Bassam Abdel Razzaq
Photography: Wissam Al-Aqili
A symposium on “Modern Iraqi Architecture and Visual Distortion” was held in the seminar tent within the activities of the Iraq International Book Fair, in which professors Maysoon Al-Damluji, Dr. Moataz Enad Ghazwan and Dr. Bilal Samir lectured, while it was moderated by Dr. Muhammad Al-Sufi.
At the beginning of the symposium, Mrs. Maysoon Al-Damluji stated that “Iraqi laws do not differ from the laws in Britain, on the contrary, they are based on British laws in their origin, but the problem is in application, there is a problem represented in the relationship of society with heritage buildings and with modern buildings and what we see today from distortions,” indicating that “the building you maintain must have a relationship with it, and a desire to preserve this building, and not to be a rigid member of the city, but vital in Using it, and this does not exist, and who owns a heritage building feels that it is a burden on him and tries to get rid of it by any means to become a building of material benefit.”
Al-Damluji added, “The aesthetic value in the work is not the only element that needs maintenance, there is an integrated fabric that reflects the style and lifestyle in a certain period that we have to preserve, and what sometimes happens is that we maintain one house and the street and Darbona are all demolished, the building does not mean anything in isolation from the framework that surrounds it.”
She pointed out that “what we see from the distortions (Ecobond and others) reflects the society itself, and to accept looking at such distortions, architecture is a moral issue, we can not work based on a land area of 100 meters and have columns and alabaster as if the White House, and this happens every day in the most prestigious areas of Baghdad and popular areas as well,” noting that “architecture bears a great responsibility in this matter, more often than not the customer relies on architecture and listens to his advice.”
For his part, Dr. Bilal Samir, the owner of a blog specialized in architecture, said that “the beginning of realizing that our architectural research effort is separate from society, I had an attempt to express topics that scientific research may not accept, including my personal memories and my visits to sites in the city, and I did not find a place to publish in it, and the idea of creating a blog came and I began to write my experiences even at the stage of doctoral research, and I discovered relationships between an architectural text that I read about in a book with watching a movie with a visit to an Iraqi building, so it became I have stories that each one is interested in something and I tried to be close to people and their language is simple.”
He said he expected “the blog to be closer to non-specialist recipients.”
In turn, Dr. Moataz Enad said that “when Dr. Muhammad Makiya visited Baghdad in 2005, he was very shocked by what he saw, and I attended the meeting that took place at the Faculty of Engineering at the time, in which he said (I miss the Sumerian homeland), and this is the term authenticity, because Sumerian is the first civilization in Mesopotamia, he says Baghdad was distorted, and spoke in an architectural language that the city’s arteries have become slums.”
He added that “there is this wrong use of this packaging, which Dr. Qahtan Al-Madfai called the waste of Western civilization (Ecobond), and he told me that when he walked on the highway near the Ministry of Finance, he closed his eyes so as not to see the building he created,” pointing out that “we deal with architecture as a visual text that can be interpreted, interpreted and studied spatial space.”
He continued that “the current advertisements in the streets distort the place and distort the architecture, Baghdad was coveted by all international architects, we have a large legacy of architecture and we do not benefit from it because of randomness, lack of study and neglect, and I do not put the responsibility only on the government side, but the Iraqi person has a responsibility and must preserve this property and develop the artistic taste.”