Britain’s Queen honors prof. Dr. Mohammed Saleh Makiya, an  architect of Baghdad university

There are many giant personalities, who studied and graduated from the university of Baghdad, like  scientists, engineers, intellectuals and even presidents like former president of Indonesia Abdul Rahman Wahid, current Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and former prime minister of  Jordan, Ahmed Obeidat and other architectural personalities  at the university of Baghdad. The first head of the department of architecture in Iraq and university of Baghdad (1959 – 1968) architect prof. Dr. Mohammed Saleh Makiya, the ancient architectural personality who has had a significant impact in supplying the Arab and Islamic architecture with life and new spirit in the designing and he was the dean, you  find him turn barren land in the mind of the recipient to the capitals teeming with life and movement, tell you about the banks of the Tigris river and Abu Nawas, it is difficult  to follow up his speech, he is an architect organizing his  thinking on the lines and angles, not on speaking terms. Dr. Mohammed Makiya, is an honorary member of the British association, and a member of the planning of England, and a founding member of the architect complex “Delos” in Athens and a member of the Jury of several international architecture committees and a member of the expert mission in South East Asia and the UNESCO award-winning. Currently he has exceeded 100 years – old which is full of architectural achievements and accomplishments, the most recently is receiving the medal of excellence from Britain ‘s Queen in February 2014. He was honored by the queen of Britain, Great Elizabeth , where he was handed over the award by the ceremony of the British royal palace ( Buckingham ). The website of the university of Baghdad has met the grandson of Dr. Mohammed Makiya, Dr. Haidar Makiya, administrative assistant od dean of the college  of engineering at the university of Baghdad, who informed us about the most important achievements of Dr. Makiya. The beginning was about the growing up of Dr. Makiya, stating: ”  Prof. Dr. Mohammed Saleh Makiya was born of Iraqi parents in 1914. He received his education in England and earned a bachelor’s degree from Liverpool college of architecture and obtained a diploma in urban design from the university of Liverpool in 1941 and 1942, respectively. He completed his studies at the college of Kings at the university of Cambridge to receive a doctorate degree in 1946. He was the first head of the department of architecture in the college of engineering at the university of Baghdad in 1959, and remained there until 1968. Then, offices have been held for the company of Makiya in Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, London, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Dr. Makiya occupied the chief of engineers in the engineering directorate at the university of Baghdad. Dr. Mohammed Makiya considers buildings like graves for the living if they do not take into account the environment and its beauty and material when the buildings where an extension of the past, they become full of spirit and vitality from inside. According to him the design idea does not end but at the work site where the final implementation of the schemes with his faith and his  continuous thinking of the environmental side always for any design he provided in reality. Similarly, he believes that windows, for example but are not limited, to be of theoretical and practical depth with thick walls somewhat and should be provided  with the shade as much as possible not a window located on the interface level. His  peers who have had a working relationship with them in the fifties and was able to bring them to Iraq , they are ” Li Corpuzah “, “Frank Lloyd Wright,”  “Walter Krubios,” and “cert”. He  has an architectural archives in the libraries of Massashusat Institute (MIT) that was obtained in 2012 as a gift  to the Institute, documented his career  which lasted for five decades and included more than ten countries. The archive contains massive materials ranging from personal correspondence and notes  concerning the projects and designing paintings by hand, final paintings and photos of projects that have been held or during its holding. Some of his big works are: Caliphs mosque  (1963), by adding a building of a mosque for a historical minaret mosque of caliphs known as the minaret of Al-Ghazl market, which dates  back to the thirteenth century, the end of the Abbasid era and this mosque represents a major turning point in the architecture of Mohammed Makiya, as well as university of Kufa (1969) the former regime prevented  the implementation of this large-scale project,  Al-Rasheed university, designing the college of education / Bab al –Mu”dham (1966), the house of Dr. Fadhel Al-Jammaly, former prime minister of Iraq,  as well as the palaces of  Sharif Hussein and Hazim,  princesses house in Al- Mansour, public clinic building   in the square of Al-Sabaa” ( 1949), the municipality building of  Hilla (1951), Regent Palace Hotel in Al-Rasheed Street (1954), building of technology college in Baghdad (1966), Public Awqaf Diwan Bookstore  (1967), the building of Al-Rafidain Bank in Kufa (1968) and the houses attached to it for the  bank staff (Fifty-houses) as well as Al-Rafidain banks in the provinces of Iraq, the design of great state mosque in Baghdad (1986),  Morgan mosque, Islamabad mosque in Pakistan, mosque of Texas in the United States, mosque of Rome in Italy, the mosque of Madrid in Spain, mosque of Al-Sadeeq in Doha (1978), the design of the Arab League in Tunisia (1983).  He was honored formerly by all the gulf countries when his works had an echo in the gulf region for the period (1974-1998), including the design of the great mosque of the State in Kuwait, the building of ministry of justice in Abu Dhabi, the design of the main entrance gate of the university of sultan bin Qaboos as well as the sultan Qaboos big mosque,  the design of the gate Isa Town, Bahrain, the design of many of the Islamic banks and administrative buildings in Saudi Arabia and the Arab gulf countries. He was granted the honor at the international conference on engineering and R & D architectural investment held in Dubai in 2003 and was given the title of dean of Arabic engineering designs. The  works and ideas of Dr. Mohammed Makiya were dealt with in many books and articles and examined in conferences and exhibitions, including the international conference on architectural heritage in Baghdad, which was held in university of Baghdad on the sidelines of «Baghdad is the capital of Arab culture of  2013» under the auspices of the university of Baghdad / college of engineering – department of architecture and the French institute of the Near East and the office of UNESCO in Iraq. The website has met with the head of the department of architecture Dr. Ghada Moussa Rezouki, who received the tasks  of head of the department a few time ago, who has told us about Dr. Mohammed Makiya, the first president of the department of architecture at the university of Baghdad, where she pointed out that Dr. Makiya has put his marks on the department where  most instructors  take benefit from his theories in architecture which is remarkable and there are a large number of professors who were his students including professor Peter Khmu, architect Khalid Thabit  Al-Rawi, architect Dr Akram Al-Ugaili, who is one of the world architects, Dr. Emmanuel Mejo, head of architecture department for the period (1983_ 1990 -) as well as the planner Ali Nouri. Concerning  the future plans of the department, Dr. Ghada has explained  that there is a plan to complete what has been implemented, God willing, we seek to develop the department in line with the requirements of the country in the field of architecture, reconstruction, in  that there are a lot of consulting works for professors and instructors of the department, including team Checksum project of general secretariat of the council of ministers and the technical committee of the new parliament building at Al-Muthanna airport as well as the airport project of Middle  Euphrates, and with directorates of the ministry of municipalities as well as shia and sunni endowments in the field of Islamic architecture. She showed that the number of graduates since its founding reached to about 2508 who  proved their success and well performance in all parts of the world. On the other hand, Dr. Saba Jabbar Ni’ma Al-Khafaji, the former head of the department that the department was keen on naming the main hall (Discussions Hall) by the architect Mohammed Makiya in recognition of this large name. The aim of the department is inherited spatial and data spatial represented by the architecture of Iraq where not to leave out the changes of the times (the spirit of the age and style of architecture) .She explained that the department is full of a lot of conferences, seminars, and most recently a symposium of modernity. Noting  that the municipality of Baghdad has established a large conference at Al-Mansour hotel celebrating the centenary of architecture,  Muhammad Makiya and attended by a large number of architects, academics, the head of the preparatory committee of the conference was Mr. Hakeem Abdul Zahra,  general director of the relations and  media in the secretariat ,who has contributed greatly to the success of this celebration and the approval of secretary of Baghdad has got on naming a street in Baghdad on behalf of this great architecture, in addition to that the general secretariat of the council of ministers is about to honor him in the coming days. Due to the large and repeated requests on the website to find a means of communication with  this great architecture,  to take advantage of his experience, especially that the country has witnessed a state of major construction and reconstruction and after great efforts and in coordination with Dr. Haidar Makiya, our website has got the phone number + 9647723589606 as a way to communicate with him from 5 p.m. until nine p.m.

University activities

-College of engineering discusses the possibility of application of the “smart city” in Iraq