It is common knowledge that such 20th-century masters as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Alvar Aalto occasionally worked outside of their home countries. But many who know their work well might be surprised to learn that all four, as well as a number of their contemporaries, designed projects for Iraq. An exhibition at the New York AIA’s Center for Architecture, titled City of Mirages: Baghdad, 1952–1982, introduces this lesser-known work, creating a narrative that places these visionary designs in a rich historical, political, and artistic context.
The 15 architectural models on display at the Center represent both built and unbuilt work by 11 prominent international architects. These creators were commissioned during the mid-century decades when municipal officials in Baghdad were ambitiously striving to transform their metropolis into a modern city. The overarching ambition of these leaders was that innovative design would actively shape society in addition to physically transforming the built environment.
This unique chapter of architectural history has largely remained outside the public eye. According to Rosamond Fletcher, director of exhibitions at the Center for Architecture, who first heard about the show from a colleague, this is a history that few people know much about. She notes that while the exhibition is historic in its scope, it remains deeply relevant today as Baghdad attempts to rebuild its infrastructure and civic spaces after enduring almost a decade of war and profound instability.
Making its U.S. debut at the New York venue, the exhibition was originally organized for the Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya in Barcelona in 2008. Bringing the collection together was a difficult and dangerous undertaking, according to curator Pedro Azara, a professor at the Barcelona School of Architecture. Azara, whose academic research focuses on mythology and architecture, stumbled upon the topic of international architects working in Baghdad during the mid-20th century in 2006. His curiosity was immediately sparked by the uneven documentation of these ambitious projects and the general lack of awareness regarding their current states of preservation or disrepair.
To reconstruct these visions, Azara began working closely with students and professors at the University of Baghdad’s architecture school to build all but one of the models featured in the show. Fearing severe reprisal from various political factions over creating an exhibition bound for Western institutions, the entire project had to be shrouded in absolute secrecy. The participating students had no idea they were building models destined for a Spanish exhibition. Communications, messages, and emails between the show’s organizers and local participants were intentionally enigmatic, and Azara shared almost no details of his mission when he traveled to Baghdad.
The resulting models displayed at the Center mostly stand alone, intentionally presented without accompanying photography or architectural drawings. This creates a smart visual trick that allows visitors to imagine how these structures, had they been built and remained intact, might have influenced and shaped the urban fabric of the city. In reality, the tragic irony is that most of these projects became victims of war, suffering severe damage or total destruction, while others were never realized beyond the drawing board.
Among the historical pieces is a 1957 mosque designed by Walter Gropius, The Architects’ Collaborative, and Hisham A. Munir for the University of Baghdad campus. Their design ingeniously reduces the traditional building type to its essential dome, which touches the ground at only three delicate points. Nearby sits a model of an opera house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1957 and 1959. Never built, the design sits on a hill and is approached by a spiraling ramp—a spatial concept that Wright’s famous Guggenheim Museum, designed earlier but completed in 1959, takes to an even greater extreme.
Other significant models in the exhibition include a sports arena designed by Le Corbusier, residential housing conceived by the team of Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and John Rauch, and a mosque designed by Ricardo Bofill and commissioned by Saddam Hussein. The dictator had held repeated, protracted competitions for the national mosque project for over two decades because he was consistently unhappy with the winners chosen by successive panels of judges.
In striking contrast to these historical visions, a large-scale model of contemporary Baghdad sits prominently in the Center’s double-height atrium. Viewed from above, this contemporary model provides visitors with a tangible sense of the immense geographical and logistical hurdles that the city’s seven million residents encounter on a daily basis, navigating an urban landscape lacking functional public transportation to deliver them to their jobs, and operating under a daily curfew that equates dusk with danger.
Reflecting on the motivations behind the project, Azara explains that the organizers wanted to challenge and change the prevailing image of Iraq held in Spain and across the West. They also sought to demonstrate that while Spain was still struggling economically and politically as a third-world nation under the regime of Francisco Franco, Baghdad had historically been a remarkably open place, characterized by a thriving contemporary art scene and a remarkably nonreligious society.
Running concurrently with the Baghdad exhibition, the Center for Architecture is also showcasing current architectural work from the greater Middle East on its lower level. Titled CHANGE: Architecture and Engineering in the Middle East, 2000-Present, the exhibition strikes a hopeful note with an array of glossy, futuristic renderings and photographs. The Center held an open call for both built and unbuilt architectural work produced across the Middle East over the preceding decade. The resulting selection of 123 projects, designed for roughly 20 countries in the region, serves as a dynamic snapshot of contemporary design. Highlights range from Richard Meier’s Rothschild Tower in Tel Aviv and James Carpenter’s Israel Museum in Jerusalem to 360 Architecture’s Basrah Sport City in Iraq, with both of the latter projects slated for completion in 2013.
