Iraqi and French architectural history experts jointly rescued a Baghdad gymnasium designed by French architect le corbusier. The building was completed long after le corbusier's death. This huge concrete building, located in the east of Baghdad, once hosted many generations of Iraqi athletes. It was used by the US military during the Iraq war and is now vacant.

A restoration project has been going on for one year, but the features of le corbusier's original design were severely damaged by later additions. These additions include fake ceilings and colored seats.

Before Caecilia Pieri, a researcher at the French Institute of Near East Studies, discovered the building and wrote a paper on the modernist architecture in Baghdad, architectural history experts knew almost nothing about it.

Now, the French Near East Institute cooperates with the le corbusier Foundation, Baghdad University, UNESCO and the French Embassy to increase the public's understanding of the building's predicament by publishing relevant books and holding conferences.

This building was commissioned by le corbusier in 1957.

This is part of an Olympic city that has never been realized. Le corbusier visited Baghdad that year and painted about 500 paintings. But to his disappointment, the project was stopped after the subsequent Iraqi revolution. After le corbusier's death 17, the project was finally completed when Saddam Hussein was in power. The person in charge of the building is le corbusier's colleague, Gith Mark Resent.