Intertextual Interpretation of The Works of World Pioneer Architects in Baghdad During the Mid1950’s

Feb 5, 2026

In the mid-1950s, Baghdad became a laboratory for modern architecture when the Iraqi Development Board invited world-renowned architects—including Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, Gio Ponti, and Josep Lluis Sert—to design major public buildings. This study employs intertextual interpretation to examine how each architect responded to Baghdad’s historical, cultural, and climatic context through their modernist vocabularies. Adapting the literary concept of intertextuality to architecture, the research explores the dialogue between global modernism and local identity. The analysis reveals distinct approaches: some architects modified their stylistic idioms to engage with regional conditions, while others maintained their universal modernist expressions. Collectively, these works represent a unique moment in Iraq’s midcentury history when international architecture intersected with local culture, reflecting both the aspirations of a modernizing nation and the interpretive diversity of modernism itself.