Aviation Association Building in Baghdad

Notes

The building is situated on a curved plot surrounded by two side streets and a plaza. The design features an exterior shell, with a curvature following the plot, set at a distance from the building's internal body. The latter houses commercial functions on the ground floor and office spaces on the upper floors. The architect's use of the exterior shell intended to partly conceal the building's structure while also protecting the building's body from intense sun exposure and noises from the surroundings. The resulting interstitial space allows diverse tranquil subspaces for users on the ground floor, be them functioning as an entrance to the bank from the east, a corridor in front of the shops to the south, or a courtyard leading to the main entrance to the west. The exterior shell doesn't fully cover the building's internal body but descends gradually and reveals it towards the adjacent plaza, creating a dynamic relationship with it. The exterior shell also features a rhythmic use of elongated arched perforations along with functionally placed balconies adding coincidental compositional variations.

Sources

Chadirji, Rifaat, Al-Ukhaider and the Crystal Palace, London: Riad El-Rayyes Books Ltd, 1991, pp. 275-276

Chadirji Foundation for Architecture and Society

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