BOD - Baghdad Open Design Center
Al-Rusafa is the pulsating heart of the historic city of Bagdad. An active, irregular and dense heart.
Al-Multaqa represent the sad testimony of something that was existing before and not existing anymore, it is a urban void now.
The BOD center wants to act in this void without saturate it, but , inspired by the natural spontaneity of its inhabitants, creating a new center with a building that could offer a spatial relief from the dense surrounding and a spiritual relief from the urban frenzy and from the memory.
The skin, is the only testament of the past, evidence to consolidate and respect, is used as wealth to fill and highlight. The void is filled, integrating the existing perimeter, allowing at the same time the conservation: the result is not a close space but a sunken volume excavated by an helicoidal ramp. The ramp recall the symbol of the ascendent spiral and its act as a connection for all the new spaces, from the ground to the roof. The historical shell hides inside the new architecture to discover.
At the city level, the space is a permeable and public square, open to the urban colonisation: the original entrance on the old facade is preserved, and an other entrance, on the left side, is announced where the existing wall is interrupted. This entrance guides the visitors towards the beginning of the ramp and through the amphitheater space, this is a stepped sunken plaza, a meeting point, a garden remembering a central oasis. On the opposite side is placed the glazed volume of the bar.
The ramp digs the volume dividing it in two main parts, independent due to the vertical distribution but, at the same time, linked by the slow circulation; the program is variable and the space is flexible for different needs and uses. The spaces are located at different levels : a small conference room, Co-working and study areas and the library. The space is unique but open to the diversified flows, open to the variation of the functions, open to the dialogue with the pre-existence, open to the city.
Bagdad Open Design Center aim to be a starting point for the integration between the consolidated life of the historical city and the future. The project want to enhance the existing facade, exorcising the negative idea of the war that currently has, giving dignity and new life to the new tangible sign of the history of the city.
Program
Multifunctional building - design center
Year
2018
Site
Baghdad, Iraq
Competition
THE RIFAT CHADIRJI PRIZE 2018
Team
llabb architects
Federica Zunino
Philippe Vezina
