in the last 15 years, 700 historic buildings were destroyed in baghdad. the old governate building, with its outer skin remaining, has thus transformed into a new public space—a meeting point—due to iraq’s recent history. to act as a memorial, the design retains the open-air space created by the historic governate building, while adding 70 glass volumes to remind the visitor of the buildings baghdad has lost to war. these volumes reach up to the sky, but also descend into the space below, which houses the programmatic elements of the proposed design centre.
the existing governate building has a portion of the northwestern wall that is completely destroyed that becomes the entrance to the design. after sitting down for a meeting or just experiencing the memorial space, the visitor can enter the proposed building through one of the glass volumes in the northeastern corner of the site. descending further, the lower level includes workshop spaces for creative collaboration.
