Marianna Guernieri
January 18, 2018
Architecture Society

What do Mosul and the Babel Tower have in common?
They both happened to be in Iraq, both cities were scattered and hit by the disagreement of inhabitants. Kurtuluş Göktaş (Turkey), Mohamed Abdellatif (Egypt), and Demet Karabacak (Turkey), are the minds behind a radical proposal for the Mosul Postwar Camp competition, launched by Archstorming in 2017. The brief was to create an infrastructure that provisionally shelters all the refugees who wish to return to Mosul while their homes are rebuilt and the city regains its living conditions.

In response, the young architects used the concept of Qantara, which has existed in the old Iraqi houses. Qantara is an arched passage connecting two houses on the second floor, that offers a chance for sociability between different people, and shadow for the walkers underneath. A mutual ground to create bridges of communication between different people. The tower should then become a war monument after people move back to their houses.

See also A new library for Baghdad

Project: The New Babel Tower
Concept: Kurtuluş Göktaş, Demet Karabacak (from architectural office MKS Mimarlık), Mohamed Abdellatif (architecture student at the Uludag University in Bursa, Turkey)
Competition: Mosul Postwar Camp, Archstorming. See all projects here
Year: 2017