With the Orientalist imagery casting Baghdad a vanished mirage, that of wars tending to transform it into a foil, and finally the "advertising policy" of a regime which functioned for thirty years as a screen between Iraq and the rest of the world, how can a clear perception of the modern city of Baghdad be achieved now?

Bagdad 1914-1960: La construction d’une capitale moderne aims at identifying and evaluating the main stages of transformation of Baghdad’s urban and architectural landscape, between 1914 (WWI, then British Mandate, Iraqi national Kingdom) and 1958 (Iraqi Revolution, end of the monarchy) within the national and the international context. The organisation of the urban space and the formation of the architectural corpus are envisioned as paradigms of a complex identity, as they embody the various mechanisms of decisions at stake in the development of a modern capital city. The study encompasses interactions between housing forms and uses, urban forms and practices, and eventually between nation-building and the modernization of an emblematic city.

The book proceeds from a PhD thesis which was defended in 2010 at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Institute of Advanced Studies), Paris. It is the fhe fruit of more than ten years of on-site research and investigation led in both public and private archives from several countries  –  Iraq and Great Britain, but also France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, U.S.A.

Caecilia Pieri is Associate Researcher at the at the French Institute of the Near-East, Beirut, where she was the head of the Urban Observatory between 2011 and 2015.  She focuses on modern heritage as a social marker and tool for politics. She received her PhD at the EHESS, Paris, on the modernization of Baghdad, where she has been conducting fieldwork for 10 years. An expert within the UNESCO World Heritage for the safeguard of the built modern heritage in the Arab World, she is the author and co-author of Baghdad Renaissance (2003, cat. ex. on contemporary Iraqi art), Baghdad Arts Deco, 1920-1950 (American University of Cairo Press, 2011), Le Corbusier Gymnasium in Baghdad, 2014.

Discussants:

Jens Hanssen, Associate Professor, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Toronto

Aziza Chaouni, Associate Professor, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto

This event is co-organized by the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations & by the Daniels Faculty.