“Contrary to common misconceptions, these architects were not interested in articulating some form of local or national identity; instead, and in line with ideas that had been developed in tandem with the project of fellow Baghdadi artists, the past became a source for spatial, formal, and esthetic innovation—and a contribution to global architectural culture.”

Publication: “Al-Mustansiriyah University: Architecture as Urbanism,” in Designing Modernity: Architecture in the Arab World 1945-1973, edited by Philipp Oswalt and George Arbid. Berlin: Jovis Verlag GmbH and Goethe-Institut Ramallah, 2022.

Keywords:  art, architecture, urbanism, planning, masterplan, modernism, post-WWII, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Kahtan Awni, architects, art, artists, modern, development, modernization, progress, heritage, tradition, bricks, ceramic, tiles, patterns, ornament, decoration, concrete, brutalism, history, historiography, preservation, university, campus, higher education, academic, local, global, politics, monarchy, republic, revolution, Baghdad, Iraq, South West Asia, North Africa

Image: Kahtan Awni: Consultant - Architect