Former American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Designed by Josep Lluís Sert (1957–1959): A Ruin That Nobody Wants

Abstract

The future of Josep Lluís Sert’s masterpiece, the former American Embassy in Baghdad built in 1957, is in jeopardy. Not too many people consider that it has to be kept and restored. The state of the premises of the building, situated by the River Tigris and inside the so–called Green Zone (part of the city closed off to the general public), is threatened by a danger that also menaces other instances of Modern architecture in Baghdad, such as the Saddam Hussein stadium, which was built in the 1980s on the basis of a project by Le Corbusier dating from the late 1950s.