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Baghdad University Design

Working Paper · May 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1005.7842

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South Dakota State University   
Department of Architecture
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Baghdad University Design” 
Name: Sulaiman Mustafa 
Supervisor: Robert Arlt 
Course name: ARCH 492(Bauhaus 2015) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Table of contents
Introduction
 How Walter Gropius Came to Baghdad?
 Commission of Baghdad University
 University Location

Design Principle
 Design Teams
 Design Strategies
 The Office Tower and the Gate
 The mosque

Conclusion 
References 
List of illustrations  
 
 
 
 
 
 
2 
 
Introduction
The university campus designed by Gropius shows a great level of inclination toward a new
modern world while the political environment continuously changing toward a dictatorship
leading. Once Gropius wrote in Architectural Record “Baghdad is an ideal project. To an architect and
a teacher long dedicated to the principle that members of the profession must play the broadest possible role in
the pursuit of a better life for mankind, the total design of a university is a goal achieved”. “1”  

 How Walter Gropius Came to Baghdad?

The intellectual atmosphere of Baghdad 1950s was alive with the present of young Iraqi
artists, sculptors, architects and engineers, most of them skilled in the west. And the architects
wear enthusiastic to break the British control over the building industry, dominated since
1920s by the neoclassical tradition dominant in the European colonies.

Raafat chadrchi, Mohamad makya, Nizar and Ellen were among the elite western-
educated architects who used their positions and knowledge to support Iraqi development
plan and modernist idea. Considerably, Nizar Ali Jawdat, son of Iraq’s diplomat to the United
States, was a student of Walter Gropius at Harvard University’s Graduate school of Design, He
married fellow student Ellen Bovery and returned with her to Iraq where they began
architectural careers not long before the Development Board Embarked on its building
program. By 1957. Nizar’s Father was prime minister under King Faisal II. These family
connections enabled the young architects to help convince Iraq’s Development Board to
broaden their choice of architects.

On a 1954 trip to Japan Gropius stopped in Baghdad to visit Jawdat. This was the
occasion for an agenda Ellen Jawdat prepared. A Sunday evening dinner attendees included
representatives from the U.S embassy and two Iraq’s foreign affairs ministry but also ministry
of planning and financial. The Sunday dinner involved a number of Iraq architects trained
abroad (in the U.S, U.K, Sweden, and American university in Beirut) in addition to
Development board members, and Dr. Dury. At that time Dury had been invited to spend a
year teaching Islamic studies at Harvard. Gropius began his Journey toward the university
commission.

U.S Map, Gropius “2” Iraq Map, Gropius with Iraqi students who studied a broad   “3”
3 
 
  Commission of Baghdad University
Gropius began with the connection to help him to steer a desirable commission through
unskilled government. A symbolic centerpiece of independence and modernization. Baghdad
University was especially important Development Board architectural project. Educational
institutions were central to emerging countries such as Iraq as they forged their own identities
and built original modern institutions. Creation a university based on the western model
represented the possibility for an original knowledge infrastructure.

Baghdad University came to Gropius by way of the Jawdat he had been inn America for
20years. Well before 1957 the Jawdats started working behind the scene to bring Gropius to
Iraq and introduce him to key decision makers, ensuring him that he would be among the first
western architects to be considered for a development project. Gropius had a strong political
support in Iraq. In 1957, at the age 74, Gropius received the lucrative, long term-university
commission. It would gradually transform to his architectural office (TAC) the architectural
Corporative. “4”

A contract in 1959 reveals how pragmatic Gropius was in arranging details to energy
his business, guarantee steady payments, and ensure his chances of success. The contract
includes supplies, from $1 million payment deposited into a Swiss account and $2.3 million in
the second year to guarantee that the contract bind successor regimes.

The Cambridge School and Walter Gropius “5”

4 
 
  University Location
Gropius had to wait for the British firm Minoprios, Spencerly and Macfarlene to
complete Baghdad’s 1956 Master plan to determine the university location. Of the two
alternative sites the plan allowed, Gropius selected the one in Karradah. South of the city, at a
noticeable bend of the river Tigris. A large peninsula with date groves and long river frontage
across from the Island Frank Lloyd Wright had chosen for his culture center. “6”  

Design Principles
Campus Location“7”

 Design Teams
In Baghdad Gropius was asked with more than the physical design of a 500- acre
campus for a student body of 12,000. He was also to express the philosophy of education for
the new university. He planned to do for Baghdad what he had done for Germany in the
Bauhaus “to plan a total university….. As a consistent unit in both its physical plant on new
hand as well as its philosophy of education. He worked on the design and tried to find the
meaning of university which is “wholeness”. Offering the creative situation for a full and
harmonious life of students. Gropius wasn’t defined just the architectural program, but
formulated the universities teaching principles.

Gropius structured teams to develop both educational and architectural plans, the
educational program was developed by a group from Harvard’s school of Education. They
provided a thoroughly complete and acceptable program and their recommendation was not
any department should own or have for its exclusive use any general classroom or teaching
space. Classrooms were to be used on the campus with only specialized laboratories belong to
a specific departments.

Gropius allowed others to design “in the spirit of his ideas” weekly review sessions
were pin ups in conference room where principles gathered to discuss the progress made, not
like juries Gropius arranged at Harvard. Gropius was very attentive and actually had a gift for
bringing out the best of his team members and their coworkers.

5 
 
  Design Strategies
The master plan had a triple ringed form. The first ring grouped the common class
rooms, lecture halls, and laboratories around the unsymmetrical central plaza with the student
center, library, auditorium, theater, administration, and faculty club and faculty office tower
around the edge, for the general life of the university in contrast to the specific educational
function at the center. A ring road around the academic area was to express the Bauhaus
tenant “unity of function” and limit Vehicular access except for the purpose of serving
administrative buildings. Across and north of the central plaza and on the axis of entrance
view was the mosque. The second ring was to house the separate student’s dorms, and the
third was house the athletic facilities.

Gropius was inspired by the existing dikes or retaining walls on the site, and the site
was full of the tree. They decided to transplant all the trees and had a clean slate for an
orthogonal plan. They used the transplant trees for shade and to outline the road system.
Gropius decided to use most of the dikes as elevated walkways between buildings.

Gropius proposed to let climate control dominate the architectural theme, much in line
with Bauhaus principle all possible ways of controlling the effect of climate were explored to
counteract the excessive heat from May to September, often higher than our blood
temperature, Gropius made sure that all the buildings were close to enough to overshadow
each other, to provide a reduction in temperature and short horizontal line of communication.
TAC researched and applied evaporative cooling principles and also studied sun control,
proposing sun breakers. To deflect sun lights, there were roofs overhangs above window
opining, louvers, grills, and Wight concrete and Umbrella roof. There were also sprinklers
turned upward to cool the air In addition, they were using cooling air condition throughout all
the buildings. 

The windows of class rooms face north and south, and water should have run through
some tiles and walls.

Plan of central core of Baghdad University, Irregular pattern of 
Buildings appeared as a result of the existing dikes “8”   Central library, sun screen was used“9”

6 
 
  The Office Tower and the Gate
Gropius himself had occasion to honor the flexibility he was advocating for the
university design. When General Kassem took control of Iraq after assassinating the king
Faisal II in 1958, Gropius continued his work even after the military coup, as his contract
assured monthly payments. Gropius was also wisely flexible within his relationship with
Kassem. And the new government asked him to design tall building, one that he could see
from his office. Gropius’s plan accommodated the symbolic monumentality required by the
government. The excited general shortly approved a 20 story faculty office. “10”

As well as a symbolic 80-foot campus entrance arch known as the open mind. A
monumental and symbolic gateway to the campus “as the physical structure of the university
growing,, the academic reforms and developments will be proceeding that are necessary to
make the mind and the soul of the university worthy of their home.

Even though the early concept was to design a campus full of low-rise buildings along a
scattered campus with nothing over three stories were a part of thoughtful intent to build a
human scale.

 
 
 

Open Mind Gate“12”
Office Tower“11”

7 
 
 Baghdad University Mosque:-
The design of a mosque represents a unique challenge to an architect. The government of
Iraq commissioned Walter Gropius to design University of Baghdad campus. In addition to the
buildings and offices, he was also asked to complete the campus mosque. Gropius spent a great
deal of time researching mosques that had been constructed during the great Arab
ascension beginning in the middle Ages. These structures all varied greatly in size and
composition. But after extensive research and discussion he believed he had identified what he
considered the three basic elements present in the composition of any mosque. “13”

A mosque was really very simple: it was composed of three elements. The first element
is what is known in Arabic as the mihrab. A Mihrab can exist independent of any building. To
pray, Bedouin customarily draw a line in the sand with a half circle in the middle pointing
toward Mecca. For them, that plot of land is an ephemeral mosque. When incorporated in a
building, the mihrab is, for the Muslim architect, the
heart of the place of worship, but, for the non-Muslim
architect, it is of minor “design” importance. It does,
however, have a fascinating history.The tradition from
which the Mihrab derives is very ancient, deriving,
probably, from the ancient Egyptian “door of heaven”
through Sassassian palace throne rooms to later Christian
niches. It is surely one of the most enduring and
important of architectural forms although one that is
physically not particularly impressive. I think it is fair to
say that it did not much interest Gropius. Typical Mihrab “ ” 
14

The second, and to Gropius, the important

element was what we call a “minaret.” The word minaret
comes from manara which, like most Arabic words, has
multiple meanings – candlestick, lighthouse, signpost
and watchtower. The earliest mosques did not have
minarets. Tradition holds that the first man to summon
worshipers to prayer just climbed up onto a roof. But,
minarets like the bell-tower of a church, it also came,
over the centuries, to be the very symbol of the place of
worship. For Gropius, it was the key element in the
mosque.
Typical Minaret “15” 

8 
 
 The third element was the space for worshippers
to assemble. In the earliest mosques, and in many of the
larger modern buildings, the space is not covered.
However, for the Baghdad University project, Gropius
designed a stunningly beautiful dome, cast in concrete
and flying almost like a tent, with the supporting corners
set in pools of water to reflect inward on the ceiling. This
piece of the university was actually built as planned.
Typical space of warship (Haram) “16”

Gropius’s Mosque, simply a pointed dome resting on the ground at three points with
the whole boundary open to the outside, it is the exact opposite of the most basic principles of
mosque design, the circular plan itself does not help indicate the direction for prayers, it
conflicts with the principle of equal length of the rows of prayers, It is bad acoustically and
climatically, and it’s open boundaries does not provide the privacy and concentration required
in mosque. While most master plans principles ask a religious building in the center Gropius
pushed away the Mosque to entrance. in spite of the designer’s assumed attempt to draw from
local heritage of Islamic architecture, but again, this is another monumental to another master
providing another unique spatial experience, besides beside functioning as an interesting focal
point on the way into campus from the main entrance. “17”

Mosque location on the master plan“18” Mosque perspective “19”

9 
 
Conclusion:-
 
Gropius and TAC were clearly guided by a Universalist philosophy. Like the Bauhaus,
Baghdad university represented a totality. It carried the unmistakable Gropius Signature at the
level of overall campus and at the scale of building design and architectural detail. From 1957
until his death in 1969 Gropius was to realize in Baghdad the ideal of architect as a coordinator
who unified technical, formal, social and economic building solutions.

Baghdad University became perhaps the most influential case study for the
dissemination of architectural modernism outside Europe and North America at the time
when western ideas were embraced.

Bauhaus ideas about the modern and the flexible organization were politically suited to
a desire to participate in an advanced, technological world. But the creation of Baghdad
University was maybe, less a matter of big ideas and admired modernist beliefs than of the
tissue of connections Gropius enjoyed as much as about the backstage preparations as the
center stage action. Incidentally for him, the social and political environment smoothed his
way to the most desirable commission available.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
10 
 
 References  
1, 3 ʺMarifat, Mina.”From Bauhaus to Baghdad.ʺ Http://www.taarii.org/images/PDF/TAARII_Newsletter_03-02.pdf. August 1, 2008.
Accessed April 24, 2015.

7, 10 ʺMarefat, Mina.”The Universal University: How Bauhaus Came to Baghdad.ʺ DC PAPERS, revista de crítica y teoría de la 

arquitectura 1 (2008): 157-166.

13, 17 ʺWright, Frank Lloyd.”Plan for a grater Baghdad (1957-1959).ʺ DC PAPERS, revista de crítica y teoría de la arquitectura 1 (2008): 298-
300.

List of illustrations  
2 ʺBoundary/Border Outline Files.ʺ Libre Map Project: United States Boundary Border Outlines. Accessed April 24, 2015.

4 ʺFile:Baghdad in Iraq.svg.ʺ - Wikimedia Commons. Accessed April 24, 2015.

5 ʺStudy Centre Presentations 2013.ʺ Print. Accessed May 10, 2015.

6 ʺMarifat, Mina.”From Bauhaus to Baghdad.ʺ Http://www.taarii.org/images/PDF/TAARII_Newsletter_03-02.pdf. August 1, 2008.

Accessed April 24, 2015.

8, 11 ʺBoundary/Border Outline Files.ʺ Libre Map Project: United States Boundary Border Outlines. Accessed April 24, 2015.

9, 12 ʺUniversity of Baghdad.”: MIT Libraries. Accessed April 24, 2015.

14 Wikipedia. Accessed May 9, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibla#/media/File:Mihrab_at_Jama_Masjid,_Fatehpur_Sikri.jpg.

15 Accessed May 9, 2015. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/80538000/jpg/_80538977_0919-
moscheealgierdayfinalprint_kspjurgenengelarchitekten.jpg.

16 Accessed May 9, 2015. https://shahscorner.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dscf0870.jpg.

18 ʺUniversity of Baghdad.”: MIT Libraries. Accessed April 24, 2015.

19 ʺWalter Gropius’s Lost Architectural Dream for Iraq - The Boston Globe.ʺ BostonGlobe.com. Accessed April 24, 2015.

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