The Global Socialist Planning of Baghdad
If Iraqi architecture is known abroad today, it’s for Saddam Hussein’s grandiose palaces and monuments. But the master plan of Baghdad, developed amid the Cold War by a Polish state agency, was far from a centralized and authoritarian vision for the city.
Kraków, “Master-Plan of Bagdad,” 1967. (Private archive, Kraków, Poland)
Łukasz Stanek’s book Architecture in Global Socialism charted the exchanges between state socialist countries in Eastern Europe and the Global South during the Cold War, from Nigeria to Libya to the United Arab Emirates to Ghana — but with Iraq as one of its major case studies. We spoke to Stanek about these projects, especially the replanning of Baghdad according to a Polish master plan — and how it has and hasn’t survived the Iraq War and its aftermath.
Owen Hatherley
In the 1960s, the Iraqi government rejected the master plan for Baghdad by the British firm of Minoprio, Spencely and Macfarlane, in favor of a new plan prepared by the Polish agency Miastoprojekt. What were the differences between these plans?
Łukasz Stanek
Maybe it’s useful to start with the similarities. These plans came from the same urban planning culture, in the sense of a modern, functionalist urbanism, with zoning, the separation of traffic and pedestrians, and so on. The Miastoprojekt master plan kept several decisions of Minoprio, including the green belt, the ovoid shape of the city, and the principle of the neighborhood units.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.