A brief history of housing cooperatives that shaped the urban morphology of modern Baghdad. From the 1950s to the end of 1980s, the majority of residential plots in the city were distributed through housing cooperatives. Established at ministries, public institutions and trade unions, the housing cooperatives distributed plots among their members. It led to the establishment of neighborhoods based on profession.
The first blocks of flats were built in Baghdad in the 1970s, based on the proposal included in the master plan from 1967 prepared by Polish experts. However, most housing complexes were built after 2003. Corruption and inefficient state institutions made it possible for developers to invest without consideration for the capacity of infrastructure or traditional urban fabric of Baghdad.
With a population of eight million, Baghdad is facing a severe housing crisis. People began to subdivide existing houses, adding more floors or erecting new buildings on already built-up plots, often illegally. Baghdad has become the “city of concrete” and its landscape has changed significantly.
The brief history of the uniqueness of the first double-decker bridge in Iraq. The bridge was built in Baghdad entirely by Iraqi engineers in record time during the 1990s. It became a symbol of the steadfastness and success of Iraqi engineers under international sanctions.
From generation to generation, it was the residents who gradually laid bricks of their city. Without a top-down plan for street layout, representative sites, or plot division. Despite houses’ inward orientation, it was them that dictated course of the streets, not a predetermined plan.
In the 1950s, Iraq invited world-famous architects, including Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier, to design iconic buildings in Baghdad. Few people realize that a Gymnasium designed by Le Corbusier still stands in Baghdad.
The Republic Bridge, constructed in the 1950s, connects the two halves of Baghdad, Rusafa and Karkh. In 1991, the bridge’s central section was bombed. Bridge was considered a priority during the reconstruction campaign; repaired within six months, became a symbol of the nation’s reconstruction efforts and a testament to the creativity, expertise, and determination of Iraqi engineers.
Ar-Rasheed Street is the first wide, car-accessible street in Baghdad. Established in 1916 to facilitate the movement of troops through the city, it was named after the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rasheed.
Nasb ash-Shaheed, also known as the Martyr’s Monument, is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful landmarks in the Middle East and a true icon of Baghdad. It was designed by the Iraqi sculptor Ismail Fatah al-Turk in collaboration with architect Saman Kamal, and constructed by Japanese engineers.
Haifa Street is a major thoroughfare in Baghdad, situated in the Karkh district on the west bank of the Tigris River. It is notable for being the site of Baghdad’s first complex of multi-story residential buildings, introduced at a time when the city was predominantly characterised by low-rise, single-family homes.
Baghdad was founded by Caliph Al-Mansur, the second ruler of the Abbasid dynasty, as the largest construction project in the Islamic world of its time. Its urban design was highly innovative, featuring a circular plan—a rarity for cities of that era.
Traditional Baghdad houses were built mainly of burnt bricks with a characteristic yellow color and wood. The main element of the traditional house was the inner courtyard with characteristic wooden colonnades.
Mustansariya School is one of the oldest academic centers in the Islamic world. In the capital of the Abbasids – Baghdad, great works of Indian, Persian, and Greek science – Plato, Aristotle, and Hippocrates – were collected and translated. The building faces inward, all rooms overlook the main courtyard which is characteristic of Islamic architecture.
Mohammed Makiya was one of the first Iraqi architects. He founded the first Department of Architecture at the College of Engineering, Baghdad University. His work embodies ideas of urban conservation, regionalism in form, and continuity of architectural heritage.
The history of an iconic modernist building of Baghdad. Designed by Abdullah Ihsan Kamel and Rifat Chadirji, the founders of the Iraqi architectural school, it embodies the search for integration between modern architecture and Iraqi building traditions.