Baghdad Screen is the centerpiece of the Baghdad Case Study installation, a study of Jose Luis Sert’s 1960 US embassy complex in Baghdad. Sert’s embassy is from a unique period in the history of US Foreign Building Operations, when architects were flown out to carefully research a new embassy’s cultural context and were specifically instructed to design open, accessible, even transparent buildings. Baghdad Screen, based on the roof of the ambassador’s residence, shows one of the forms that emerged from Sert’s research in Baghdad, evocative of both geometric decorative detail and the multi-dome spanning system of the caravanserai and bazaar.
Documentation: Installation views and sketch
Terence Gower, 2012
Red cedar-veneered plywood, brass
6.2 x 1.7 x 0.8 M
Sculpture Fabrication: Christian Werner @ Scopulus
Production Supervisor: Vu Huang
Drawings: Alexandra Kiss and Laila Seewang
Installation Photography: Affolter-Eugster
