THE LANGUAGE SCHOOL OF IRAQI NARRATIVES: RE-CONSTRUCTING A FRAGMENTED ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

This interdisciplinary design school looks to further the reconstruction of places and buildings through language and oral history. The inaccessibility of architectural knowledge resulting from language barriers has resulted in limited and inaccurate depictions and interpretations of Iraqi’s architectural heritage, especially in the West. In collaboration with the Iraqi and Smithsonian Institutes, the conservation of antiques and heritage now extends to sound archives. Through translation processes, information communicated in the Iraqi Arabic dialects become portals into pre-and-post-wars memories. Located in the culturally and historically rich site of Little Britain, the building is designed around a Gallery Forest filled with Tree Pavilions, Sound Archive Chamber and sunken Cedar Forest Courtyard. These are woven into a sustainable water dominant landscape that is reminiscent of Abbasid gardens, with the added creation of pockets of sound spaces.