These opulent villas are 50 miles from the Islamic State’s front line in Mosul
Fifty miles from Mosul’s front line sits a sprawling complex of residential homes in the suburbs of Irbil, the capital of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Spread in rows like little ornate white boxes, these opulent villas contrast not only with the surrounding environment but Western cliches about the Middle East, says photographer Eugenio Grosso. Grosso’s […]Nick Kirkpatrick and Eugenio Grosso write for The Washington Post:
Fifty miles from Mosul’s front line sits a sprawling complex of residential homes in the suburbs of Irbil, the capital of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Spread in rows like little ornate white boxes, these opulent villas contrast not only with the surrounding environment but Western cliches about the Middle East, says photographer Eugenio Grosso.
Grosso’s series “Irbil White House” explores the often-ostentatious architecture of the homes built inside the gated residential complex Dream City. “I went for dinner to Dream City the first night after I moved to Kurdistan and was immediately fascinated by the architectures of the white houses,” Grosso told In Sight. “I also liked to see how elements from the Western culture and classic Greek architecture were mixed together. I thought that I might have found those kinds of villas everywhere else in the world but didn’t expect to find them in that region.”
