Rifat Chadirji Archive

This collection includes a large portion of the extant architectural drawings and designs of the late Iraqi architect, Rifat Chadirji (December 6, 1926 – April 10, 2020), and some of the work of his architectural firm, Iraq Consult.

Included are works from throughout his career, from original student drawing compositions from 1950-1951 through to the last planning project in Baghdad with which he was involved circa 1982. Many of the drawings are pencil or ink on tissue, drawing paper, vellum, film, transparencies, or constructed of mixed materials, or they are photo-mechanical copies, or other prints, such as diazotypes, or transparencies, or microfilm of earliest professional project drawings. The originals of most, or perhaps all of the project drawings recorded on microfilm, were destroyed at the time they were microfilming in Baghdad prior to 1980.

The whole collection of materials was received directly from Rifat Chadirji from London, after the materials were retrieved from Baghdad. They departed Baghdad in two groups, the first crate contained boxes 3 through 10. The second batch, boxes 1 and 2, which had been separated from the other boxes and arrived from London almost a year later than the first delivery.

Many of the drawings were in fairly good to very good condition, still flexible and not too discolored due to exposure or staining. However, there were various condition issues due to the lack of climate control for most of 35 years. Damages included various amounts of brittleness, various tears, from many tiny ones to some measuring several inches, to a very few drawings with very large rips. Some items are wrinkled, have folds, stains, dirt, losses to varying degrees.

There was a large batch of smaller (circa 17 x 22 inch) drawings received in an extremely fragile state. They had suffered serious water damage and ended up dried, but in a single block of layers of drawings with wrinkles and air pockets throughout which had become extremely brittle, and layers seem to be impossible to separate without crumbling the sheets. The content of these drawings is unknown, and cannot be determined except possibly after humidification or other conservation treatment.

The entire collection was accepted en masse, every item was kept meaning none of the materials were separated or not retained by the Aga Khan Documentation Center. This means that any gaps in representation or years of work that exist arrived to this repository to that level of completeness. The gaps of in the material in this collection is incidental, it is not complete, we have what we received.

There are sketches, drafts, proposals, competition submissions, working progress or sets of drawings, and more formal finished works. Represented in the drawings are the wide variety of building types, and projects, on which Rifat Chadirji worked on, many of them built. The locations are predominantly in Iraq, with probably the majority from in or near Baghdad, but also projects with sites across Iraq, Erbil, Faluja, Mosul, being only three examples. Some are projects which have building sites in many districts of Iraq for infrastructure developments such as grain silos. Other drawings are for work planned or constructed in areas of the United Kingdom, the Middle East, including Lebanon, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar.

Represented in the drawings are residential buildings, from single family homes designed for specific clients, and multi-unit buildings, to palaces. There are monuments and memorials, business/commercial office buildings, government agencies, educational, libraries, mosques, professional organizations, recreational sports complexes theatre’s, and other entertainment sites represented in the collection.