Archinect - News

Saddam Hussain's architectural heritage—and what to do with it

2016-09-13T18:30:00-04:00

During his time in power, as head of state and as leader of the all-powerful, secularist Ba’th party, Saddam would oversee an unprecedented program of monumental development across the historic city of Baghdad. This was not limited to monuments of war and hollow bronze shells, but enormous palatial complexes, museums, art galleries, and civic squares [...] marshal it, awkwardly, unevenly, into the post-industrial age, a modern city shaped by the aspirations and egotistical tastes of a despot.

It's Official: Zaha Hadid will design the Iraq Parliament, regardless of the fact she came 3rd in the competition

2014-06-25T17:01:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid has won the scheme to design a new parliament complex in Iraq – despite coming third in the original RIBA-run international competition.

The news is also the first official statement that Assemblage, whose designs won the competition, will not get to realize their vision. This will be the second building Hadid will design in her native country after the 2012 announcement that she will helm the Central Bank of Iraq project.

Hadid's plans for the Iraq Parliament have been marred by controversy, chiefly because they have been kept secret from Iraqi architects and the architectural community at large. Those who have seen the designs have not been favorable in their comments.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Baghdad – probably the most significant architectural project in the city since the 2003 invasion – is under threat from the Isis insurgency surging through the city. The precarious condition of the city makes it hard to imagine that Hadid's ambitious designs will come to fruition anytime soon. More pointedly, it calls into question the need for such expensive architecture in places of near constant social upheaval, partic...

Controversial Embassy in Baghdad Under Threat From Isis

2014-06-23T18:13:00-04:00

As militant Sunni fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) continue their assault on Iraq, following their recent take-over of Baquba, President Barack Obama has ordered the deployment of 275 combat-ready troops to help defend Baghdad and, in particular, the new and expensive embassy there. At 4,700,000 sq ft, the Yaeger Architecture-designed embassy is the largest in the world and, with a cost exceeding $700 million, it was the most expensive to construct. Its multiple gyms, conference rooms, pools, private gardens, department stores, and fortified apartments are all protected by blast-resistant walls and multiple security checks. An American working at the embassy has no real need to venture beyond its walls. The complex is a city-within-a-city –– or, more accurately, a city-within-a-city-within-a-city, as the embassy is situated in the heavily-fortified “Green Zone” that harbors Baghdad’s international population.

The urgent rush to protect the supposedly impe...

New Baghdad library takes step closer to realization

2013-08-26T14:59:00-04:00

Designs for a new Baghdad library boasting the largest single-space reading room in the world have taken a step closer to being realised after the architects got the green light to put the project out to tender in September. The Iraq National Library was devastated by fire and looting when allied troops entered the city in 2003. An estimated 60% of archival materials [...] and 25% of books, newspapers, rare books, historical photographs and maps were destroyed.

Assemblage wins $1bn Iraqi parliament building comeptition, while organizers continue discussions with 3rd place winner Hadid

2013-01-16T15:24:00-05:00

A London architect firm has been declared the winner of an international competition to design a new $1bn Iraqi parliament building in Baghdad. Assemblage architects was one of 130 firms to put forward a design for the £620million scheme. But while Assemblage received its $250,000 prize in August, the designs have only just been released as the Iraqi Government had remained in talks with a rival, which came third place in the competition, Zaha Hadid Architects, The Guardian has reported.

The Land of Broken Promises

2012-04-05T16:19:00-04:00

In 1958, Baghdad was featured in Time magazine—not as a hotbed of revolutionary, civil or sectarian strife, but for its ambitious plans for the world's most famous architects, among them Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto, to recapture through their modern buildings the city's former glory.

Secrecy, Security and Suburbia in Baghdad

2007-06-15T12:47:00-04:00

"War planning meets Sim City ... the architecture of manufactured, blast-resistant banality" - LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne reviews the US Embassy in Baghdad