Dewan Architects wins first prize in Baghdad competition
Dewan Architects & Engineers have won the first prize for The Competition of Developing the Area Sorrounding the Holy Shrines in Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Iraq.
Dewan was shortlisted among ten other international and Iraqi firms to participate in this competition. The project contains the Historical area with the Holy Shrines in the centre and the its surroundings with a radius of 500 m. an area full of historical markets, traditional houses and cultural and religious activities.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
The main objective of the project was to renew and enhance the function of al-Khadimiya as a very special district of Greater Baghdad, distinguished by the presence of its holy shrines, the character of its historic streets and houses and the vitality of its commercial areas.. These qualities, so typical of historic cities, are closely related to the human scale of the built environment and to pedestrian modes of movement that foster strong social interaction.
The sense of place and the cultural identity of al-Khadimiya is reinforced by seasonal religious ceremonies and festivities, when the area receives large numbers of visitors. While it is important to ensure that the urban fabric can cope with exceptional demands during such peak periods, it is equally essential to ensure that it can remain lively and attractive for residents throughout the year.
The overriding strategic concern of the Dewan proposal is how to rejuvenate and to adapt the area to contemporary demands – without destroying the spiritual legacy contained in its surviving historic structures and without radically changing the lively mix of functions that is the secret of its success, and it needs to be steered in such a way that the place does not lose its “soul”.
The Integrated Conservation and Development Scheme presented by Dewan was intended to materialize the basic idea to conceive the shrine as the innermost “kernel” of the city, enveloped and protected by different urban layers that mediate between the interior and the exterior world and together form a coherent whole. The inner urban layer includes important elements of the historic urban fabric, which will be upgraded, renovated and substituted on plot-by-plot basis according to information to be collected in the future, with the aim of retaining the scale and the main characteristic of historic Baghdad. Other, more peripheral layers introduce contemporary residential structures that cater for modern needs of vehicular accessibility, public facilities and commercial functions.
This mix of historic and adapted modern structures, combined with proper landscaping, is intended to provide fresh social and economic impulses to al-Khadimiya and turn it into a model of living and evolving historic city. Examples of such successful urban rehabilitation that combine “old” and “new” exist in a number of historic Arab cities such as Tunis, Fes, Aleppo and Cairo (Darb al-Ahmar).
Follow the local culture and nature ,Great design , congratulations !
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Dewan Architects wins first prize in Baghdad competition – beautiful modern Islamic #architecture http://ow.ly/1cbGx
Hooray!
this looks exactly what i hate about architecture in the states… F A K E “lifestyle” centers where architects try to create the idea of a town center and always fail.
I’m not sure this is a “F A K E lifestyle center”… their aim is to “retain the scale and the main characteristic of historic Baghdad”…
What would make this fake is if they push out all the people who currently live there and the many independent businesses that makes the place unique (not that I’m familiar with the area)… which might actually happen… but I wouldn’t blame that on the designers… we’re just slaves to the developers! :)
where is mcdolnalds and KFC?
tank you .very very much
Hi guys,, it looks similar to Omani architecture, it does
not look like Iraqi architecture
why fix the unbroken?make a house for the people who live in huts first.Kadhmia is beatiful as it is,only clean it/Fuad
Nice work but I would have liked to see much more green and street furniture. Perhaps more street shaded areas.
It doesn’t look that Dewan concepts is to renew and enhance the function of Al-Kadhimiya here. Also I think the Iraqi government is spending money on a fast design which looks like it is already pre-designed. A lot of it seems for the first time like it’s been seen already in another Arabic country. I think that Dewan could do better if that was to be built in UAE, Oman or Qatar…not in an ancient city like AlKadhimiya-Baghdad.
The Iraqi government or who ever is making that decision on having that project has an unfinished view on how this will be after. They should live there or asked the people there first to understand what I am saying. Al-Kadhimiya used to be an open religious and cultural city with all kinds people of different cultural views. People who live there were poets, writers, artist, painters, architects, musicians businessmen and simple families of many generations and also the religious, poor, rich, sportsmen, politicians and more.. We don’t see that in this design and the model and doesn’t show Al-Kadhimiya like it was neither… Do you see that?!
I think that either finding another design or you better leave it as it is and start develop each area by a design which could be suitable on each block from city or it will look like what a previous gentleman here said … it would look like Oman or it looks like some of blocks from Sharjah. For me it does also look like a small version of repeated Central International Railway station in Baghdad standing from one block to another.
I bet that neither designers nor who ever made this decision in the Iraqi ministry haven’t been in
Al-Kadhimiya for more than a day, from the morning till the late night or they never did read about its history or about its culture.
It is fast and undeveloped project, I think it will not be suitable for businesses. Businesses in Al-Kadhimiya depend on visitors and tourism … it doesn’t look the style of who lives there either.
It is far from the Iraqi architecture style and also far from that area of that ancient city planning.
Dewan, you are changing an ancient city tradition here, in that you are going against your strategic concerns.
One think you were close that’s in repeating the designs of the old Shanasheel, and old small houses which has narrow alleys just like how it is now, but more cleaner and without the old system sewage, as you show in your nice drawings but wrong about the businesses buildings and the surrounding buildings which are not suitable at all…Also the style of the buildings have many similarities and very identical to each other… in the other hand you will end up with similar blocks of buildings close to each other from one street to another.
The designers have not seen or imagine the Al-Kadhimiya city in the sixties or the seventies or the eighties or the nineties, they imagine it in the time after the chaos of 2002 and without culture.
With all my respect to the Iraqi decision makers and also to Dewan, your design looks nice, but not for
Al-Kadhimiya.
Thank you SAR for that great comment. I think you hit the nail on the head and managed to see this silly joke for what it is with your great insight and clever critique.
This project looks more to me like an exhibition pavilion fit for a blank and empty canvas of a country in the Gulf (like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar etc.) than a country like Iraq with 6,000 years of continuous history behind it.
More tradition and culture will be lost in clearing the 500m radius “kill zone” around the mosque than this project will ever put back. After all wasn’t creating a 500m clearing around the mosque in Kerbala (for insurgency control) is what an old (and a we are now told a bad ) government adopted for political purposes, why does the new regime resort to the same practices when it is supposed to have broken with the past (or has it really?).
It also looks to me like a political ploy by the current government to legalise the unfair acquisition of valuable property around the mosque for pittance (or for free) using the ruse of development, so new buildings (probably owned exclusively by the members of the new government can go up instead. Iran might also get a share of these profits as they might be the main providers of funds for this project. Hey. After all Rafsanjani did not become the richest man in Iran by reading the Quran all night long.
Sam
The area requires fountains, shaded places,public sitting places,green areas
Congratulations Dewan, I find this a very successful project, which will recreate the atmosphere there.
Congrats again.