The Olympic Stadium Project: Le Corbusier & Baghdad

AN EXHIBITION SCRAPBOOK

– Editors

In the first three months of 2009, the Victoria and Albert Museum presented a small exhibition dedicated to Le Corbusier’s unrealised Olympic Stadium Project for Baghdad. The show was organised by the RIBA, Irena Murray, and Peter Carl, with work loaned from the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), the Fondation Le Corbusier, and Drawing Matter. Featured below are materials from the exhibition: wall texts, drawings, installation photographs, loans, as well as Ellis Woodman’s review of the show and Peter Carl and Irena Murray’s essay on Le Corbusier’s veils for AA Files.

  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 572 × 318 mm. DMC 1190.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 565 × 318 mm. DMC 1191.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 667 × 381 mm. DMC 1147.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 660 × 368 mm. DMC 1146.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 635 × 356 mm. DMC 1186.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 483 × 273 mm. DMC 1197.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 551 × 298 mm. DMC 1193.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 673 × 381 mm. DMC 1144.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 432 × 229 mm. DMC 1199.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 673 × 381 mm. DMC 1145.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 635 × 356 mm. DMC 1187.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 673 × 381 mm. DMC 1185.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 489 × 260 mm. DMC 1196.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 603 × 330 mm. DMC 1189.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 533 × 306 mm. DMC 1192.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 432 × 267 mm. DMC 1200.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 495 × 279 mm. DMC 1194.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 457 × 241 mm. DMC 1198.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 527 × 279 mm. DMC 1195.
  • Le Corbusier, Section, Olympic Stadium, Baghdad, Iraq, 1961. Ink, crayon and gouache on cartridge paper, 610 × 337 mm. DMC 1188.
  • The Veils of Le Corbusier, the Baghdad Olympic Stadium graphic, 2009.
  • Visualisation of proposed model of Veils to hang above V&A staircase, 2009.
  • Visualisation of proposed model of Veils to hang above V&A staircase, 2009.
  • Visualisation of proposed model of Veils to hang above V&A staircase, 2009.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
  • Fondation Le Corbusier Baghdad Stadium project materials loaned to the V&A exhibition.
Ellis Woodman, Iraq’s lost gameplan, Building Design, 2009.

Le Corbusier, studies for Olympic Stadium, Baghdad: sections and plan, Iraq, 1961. Pencil and crayon on vellum, 508 × 749 mm. DMC 1201.
CCA holdings of Baghdad Stadium project.
Peter Carl & Irena Murray, Geometry and Analogy: Le Corbusier’s Baghdad Veils, AA Files 67, 2013.
  • Le Corbusier (1887–1965), Roland Garros and Parc de Prince stadiums, Paris, 1958. Pencil on calque, 273 × 210 mm. DMC 1667.
  • Le Corbusier (1887–1965), Roland Garros and Parc de Prince stadiums, Paris, 1958. Pencil on calque, 273 × 210 mm. DMC 1765.