Rupturing Architecture. A conversation around Spatial Practices of Refuge

About the event

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, the book Rupturing Architecture: Spatial Practices of Refuge in Response to War and Violence in Iraq, 2003–2023 (Bloomsbury, 2024) 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.

The author will be in conversation with Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (UCL Geography) and Professor Camillo Boano (Bartlett DPU; PoliTO). Don't miss this insightful discussion on architecture, conflict, trauma, home and displacement.

Register in person

Register to attend online

Speakers

Dr Sana Murrani is an Associate Professor in Spatial Practice with a background in Architecture and Urban Design. She is the Arts/Health Research Lead, founder of the Displacement Studies Research Network, and co-founder of the Justice and Imagination in Global Displacement Research Collective at the University of Plymouth. She is also a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Sana’s research interests are rooted in the (un)disciplined interdisciplinarity of spatial justice, informed by a creative, place-based research practice that maps built, destroyed, remembered, and reimagined trauma geographies of war, violence, and displacement. Author of Rupturing architecture: spatial practices of refuge in response to war and violence in Iraq – a monograph published with Bloomsbury (2024) which was associated with an online archive: Ruptured Domesticity that was exhibited at the LSE Middle East Centre in 2023. Her creative fieldwork and practice have been funded by the European Cultural Foundation, the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (British Academy), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the AHRC through the Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) at the University of Plymouth. She is the Principal Investigator for an AHRC IAA Fellowship project alongside multidisciplinary artist Kimbal Bumstead and a team of Yazidi researchers, titled: Ruptured Atlas: Creative Mapping of Yazidi Odyssey of Home, Displacement, Migration and Return. The project is in partnership with Sinjar Academy, Yazda, IOM Iraq and the LSE Middle East Centre. Here is the link to the project’s story maps.

Chair

Dr Giovanna Astolfo, Associate Professor, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU)

Image: Taken from the cover art of Rupturing Architecture: Spatial Practices of Refuge in Response to War and Violence in Iraq, 2003–2023 (Bloomsbury, 2024).