James Vandenberg was working as state architect for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism when he was called up for active duty in Iraq. In his online account of 10 months as a 'combat architect' with the First Marine Expeditionary Force he writes about working with local sheiks to determine their construction needs in Al Fallujah, Ar Ramadi, and later on the western border with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia from the Al Asad Forward Operating Base. (via RIBAworld)
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PBS/Frontline did a documentary recently on the privatization of war in Iraq – but it included a number of asides on the architectural aspects of the American occupation. Most notably, the so-called 'Bremer walls,' or huge, ubiquitous and monolithic concrete blast shields named after the delightful Mr. Paul Bremer himself. Somewhere between Stonehenge and fortress urbanism, 'Bremer walls' will perhaps be the Iraq War's most enduring architectural legacy. Or not. Who knows. But for a script of the Frontline show, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/etc/script.html
Here is a previously related post: Baghdad's New Walls
and thx for these new posts, very interesting.
"Combat Architect" features in the following post on BLDGBLOG: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/rmqibldg-then-moscow-to-lndnbldg-via.html
Check it out! It's toward the bottom of the post, for those impatient.
Make that: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/rmqibldg-then-moscow-to-lndn-via.html
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