Book Review: The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad
The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad by NaJa & deOstos (Amazon)
The RIEAeuropa Concepts Series "presents in-depth explorations of ideas and conditions...[aimed] at exposing innovative, speculative and experimental work." Edited by über-experimenter Lebbeus Woods, the small monographs resemble the Pamphlet Architecture series (of which NaJa & deOstos will contribute for #29), though of course this series is less concerned with constructing architecture than with constructing ideas. With that said, one should not mistake Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos's Hanging Cemetery as anything but a speculative project of architecture.
But what a project. NaJa & deOstos propose "a gigantic presence of a hanging funereal structure [that] extends over the volatile city of Baghdad." The impetus for the project need not be stated, but the fact that the duo is tackling such a topic at a time when bodies continue to be added to the war's death toll shows the potential power of speculative architecture. What could an architect otherwise similarly accomplish via the means of traditional architectural practice? Could a building (taking perhaps a few years to design and construct, at best) carry the same weight as this direct hit in the face of cruelties of this unnecessary war?
The book is saturated with black and white images of statistics, photos, models, and some just plain beautiful renderings of their hard-to-decipher entity up in the air. The text is a wonderful parallel to the images, each chapter a separate narrative voice coming to grips with the cemetery's presence; its shadows painting patterns on the streets of Baghdad, its ramp connecting the two realms; the bodies hanging overhead as a reminder of the inevitable that might come much too soon.
The RIEAeuropa Concepts Series "presents in-depth explorations of ideas and conditions...[aimed] at exposing innovative, speculative and experimental work." Edited by über-experimenter Lebbeus Woods, the small monographs resemble the Pamphlet Architecture series (of which NaJa & deOstos will contribute for #29), though of course this series is less concerned with constructing architecture than with constructing ideas. With that said, one should not mistake Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos's Hanging Cemetery as anything but a speculative project of architecture.
But what a project. NaJa & deOstos propose "a gigantic presence of a hanging funereal structure [that] extends over the volatile city of Baghdad." The impetus for the project need not be stated, but the fact that the duo is tackling such a topic at a time when bodies continue to be added to the war's death toll shows the potential power of speculative architecture. What could an architect otherwise similarly accomplish via the means of traditional architectural practice? Could a building (taking perhaps a few years to design and construct, at best) carry the same weight as this direct hit in the face of cruelties of this unnecessary war?
The book is saturated with black and white images of statistics, photos, models, and some just plain beautiful renderings of their hard-to-decipher entity up in the air. The text is a wonderful parallel to the images, each chapter a separate narrative voice coming to grips with the cemetery's presence; its shadows painting patterns on the streets of Baghdad, its ramp connecting the two realms; the bodies hanging overhead as a reminder of the inevitable that might come much too soon.
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