Rafidain Bank, Kufa

Notes

The building was heavily damaged in the Gulf War and was subsequently demolished in the 1990s. A group of Iraqi architects and intellectuals have sought to make the authorities re-build it as a tribute to the architect, on his 100s anniversary (January 17, 2014).
Makiya’s designs have usually been variations of a courtyard house plan. This relationship between a central space and surrounding units was clear in his design of the Rafidain Bank in Kufa–even though the courtyard in this case had been given a ceiling.
The units were only visually connected but each existed on its own in an individual space creating what seems like carved out spaces in between them. And this was in accordance with the traditional concept of space making, where the architect/builder's mission is to create a void for the unit itself as well as the inside of it, instead of building a mass in the void.

Sources

Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Kultermann, Udo, Contemporary Architecture in the Arab States: Renaissance of a Region, New York: McGraw Hill, 1999. pp. 7, 36
Dr. Khaled Sultany article

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