The restoration is seen as essential to the idea that the Iraqi city has moved on from ISIS. But some critics say the plan betrays heritage
It is a resentment all the more keenly felt in a country with a proud architectural history that fostered Rifat Chadirji, considered the father of modern Iraqi architecture, and the design icon Zaha Hadid. In previous decades, architecture was so important to Iraq that it commissioned buildings by Le Corbusier and plans by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Iraqi Society of Engineers, which oversees the architects’ union, issued a statement opposing the project. The Iraqi Architectural Heritage Preservation Society rejected the winning design in the 123-entry competition as seriously flawed. It said the design introduced numerous “alien” concepts that would change the site beyond recognition and called on Iraq’s prime minister to intervene1
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The $50 million project will also restore two heavily damaged churches nearby and repair a 12th-century brick minaret near the mosque — a symbol of Mosul so iconic that the tilted minaret is on Iraq’s 10,000 dinar note.
But in many circles, it has done anything but, prompting an uproar among architects, urban planners and some Mosul residents who say it ignores Iraqi heritage. Perhaps in a nod to the United Arab Emirates, which is footing the bill, the winning design features cream-colored brick and straight angles of the kind found in the Gulf — a contrast to the arches, blue-veined local alabaster and limestone of traditional Mosul buildings2.
“It looks very much like the Emirates,” Mr. Fathi said.
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- 1. It is not the site of just any mosque. Formally known as the Great Mosque of Al-Nouri, it was where in 2014 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, then the leader of ISIS, declared a caliphate after the group’s fighters took control of Mosul along with almost one-third of Iraq and parts of Syria. Three years later, as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces fought to defeat the terrorist group, ISIS fighters blew up the mosque and an even more iconic minaret as they retreated.
- 2. “The local architectural language isn’t there,” especially given this city’s history, said Ahmed Tohala, a lecturer in architecture at the University of Mosul. “The materials, colors, elements, proportion, rhythm, relationship between the elements — it is another strange language.”
