After deposing its British-backed monarchy in 1958, postwar, post-colonial Iraq faced an important question in its urban planning: How would it build a modern nation without sacrificing a national identity? The answer came through Rifat Chadirji, the most influential modernist architect you’ve likely never heard of.
Chadirji and his firm, Iraq Consult, is the subject of Every Building in Baghdad, an exhibition on view at Chicago’s Graham Foundation through December 31 that surveys the seldom-discussed Iraqi architect’s tremendous influence in the Middle East. Taking a cue from Ed Ruscha’s 1966 Every Building on the Sunset Strip, the show comprises photographs the architect took and meticulously catalogued himself, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation.
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