This month marks two decades since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In the 20 years since, the nation’s people have tried to come to terms with the devastation it brought to their cities and towns, their communities and lives.

That initial fight for survival, and subsequent struggle, is now being revealed in never-before-seen detail thanks to an ongoing project at the University of Plymouth.

Rupturing Architecture was conceived by Dr Sana Murrani, Associate Professor in Spatial Practice and Architecture, as a way of charting the experiences of those living in Iraq at the time of the invasion and since.

Supported by funding from the British Institute for Study in Iraq, she interviewed 15 Iraqi citizens from across the country, using their memories to create a visual archive of how they survived the invasion and the impact it has had on their lives in the two decades since.

Some of the resulting material is now available through a digital archive, with the stories to be featured in an exhibition at the LSE Middle East Centre this April and May, and a book due to be published by Bloomsbury in early 2024.

The project is particularly poignant for Dr Murrani, as in March 2003 she was living with her family in the Al-Amiriyeh district west of Baghdad.

She clearly recalls the fear she felt hiding in a room at the family home, with its windows protected by furniture and mattresses and blankets laid on the ground, but also of the mental techniques she used to both cope and foster hope.