Aya Mousawi+Co worked with London and Iraq-based architecture firm AMBS Architects on the communications and marketing strategy for the New Baghdad Library — the first public library to be built in Baghdad since the 1970s. Designed with a focus on functionality, intuitive organisation, and rational, user-friendly spaces, the building represents a significant cultural milestone for the region. Aya Mousawi+Co led the strategic campaign that brought this important project to international attention, resulting in significant press coverage across both regional and global media outlets.

Project: Baghdad Library

Client: AMBS Architects

Final Client: Iraq Ministry of Youth & Sport

Year: 2013

PRESS

Dezeen
Designs unveiled for new public library in Iraq

British-Iraqi firm AMBS Architects has disclosed its designs for the first public library to be built in Iraq since the 1970s.

The Guardian
New Baghdad library takes step closer to realisation

Amir Mousawi, director of London-based AMBS Architects, said: "Iraq has a great heritage for libraries, but currently there is no outlet for knowledge there. There was an educated population, but everybody left during the Saddam [Hussein] years, so there is a vacuum of knowledge. The war or occupation, or whatever you want to call it, has done a lot of damage to the knowledge infrastructure, so it's important to everyone that the library project materialises. Iraq desperately needs it."

Financial Times
A New Chapter for Libraries

The architects behind the new design stress the building’s role as public space. “Libraries are traditionally unsociable, with no talking,” says Amir Mousawi of AMBS, which has offices in London and Baghdad. “But now all that has changed and the library isn’t that kind of space any more. There are few places for social exchange in Baghdad, places where boys and girls can mix and where that kind of exchange is possible – this library needs to be one of them.”

Ibraaz
What Does It Mean to Be Building a Library in Iraq?

The idea of building a new library in Iraq has been met with equal measures of impassioned hope as much as worn cynicism. AMBS Architects were commissioned to design a new library for Baghdad by the Ministry of Youth and Sport in November 2011.

Architects Journal
AMBS reveals Baghdad Library scheme

Commissioned by the country’s Ministry of Youth and Sport, the teardrop-shaped project is part of a planned ‘Youth City’ district in Baghdad intended to inspire the next generation of Iraqis. The lakeside building features a lightweight, single-span roof and is expected to house more than three million books, rare manuscripts and periodicals.

Designboom
AMBS: Baghdad library will be the first realized since 1970s

British-Iraqi firm AMBS architects has just shared with us their design for the new baghdad library- the first public library to be constructed in the city since the 1970s. informed by the sinuous shape of the drop-like peninsula and the arabic kufic word for ‘read’, the building will project out over a lake at the heart of the 1,200,000 square meter youth city masterplan.