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“Few cities in the world occupy as strong a hold over the collective imagination as Baghdad. Set at the crossroads between East and West, the city was one of the first great power centers of the Islamic world. Its name still conjures up a mix of images, from the rich intellectual heritage depicted in its ancient texts to the exotic fantasies scattered through the pages of the “Arabian Nights.” Its emergence as a world capital marked the beginning of centuries of cultural dominance by the Middle East at a time when Europe was floundering through the Dark Ages. Today that legacy has understandably been pushed to the background.”

There was a brief time in the mid-20th Century when Baghdad aspired to being rebuilt as an international city. “More construction took place in Baghdad during the second half of the 20th century than at any time since the Golden Age of the Abbasid dynasty came to a close nearly 750 years ago. Most of this new work was Modern in spirit and represented a radical break with Baghdad’s past. Among the international architects with major projects here were Frank Lloyd Wright, then nearing the end of his career; Walter Gropius, a founder of the Bauhaus; and the Italian Modernist Gio Ponti. They were soon followed by a rising generation of Iraqi talents who sought to infuse Western architectural forms with a more local sensibility. Together, such architects transformed Baghdad into a modern city — one whose defining urban features were rooted in the cultural traditions of the West.”

Sadaam Hussein remade Baghdad. “Like other dictators of the past, Hussein saw himself as a great arbiter of taste, an architectural patron cast in the mold of a Cosimo di Medici. He was a familiar figure in architectural circles and on construction sites, where he would often sketch out his ideas on scraps of paper. The competitions Hussein sponsored attracted some of the world’s most celebrated architects. His aim, he often claimed, was to reestablish Baghdad as one of the world’s great architectural capitals.”

“The yawning gap between the best and the rest in the art market has rarely been wider than at last week’s Old Masters sales in London, where there was precious little of the former on offer.”

Which were the great buildings of 2003? “Structural bombast and aesthetic razzmatazz were the order of the year. Blobby, amoeba-like buildings competed with wacky tours de force…

The art commissioned for Tate Modern’s giant turbine hall has been getting bigger and bigger. But is bigger really better? “Art that overwhelms, ‘total immersion’ art, invites suspicion. Some think it intellectually, ethically, and politically dubious. Big art is routinely called “fascistic” – after all, Hitler’s architect Albert Speer dealt in mega-structures and the Nuremberg rally was a triumph of number and mass.”

In the next few weeks a decision will be made on which memorial at the World Trade Center site will be built. “The decision will be hailed by the powers that be as a victory for the people, for the open process by which it was conducted, for democracy. It will also almost certainly be a failure. The eight designs under consideration are widely considered uninspiring, banal, needlessly complicated, unimaginative and insufficient to evoke the horror of Sept. 11. But if you believe the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is overseeing the redevelopment of ground zero, they are the best that democracy can provide, and that ought to be good enough for anyone.”