Gensler, in partnership with Emkanat, has unveiled the Baghdad Sustainable Forests—a transformative 10-million-square-metre master plan reimagining the former Al-Rasheed military camp as a mixed-use, forest-centred district of renewal.
Once weighed down by more than 45 million tons of waste, the site will be revitalised with over one million trees, alongside parks, water features, and green corridors designed to heal the land, clean the air, and cool the city’s microclimates. Aligned with Iraq’s 2023–2030 National Environmental Strategy, the project tackles urgent challenges of desertification, pollution, and the loss of green cover.
At its core, the plan interweaves themed “villages” with symbolic gateways: the 260-metre Al Rasheed Gateway tower, a 110-metre National Pavilion, and the River Gateway, which reopens access to the Tigris. Villages such as the Tech & Innovation Village, Creative Village, Vitality Village, and Family Resort will host commerce, culture, education, wellness, and recreation, bringing a new urban vibrancy to Baghdad.
The scheme is projected to create around 80,000 jobs, making it not only an ecological restoration but also a driver of social and economic resilience.
Baghdad Sustainable Forests is more than a landscape project—it is a vision of how design can transform a city scarred by conflict into a living symbol of recovery, rooted in ecology, culture, and community.
