Bakrajo House by ZAKAA Architecture

WORDS Cheri Morris PHOTOS Deed Studio

Amidst a sea of sameness and a constant state of destruction and rebuilding, ZAKAA Architecture realises a design anomaly: An unorthodox Iraqi home with a sinuous façade and promise of widening the visual vocabulary of all who pass it by.

In Kurdistan Region, Sulaymaniyah City’s design is dominated by closely-spaced 200 sqm plots, which usually leaves only one, shorter side to face. The homogeneity has had a negative effect on how people think about the design of their homes; limited and rigid. ZAKAA Architecture’s biggest challenge? Changing the client’s mindset to believe a bespoke design was truly possible, despite the odds.

The result is a five-bedroom house that appears to outsize its own narrow alleyway, defying the plot’s innate lack of privacy. A series of curved walls form alcoves to define the outer shell; a winding façade whose walls embrace cleverly placed and sized windows to welcome light while blocking out neighbours.

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Instead of a small garden at the front as is typical of most other houses in the city, the architects created a courtyard at the back; an internal void of solitude that simultaneously affords cross-ventilatation. Overall, the home is a prompt for perspective shifts in a country where architecture is commonly consider as nothing more than a simple act of construction that meets functional needs.

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