Introduction
The headquarter consists of two main parts.
Part (A) which was an old building (large house) of 1950’s style of
architecture in Baghdad. Thick (48) cm and (36) cm brick walls had
been adopted in this part. This part was rehabilitated and
redesigned integrally with part (B).
Part (B) was designed from scratch in the old garden zone of the
site.
design PHILOSOPHY
Amongst reasons, the client’s nature personality and mentality are
admired to be reflected in the design by
the architect side by side client’s ideas and wishes. Of course the
nature and function of the project is also
respected and materialized.
The architect’s should reflect these matters and drive the design to
meet basic aims
as well as some sublime ones.
Thus the architect had created a new mass that is part (B), linked
to the old mass part (A) in such a way
that part (A) and part (B) look as one mass but a slit / crack
separate both. The negative / recessed space invented
by the slit housed some traditional architectural and natural
elements.
Function
Sticking to the traditional style of the national Iraqi and
Arab-Muslim architecture styles, the architect had
succeeded in matching and synchronizing the design with the building
regulations of Baghdad Municipality
that conserve the traditional heritage of architecture (that existed
in the old part (A)). This may seem hindering
architect’ s task from the first look, but the architect had
utilized remarkably on behalf of the project.
The building is a headquarter of a busy and well established
company. The main function of the building
is to work as offices.
The design had respected the function and adopted the organizational
structure of the company as a guide.
This was emphasized in parallel with the traditional architecture as
segregation and privacy of circulation routes for
V.I.P. visitors, customers, clients and ordinary visitors. Thus the
building has three entrances; two main ones
for part (A) and part (B) respectively. The third is a side entrance
for frequent and long-stay visitors.
Part A
The basement level houses three types of spaces in terms of
function:-
security, services, and offices.
The ground level caters for offices and entertainment spaces
(outdoor sitting…barbeque).
The first level accommodates office spaces.
The penthouse has an administration spaces in addition to a large
store and a guard room.
All levels in this part have kitchen, W.C.s, and bathrooms
Part B
The basement encompasses four types of space in terms of function;
entertainment, cultural supportive
services and some clerical activities.
The Director General head office is isolated in the ground level of
part (B). Some restriction of through
circulation is achieved. In addition the main office space has no
above spaces though part (B) has a 1st floor
that houses offices on top of the ground level. The isolation of the
Director General office both
in horizontal and vertical directions had been achieved.
In short the building renders for the special type of company’s
organization and types of visitors.
It also possesses noticeable spaces that provide for supportive
activities such as exhibitions (long term, short term, periodic, and permanent), seminars, lectures
and workshops. These supportive and important spaces are housed at the basement in part (B)
underneath manager’s main office.
Structural Analysis
Part “B” building is a 3-story R.C. office building attached to a
2-story car-park.
The foundation adopted for this building is raft (or Mat type) with
two way ribs directed downwards, in order
to safety the under laying soil layer restrictions.
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All floors were analyzed and designed as flat plates, in order to
make use of the available height .
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Special mechanical anchored reinforcement were designed and
implement for all floors according to
ACI-421.2 R-92 (Re approved 1997) ,in order to make the concreting
process easy and also to satisfy
the loading conditions.
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Because of the limiting , the car park structure is designed to
have central column lifting
the roof with peripheral columns. Beams were eliminated to give head
room cars movement.
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