It’s official: Zaha Hadid is going to design the new Central Bank of Iraq’s Headquarters; Tafline argues that it should be green.
Zaha Hadid is widely celebrated for her incredible, untethered design, but less so for her environmental sensibilities. So when we learned that the deal to design a major project for her home country, the Central Bank of Iraq’s Headquarters, is now official, we went looking for the slightest sign that this project might be at least a little bit green. Very few details have been revealed except a huge team of mostly mainstream engineers and consultants, but at least one firm involved in the project seems to recognize the importance of smart and sustainable design – Arup.
Iraq needs lean green development
Given the enormous amount of overall reconstruction that needs to be achieved in order to restore any kind of sanity to Iraq, all new developments ought to be as lean and green as possible.
But if one of TIME Magazine’s most celebrated architects eschews a sustainable project in favor of something like the Guangzhou Opera House, especially for a banking building that is representative of all that has gone wrong with capitalism (an unfair distribution of wealth chief among the list), that will send a terrible message to the country’s embattled residents.
Rivers are terribly polluted, wildlife are struggling to survive, and untold numbers of Fallujah babies are born deformed because of stockpiles of depleted uranium leftover from the more than one war in the country such that diverting excess wealth and materials to one splashy project would amount to a theft of the nation’s remaining natural resources.
We love Zaha Hadid’s flair and never dispute her architectural genius but mourn her refusal to acknowledge the 21st century’s environmental and social problems by persisting with unsustainable projects.
A glimmer of hope?
Now there may be a tiny chance that she has seen the so-called light. Among the firms involved in the CBI project in Baghdad is Arup, a global firm of consulting engineers that authored Climate Action in Megacities, “the first ever comprehensive analysis of actions underway to address climate change in the world’s megacities.”
On their website Arup claims to be ” at the forefront of low-carbon technology. From our work with renewable and distributed energy to electric transport and smart cities, we have the technical expertise to create any component of a resilient city.”
Is it possible this ethos will rub off on the world’s most famous Iraqi?
Zaha, touched
While signing the deal for the Tigris River development in Bagdad at a recent ceremony hosted by H. E. Dr. Muhielddin Hussein Abdullah, Charges d’Affaires of the Iraqi Embassy in London, Zaha displayed an unusual sentimentality.
“I am deeply touched that I have been asked to design the new headquarters for the Central Bank of Iraq,” she said, adding “I was born in Iraq and I still feel very close to it. I feel very privileged to be working in Iraq on a design of such national importance.”
Will she be touched enough to design a building that benefits all of Iraqis and not just the fat banking cats? We’ll see. But we’re not holding our breath.
image via Associated Fabrication, Flickr
More Zaha Hadid Commentary on Green Prophet:
Ehrlich Architecture Trumps Hadid and Foster With UAE Parliament Win
Zaha’s Robber Opera House Opens
Zaha Hadid: One of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Arup are only doing ‘security’ on the Iraq Bank, so have no involvement with the sustainability ambitions of the project.
Tafline Laylin’s suggestion, that any hope of the CBI project being sustainable is limited to Arup’s input, is premature given the lack of information that has been released at this early juncture. As part of the design team, Max Fordham will provide mechanical and electrical design, architectural lighting, acoustics, sustainability consultancy and BREEAM Assessment. Perhaps it is because we are not mainstream, that she isn’t familiar with our practice and our work.
Since 1966 we have worked with the world’s leading architects from our offices in London, Edinburgh, and Cambridge and have been writing books on sustainable building services and environmental design since 1984.
Known for our deep understanding of sustainable building we have delivered outstanding projects worldwide, including Rome’s MAXXI (with Zaha Hadid), the National Trust Central Office and Transforming Tate Modern.
Thanks Jennifer. I’m really glad to know that Arup is not the only firm involved in this project with a sustainability ethos. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.