Situated on a roundabout, the project consists of a museum and open-air theatre, with a subterranean art gallery and a sunken court containing 30 art studios beneath. An interface between architecture, literature and sculpture, its intention was to represent the historical and political ‘topography’ of the Abbasid period by mapping its dynamics into animated formation, and by (metaphorically) digging deep beneath its skin. The museum consists of an outer and an inner ring. The inner ring refers to the cultural realm, while the outer refers to the political realm, its prismatic elements appearing as over-scaled tombs and matching the 75 Abbasid caliphs and state rulers in number.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture