Regionalism in modern Iraqi Architecture

Abstract

Regionalism represents trends that emerged within architectural attempts that come after the spread of the global trend of modernist architecture with its buildings of functional, abstract, and unified forms. One of her ideas was to link modern architecture with aspects of the local environment, starting with the use of local materials or some environmental treatments on modern buildings. With the growth of the postmodern movement, the conceptual side deepened to focus on identity, place, and history. The research focuses on the experience of regionalism in the architecture of Iraqi modernity during the middle of the twentieth century before the rise of calls for a return to heritage and postmodern currents. The research monitors an important period of architectural activity, which accompanied a stage that went through many political, social, and cultural changes that passed through Iraq, which directly impacted the nature of what was accomplished in terms of architecture. The research refers to the "regionalism" in the architecture of Iraqi modernism and what was produced by foreign architects who worked in Iraq during the fifties and gave the first indication of benefiting from the values of the place and enriching modern architecture through environmental materials and treatments. After them, the works of the pioneers of Iraqi architects came to complete this experience in attempts to “regionalize” architecture, leading to calls for a return to heritage at the beginning of the eighties of the twentieth century, which took the Iraqi architectural experience with it to other dimensions. This era produced a lot of modernist Iraqi architectural works with a regional tendency. The research will analyze that experience with its social, cultural, and political dimensions, and investigate the circumstances that led to it.