As the country literally falls apart, Iraq is spending $1 billion on a new complex for its parliament:
The well-known London-based, Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid has been tapped to design a 2.7-million-square-foot building on the 49-acre site, even though her proposal—which remains secret—came in third in the international architecture competition.
The secretary general of Iraq’s parliament, Ayad Namik Majid, told the Architect’s Journal that the insurgency had caused “no problems” to plans for the complex, despite the fact that many other major developments across the country—including hospitals in Basra, a master plan in Najaf, and an oncology center and a library in the capital—have been put on hold. The site of the future parliamentary complex is near the abandoned Al Muthana airport, and it still has the remains of a colossal mosque that was being constructed at the time of the 2003 US invasion.
(Image: British architecture firm Assemblage’s proposal for the Iraqi parliament, shown here, won the international competition but the parliament decided to go with Hadid’s design instead)
The Dish 