Hugo once said, "Architecture is an epic of stone." "The so-called poetry, one singing and three sighs. The roof of Notre Dame cathedral was set on fire, and planes laden with explosives crashed into the twin towers of modern urban monuments. The stone looks solid, but the building is far more fragile than expected. A few buildings have solidified history and have been carefully cared for as living fossils of human development; some have given way to new urban functions and have been uprooted; and many have been destroyed by natural and man-made disasters, a fire, and an explosion are enough to turn the fate of the building, and they are in a dilemma between demolition and restoration.
The two world wars of the last century, which swept most of the world into turmoil, and in the decades that followed, many countries were able to recuperate and peace seemed to be the norm. But in the 21st century, there are still people who are displaced by war, and there are buildings that are torn apart because of war. Some of those wounded buildings became wordless epics, and some became the dust of history.
Regime change, war-torn Iraq has not been absent from the climax of the development of modernist architecture. Western architects influenced 20th-century Iraq in a variety of ways.
In 1958, a coup d'état by Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew the monarchy of King Faisal II, and despite the turmoil, Iraq's dealings with Eastern Europe hardly stopped, and the Polish Planning Office Miastoprojekt-Kraków delivered the Baghdad master plan until 2014, when it remained an official regulatory document. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Iraqi Development Council invited world-renowned modernist masters to participate in a large number of architectural and urban planning projects.
⬅️ Swipe left to see: Images of Baghdad and the surrounding city from 1960 to 1962, modern architecture is still visible.
Walter Gropius and Hisham A Munir's University of Baghdad planning program.
Frank Lioyd Wright's Urban Planning Scheme for Baghdad.
Walter Gropius and the Consortium of Architects (TAC) completed the campus plan and individual design of the University of Baghdad, two of which were built; Le Corbusier designed the Baghdad Stadium at the peak of his career; in 1961, the Development Board Building, designed by Gio Ponti, broke ground; and in the same year, the U.S. Embassy by Josep Lluís Sert was widely acclaimed. Became one of the hallmarks of Iraqi modernist architecture; the Iraqi Museum, designed by German architect Werner March, opened to the public in 1966... In the 1960s and 1970s, a number of collective residential projects that pursued modernism in line with Baghdad's local climatic conditions and traditional culture brought to the fore of Local Iraqi architects, including Kahtan Awni, Kahtan Madfai, Mohamed Makiya, Rifat Chadirji and Hisham Munir.
Le Corbusier-designed Baghdad Stadium
⬅️ Swipe left to see: Josep Lluís Sert's design of the U.S. Embassy's historic face and dilapidated present.
In the '90s, the Gulf War pressed the pause button for everything and erased traces of the Philip Hirst-designed Rafidain Bank headquarters. The ensuing international sanctions and the war that broke out in 2003 finally completely interrupted the process of urban construction. Le Corbusier's stadium survived the Eight Years' War, and some of Rifat Chadirji's works were not so lucky.
Rifat Chadirji's design for the history and status of the Confederation of Industries building in Baghdad in 1966.
In 2003, during a notorious looting of public buildings, one of Chadirji's masterpieces, the Federation of Industries building, burned down and is still in disuse. Inspired by the traditional architecture of Baghdad, the Confederation of Industries building is a fine example of the architect's sculptural exterior design. The "suspended walls" on the surface of the building dissolve the huge building volume, hiding the monotonous functional space and floor distribution. In the sweltering summer heat in Baghdad, the wall acts as a curtain, and sunlight enters the interior through multiple reflections between the raised walls on the building's surface, preventing the interior space from overheating.
Chadirji designed the appearance of the National Insurance Company building in 1969 and the 1970s.
The National Insurance Company building, which was damaged in the fighting, has now been demolished
The National Insurance Company building, designed at the same time as the Confederation of Industry building, takes a similar design approach, but differs slightly in the use of materials and responds to the traditional courtyard space of the city of Mosul. In 2014, ISIS occupied the city of Mosul, where the building and its roof were used as execution areas before being bombed during the liberation of the city and eventually demolished by the local government of Mosul.
From top to bottom: a hand-drawn drawing of the Central Communications Building designed by Chadirji; the historical face of the building; the building after the bomb attack; and the building has now been renovated to exist in Baghdad in a new form.
In contrast, the Central Post, Telegraph and Telephone Administration, completed in 1971, is even stronger. After structural engineer Artin Levon completed the design of the 10-story tower, Chadirji tried to break the monotony of the building with exaggerated structural components. A few years after its commissioning, the building was targeted in the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s; during the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. F-117 Nighthawk dropped a 900-kilogram bomb at the building, launching Operation Desert Storm; in 2003, the building was again targeted by U.S. forces and burned down in subsequent nationwide looting. However, after each blow, the communications building was repaired and reused. Its exaggerated main structure has never been fatally damaged, and it still stands in Baghdad as an important monument in the history of modern Iraqi architecture.
From top to bottom, the arches of the Cabinet Minister Building looked like in 1975, 1982, 2004 and 2021. Architectural elements are closely intertwined with the context of the times and even history and politics.
In 1950, Rifat, who had finished his studies in London, returned to his home country to practice independently, and the company name "Iraq consult" gave it a bit of an official organization. The choice of language in its architectural form is almost inseparable from political and religious influences. From about the mid-1960s, round arches became a common architectural element in Chadirji and were almost all over the local public buildings under the impetus of the then Vice President. In 1982, the company received a political order to change the round arch of the Cabinet Minister Building, which had been designed seven years earlier and was under construction at the time, to a pointed arch, suggesting a strong connection to Islam. The form of the arch was eventually changed, and the building still did not escape the end of being bombed. Although still part of the Ministry of Defense building, it is not used.
The Monument to the Unknown Soldier, designed by Chadirji in 1958. The 1982 memorial was torn down and replaced by a sculpture by Saddam Hussein, which was eventually torn down during the 2003 Iraq War. Below is a group photo of Chadirji with the monument demolition team.
Perhaps no architect's fate will ever be as closely linked to the country's turbulent history as Chadirji's. He was the founder of modernist architecture in Iraq, but after leaving his homeland in 1983, he devoted himself to architectural education and writing. For the remaining 37 years, the architect never designed again, leaving only nearly a hundred of his buildings to witness the rise and fall of his homeland. On 10 April 2020, Chadirji died in London at the age of 93 due to coronavirus pneumonia.
Rifat Chadirji's father, Kamil Chadirji, photographed the city of Baghdad in a helicopter
Chadirji is known as the "Father of Modern Architecture in Iraq" not only for his architectural work, but also for documentary images he and his father took – 80,000 photographs documenting social life in Iraq from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. The photographic archive is currently in the collection of the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut. And beirut is another ill-fated city, and another cluster of broken buildings.
On August 4, 2020, a huge explosion occurred in the port area of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and almost no building within a 10km radius was spared, killing at least 190 people, destroying more than 6,000 buildings and leaving more than 300,000 people homeless. The subsequent surge in coronavirus cases has made the city worse. This is just 30 years after the end of the Lebanese civil war. Beirut is still struggling to repair and rebuild its city, and the traces of war still exist in all corners.
⬅️ Swipe left to see: Joseph Philippe Karam designed the post-war "Dome" theater and city center
The "Dome" theater can still be seen in the reconstruction plan of the Beirut district designed by architect Bauzanbach
In 1965, construction began on the "City Center of Beirut", designed by Lebanese architect Joseph Philippe Karam. It is a commercial and office urban complex, with two towers and an eggshell cinema that can accommodate up to 1,000 people on a pillar-supported pedestal. The outbreak of civil war in 1975 severely damaged the unfinished building, most of it was razed to the ground, and the eggshell-shaped cinema survived as a witness to history and appeared in Bauzanbach's plan for the reconstruction of the Beirut area. Ironically, the "Dome", which was facing demolition in 2005 because of a change of land rights, survived the Iselean bombing of Belu on purpose. The buildings destroyed by the war were survived by the war.
The Barakat building, designed by Youssef Aftimos, has been restored and has become a museum. The old and new structures are clearly visible in the new buildings, and the ruins of the building record a piece of Lebanon's history.
In contrast, the Barakat Building, known as the "Yellow House," is decidedly luckier. Designed by renowned Lebanese architect Youssef Aftimos, the building, completed in 1934, was badly damaged and dilapidated during the civil war because of its location on the green line where the firefights raged. In 2003, the government acquired the entire property and began to transform it into a museum. Although the turmoil of the later times led to twists and turns in the renovation process, it was finally put back into use after being razed to the ground or abandoned, and obtained the dignity that the building deserved.
In Beirut, the National Museum, which had been badly damaged during the Civil War, was restored and reopened; the old bazaar in the city center was transformed into a modern commercial plaza packed with luxury brands; the construction projects of internationally renowned architects such as Foster, Jean Nouvel, Herzog and de Meuron were put into use; the bombed but still standing Holiday Inn became a tourist punch card resort... Thirty years after the war, Beirut repaired its body scarred by the war in a variety of ways. Until two years ago, a loud noise caused the city to smoke and dust again.
Beirut port area after the explosion
Of the approximately 6,000 buildings destroyed in the explosion, a total of about 640 came from the Ottoman period during World War I, the French Mandate colonial period before Lebanon's independence in 1943, and the modernist period before 1971. The works of contemporary local architects Bernard Khoury, Lina Ghtomeh and Nabil Gholam were also destroyed.
Bernard Khoury's high-rise residential "plot #1072" was badly damaged by its proximity to the port and was hit hard in less than a decade.
No architect has done more to change the landscape of Beirut's port district than Bernard Khoury. Coming from an architectural family, his father Khalil Khoury was involved in the development of the master plan for the reconstruction of Beirut's central district in 1977, and his Interdesign Building still stands in the heart of the city. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Bernard Khoury traveled to the United States, where he received a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a master's degree in architectural studies from Harvard University. In the early 1990s, his iconic BO18 Club broke ground in the port of Beirut, and since then he has built three new residential buildings and his own studio in the area. Completed in 2014, the high-rise residential "plot #1072" had a total above-ground floor area of more than 15,000 square meters and was just a highway away from the port of Beirut and was hit hard by the explosion.
From the perspective of the opening, you can see that the stone and flower apartment is not far from the port area of Beirut where the explosion occurred. Architect Lina Ghotmeh grew up in Belu in the 1980s and was nominated for the Mies Van Der Roo Award in 2017.
In contrast, the Apartment Building "Stone Garden", designed by Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh, is slightly lucky. Despite being only a mile from the center of the explosion, the 13-story building, which was just completed before the explosion, survived with only minor damage. For Lina, who grew up in the post-war Bellu and eventually chose to set up a firm in Paris, the building was an emotional return. On an urban scale, the tower resembles a sculpture full of bullet holes, the rough surface of the building seems to be stacked with layers of history, and the window openings of different sizes become viewing windows for the distant ocean. "Stone & Flower Apartments somehow embodies how I feel about Beirut," she says, "a city that is constantly taking disasters, but despite this, it is incredibly creative." ”
Renderings of Zaha Hadid's design and the building that experienced a fire before it was completed.
Unfortunately, in September 2020, another fire broke out in the city center of Beirut, and a building designed by architect Zaha Hadid was also damaged in the fire, and the construction of the building was not yet completed.
Beirut, which has a long history but is full of disasters, is covered with layers of historical dust. Perhaps the people who were born and raised here are destined to tear between the past and the future, unable to break free from the shackles of history and forget the devastation they experienced when they were young. The war has almost become an indelible vestige of the lives of Lebanon, especially Beirut, who respond in a variety of ways to the memories and pains that must be faced in life. Joseph M Khoury and Gabriela Cardozo went on a difficult hike after the explosion, and the couple visited the historic city around the port of Beirut, documenting what happened in photography. The final photo of 25 buildings comparing before and after the explosion makes everything even more shocking.
⬅️ Swipe left to see: Joseph M Khoury and Gabriela Cardozo return to the port perimeter after the explosion in Beirut, comparing previous photographs with damaged buildings.
Now the Port of Beirut is being rebuilt and restored bit by bit, just as it did 30 years ago. As people here struggle to move forward with their wounds on their backs, a similar history descends on another group of people in a progressive tense.
On February 24, 2022, Russia sent troops to Ukraine. The war is still going on. The number of casualties and damage to buildings has risen with military operation after military operation. In addition to Kiev, Ukraine's capital, Kharkiv , Ukraine's second-largest city is under fire. On March 1, the city's central Freedom Square was attacked, and the surrounding buildings including the Palace of Labor, which was completed in 1914, the city hall, the opera house, and the concert hall were damaged to varying degrees. The doors and windows of the Kharkiv Art Museum were shattered, and 25,000 works were in an unfavorable environment of humidity and low temperatures.
Kharkiv Freedom Square was bombed
There is also the current status of a building that attracts the attention of everyone. The State-owned Industrial Buildings (Derzhprom Buildings), which entered service on November 7, 1928, were the first skyscrapers in Ukraine. Although not much ink has been written on classical architectural history, the building is a representative work of constructivism, designed by the architects Sergei Serafimov, S. Kravets and M. Felger, and built quickly in just three years.
State-owned industrial building designed by architects Sergei Serafimov, S. Kravets and M. Felger.
When completed in 1928, it was the largest single building in the world. Both the use of concrete and the system of independent towers connecting each other through aerial corridors were extremely innovative at the time. Reyner Banham once compared it to the Dessau Bauhaus and Van Nelle factories. As a heritage of Ukrainian modernist architecture, it has twice been included in the shortlist of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Will there still be a chance that the building, which is still in its astonishing size, be restored in accordance with UNESCO's requirements?
At a time when the future of modernist architecture is uncertain, the fate of the country's historical architecture is also not optimistic. The Dormition Cathedral, founded in 1657, has been built for nearly four centuries. On March 3, 1733, Kharkov suffered the worst fire in its history, and the church was severely damaged, leaving only the walls, which were restored the following year. In the nearly three hundred years that followed, the church underwent severe wall cracks, tornadoes, World War II and other tests, and finally restored to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2006. On March 2, 2022, Russian missiles hit a church where civilians were hiding from an explosion.
Cellists play in the now inaccessible center of Kharkiv
The spontaneous act of protection by the inhabitants is almost an important opportunity for the survival of the local cultural heritage. In Ukraine, st. Michael the Archangel Cathedral (Mariupol), Chernihiv State Polytechnic University, Chernihiv Stadium, Donetsk State Academy Drama Theater, Gavliška-Vinnytsa International Airport, Antonov Airport and other buildings were damaged to varying degrees during the war. The list is constantly growing.
Some say 2022 is the year of "fire" around the world. In wars, epidemics and disasters, it is not only buildings that are injured. The epic made of stone will fade, and the broken dust will dissipate, but the losses and regrets generated will eventually be indelible.
May the buildings that carry history and culture can safely complete their lives in the ups and downs.
Rreference：
https://round-city.com/rifat-chadirji-10-buildings-and-the-stories-behind-them/
https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/trailers/backstory-city-peace/
https://failedarchitecture.com/the-value-of-a-war-scarred-ruin-in-beirut/
Author: Li Xueke
Design: enkit
Edit: Hanxi
Some of the pictures come from the web