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Madinat as-Salam: The history of Baghdad’s first urban plan

Conceived in 762, Al-Mansur’s ‘Round City’ was an incredible example of early urban design, setting the stage for the Islamic Empire’s golden era. While today, Baghdad has undoubtedly grown beyond the double-ring masterplan, its original layout was then the region’s largest construction project, providing a throne from which the Abbasid dynasty reigned.

Architecture Red Envelope Specials

Fouad Street: The oldest planned, still inhabited street in the world

23 centuries after it was first drawn in sand, the world’s oldest planned, still inhabited street continues to mark the ongoing transformations of an ever-evolving city.

Rifat Chadirji Tribute

Rifat Chadirji Tribute: A foreword by Richard England

Renowned Maltese architect and writer Richard England pays tribute to Rifat Chadirji. I first came across Rifat Chadirji in the...

Rifat Chadirji Tribute

Rifat and my Baghdad days

Iraqi architect and city planner Abbad Al Radi reflects on the professional and personal ways his life was influenced and...

Rifat Chadirji Tribute

The architect as a collector

Renowned Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi reflects on Rifat Chadirji’s personal collection of contemporary artwork, and the artistic collaborations in his...

Construction Red Envelope Specials

Locals in India come together after disastrous earthquake for community-led reconstruction

In Bhuj, a municipality in the Kutch district of western India’s Gujarat, a network of community members, government officials and non-profit development organisations worked together to devise an emergency re-urbanisation plan following the disastrous 2001 earthquake. One particular case study takes us to Sardar Nagar, a rehousing settlement that threatened to become a slum of thousands.