Rupturing Architecture: Spatial Practices of Refuge in Response to War and Violence in Iraq, 20032023

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This is the first book to critically and visually explore the spatial practices of refuge in response to conditions of war, violence, and displacement experienced in Iraq from 2003 to 2023.

Written by an Iraqi architect who has lived through the trauma of several wars, 10 years of UN-imposed sanctions, an invasion, and the subsequent violence, this book captures a broad spectrum of spatial responses to trauma and presents a fresh perspective on how ordinary Iraqis create refuge across the spaces of the home, the urban environment, and border geographies.

In the face of spatial wounding and the many injustices suffered by the Iraqi people, there has also been a wealth of refuge-making practices that showcase their creative and imaginative design and adaptability to change and trauma over time. Rupturing Architecture employs methods such as creative deep mapping, memory work, storytelling, interviews, and case studies of architectural responses to the geographies of war and violence. At the core of the book are the lived and felt experiences of fifteen Iraqis from across Iraq, whose resilience underscores a broader narrative of spatial justice and feminist spatial practices. The book articulates the dual nature of rupturing as both a sign of trauma and a powerful act of resistance, examining how these forces shape domesticity, urbanity, and border spaces. The concluding manifesto for spatial justice calls for a deep, integrated understanding of place, memory, and trauma, advocating for comprehensive strategies in the making of refuge spaces that also resonate in a wider, global context.

Reviews

This is an excellent book, which should be required reading for all of us trying to understand the extended violence and trauma that Iraqi society was subject to after 2003. Murrani develops a highly ambitious and innovative theoretic framework that allows her to examine the complex relationship between spatial trauma and collective societal memory. She develops the concept of deep mapping as a vehicle to allow ordinary Iraqis to understand and explain their own extended trauma, driven by authoritarian, invasion and then civil war. The result is a book full of humanity, which carefully gives Iraqis the space to deploy their own narrative about what happened to them over the twenty years since the invasion. The book deploys Iraq as a detailed and insightful case study of the spatial turn in conflict studies and Middle East politics. * Toby Dodge, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK *
A timely and poignant book, with haunting visuals. Murrani perceptively narrates the lived experiences of Iraqi people across refuge and displacement, capturing the affective and sensory infrastructures and materialities of violence, loss and trauma. She reinvents creative mapping, centered on memories and ruptured place-making. * Mona Harb, Professor of Urban Studies and Politics, American University of Beirut, Lebanon *
Rupturing Architecture is a valuable contribution to the scholarship on conflict urbanism in the global south. The author provides a remarkable examination of the impact of conflict on the built environment in Iraq's war-torn landscapes. This work masterfully integrates a diverse range of a rich tapestry of spatial analysis and narratives to illuminate the adaptive practices of resilience amidst war and violence. * Gehan Selim, Hoffman Wood Chair of Architecture, University of Leeds, UK *
Not only a remarkable academic contribution, it's a deeply humane one In a world increasingly shaped by displacement, whether through conflict, climate, or economic inequality, Rupturing Architecture offers an essential vocabulary for understanding, documenting, and responding to the spatial practices of refuge. * Uniform November *

Author Bio

Dr Sana Murrani is Associate Professor in Spatial Practice at the University of Plymouth, UK.