prefabricated from cement covered in coloured mosaic, enlivened the Orientalist facades. As Dudok explained, he was trying to “to help renovate the splendor of the city, already remembered for its brilliant past.”
THE COMPETITION FOR THE STATE MOSQUE OF BAGHDAD (1982-2001)
In July 1982, Saddam Hussein launched an international competition for a congregational mosque large enough for 30,000 worshippers. In spite of the secular direction of his regime, Hussein had to maintain good relations with the growing extremist powers in Iraq, and he had already established a department of engineering and architecture responsible for the construction of mosques.
This mosque, had it been built,
would have been the largest in the world. It was never constructed, however, as
Hussein and the jury clashed over the winning design. Whereas Hussein had hoped
either for Spaniard Ricardo Bofill (1939-2022) or American
Robert Venturi (1925-2018) to get the bid, the jury
preferred the renowned Jordanian architect Rasem Badran (b. 1945). Hussein called
for a new competition in 1990 but no foreign architects were able to
participate due to the embargoes imposed after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. This
round was won by the Iraqi architect Laith Al-Nuaimi and construction of his design commenced in 2001, but the war with
the United States, started in 2003, spelled the end of Saddam’s regime. A
mosque only a fraction of the size was built, known today as Umm al-Qura.
PROPOSAL FOR THE STATE MOSQUE OF BAGHDAD (1982)
Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
The proposal of Ricardo Bofill (1939-2022) for the State Mosque of Baghdad is best described by actress Serena Vergano, Bofill’s former wife and founding member of his architectural studio. As she wrote about its form and symbolism, “The design of the mosque is based on Koranic concepts which indicate what parts should form the house of worship: mihrab, minbar, prayer hall, exterior courtyard with a pool for ablution and a minaret visible from all four cardinal points. The earth is symbolized by the hard forms of the buildings and walls which, with horizontal lines, cut the sky in squares and rectangles, as well as by the strong geometric layout of the gardens. The architectural reference taken is the mosque of Samarra, a prototypical Arab mosque with a hypostyle prayer hall [with columns] and a small dome over the mihrab.
Within the Islamic tradition, it
is important to consider the vital elements: light, water, land and vegetation.
The water in this proposal follows a path from the outside to the interior of
the mosque. It begins at the minaret, situated in the center of the building,
on the other side of the mihrab, and flows through a canal to the central courtyard
and toward the ablution fountain eventually ending in a lake behind the mihrab.
The equilibrium between the built space and the vegetation [an oasis of palm
trees], organized like a geometrical garden, represents the relationship
between sacred places and nature.”
PROPOSAL FOR THE STATE MOSQUE OF BAGHDAD (1982)
Robert Venturi, John Rauch, Denise Scott Brown
The proposal for the State Mosque prepared by Robert Venturi (1925-2018), John Rauch (b. 1930) and Denise Scott Brown (b. 1931), took a different approach. As the team explained it:
“Our first idea consisted of a
mosque based on the idea of common prayer, in testimony to the egalitarian
ideals of contemporary Iraq. Collective prayers, however, only take place one
day a week. Thus, we had to use two scales: a monumental and an every-day one. For
this, we adopted and adapted the hypostyle plan [the traditional mosque plan with
columns]. Its spatial qualities help the faithful to find their way. The
hypostyle design implied an interpretation of the traditional ornamentations. For
the exterior we used decoration and symbolism more eclectically, adapting the
dimensions to a grand scale, emphasizing the monumental aspect of the building.
It was important to us that the large dome of the mosque was not placed over
the sanctuary but over an interior courtyard, providing shadow and protection. It
was designed as ‘a large tree, but light and lightweight’. This move liberated
the prayer hall from its presence and accentuated its egalitarian character.
What from afar appears to be a
vast dome, is made of two superimposed cupolas, one inside the other, which
together with the different size muqarnas (honeycomb vaults), allow for a
filtered light that is both diffused and vibrant. The large courtyard in front
of the mosque offers sufficient exterior space for more than 40,000 worshippers.
All entries were to provide beautiful vistas, preparing the spectator to enter
in the great mosque. A series of exterior walls contained kiosks for footwear
and fountains for ablution.”
COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL BLOCK ON KHULAFA STREET (1981-1982)
Robert Venturi, John Rauch, Denise Scott-Brown
Between 1979, when Saddam Hussein became president, and 1983, when the war between Iran and Iraq reached its highest point and architectural projects were halted, the Office of Urban Projects concentrated on Baghdad’s previously under-developed east bank. The plan was to replace its tangle of narrow streets and low, cramped housing with new roadways, gardens and modern accommodations. On the recommendation of the architects Rifat Chadirji and Hisham Madfai, elements of this plan were assigned to foreign architects. This included a sector of the neglected Bab Al-Sheikh district which was awarded to Ricardo Bofill, and the Khulafa Street zone, assigned to Robert Venturi, John Rauch and Denise Scott Brown. They designed a nine-floor air-conditioned building block to accommodate shops, offices and apartments. It also included a bomb shelter in the basement. However, construction was delayed because of the deteriorating political situation, a series of wars, and the resulting international embargoes. Years later, a joint Iraqi -Yugoslavian team realized a version of the original Venturi design, but without its ornamental flourishes. Unfortunately, the Iraqi company went bankrupt during the Gulf War of 1991 and the building is now in ruins now.
PROPOSAL
FOR THE BAB AL-SHEIKH RESIDENTIAL AND FINANCIAL NEIGHBORHOOD (1982)
Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
Ricardo Bofill describes the Bab Al-Sheikh project in his memoirs: “The project of more than one hundred and fifty new single-family houses with a maximum height of three floors was planned for some one hundred meters away from the Al-Gaylani Mosque with a group of old houses that needed to be conserved. The new neighborhood consisted of a layout of pedestrian streets, perpendicularly crossed by a transverse street that in every intersection formed a covered courtyard. This street was to act as the dorsal spine: with two more levels of height, additional porticos and covered courtyards, it was to become a point of attraction for the residents.
The architecture of the project conjures
the attraction of mixing the modern with Islamic tradition. An individual
family housing scheme was developed that included a courtyard and a roof
terrace. The basic courtyard house type was conceived over three floors,
adapted to traditional living but with innovations. The ground floor space facing
the street could be used as a workshop, office or for commercial premises. The
roof terrace was considered for leisure rather than for sleeping, given that
all bedrooms were air conditioned, and [it was] provided with a handsome
aedicule for cloth washing and drying. The aim of the façade design was to
capture the essence of the existing formal pattern and to re-interpret it in
light of new techniques: the primary sources of Mesopotamian formalism and the
more modern Islamic Iraqi configurations.”
