Munzer Abbas House

Notes

This villa is one of Chadirji’s earliest works in which he merges between traditional Iraqi architectural elements and those of the international modernist avant-garde.

The architect stripped down the lines and the roofs of the volumes to form harmonious relationships within a sculptural form. The design also displayed architectonic elements which tempered ventilation and sunlight exposure. Beside the regularly patterned screens on the façade, the building showed compositions that the architect asserted to be inspired by Ben Nicholson’s compositions and resembling Piet Mondrian’s.

The architect also used such patterns in the floor treatment. As mentioned in his book Al-Ukhaider and the Crystal Palace, the architect designed tiling that, at instances, resembles Mies van der Rohe’s linear compositions and, at others, resembles Mondrian’s rectangular patterns. These shifts in tiling designs helped articulate separations and continuations within the interior spaces.

The architect also pointed out that he had integrated intuitively generated elements to the design, namely the diagonal volume at the upper part of the building.
 

Sources

Chadirji, Rifaat, Al-Ukhaider and the Crystal Palace, London: Riad El-Rayyes Books Ltd, 1991, pp. 65-66 

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