Architecture of Baku

The architecture of Baku is not characterized by any particular architectural style, having accumulated its buildings over a long period of time.

In itself, Baku contains a wide variety of styles, progressing through Masud Ibn Davud's 12th century Maiden Tower and the educational institutions and buildings of the Russian Imperial era.

Late Modern and Postmodern architecture began to appear in the early-2000s. With the economic development, old buildings such as Atlant House have been razed to make way for new ones. Buildings with all glass shell appear around the city, with the most prominent examples being the SOCAR Tower and Flame Towers.

Several monuments pay homage to people and events in the city. The Martyrs' Lane provides views of the surrounding area whilst commemorating the victims of Black January and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Islamic architecture

With Shi'a Islam being the dominant religion of Azerbaijan, there are may Islamic architecture featured buildings that resides in Baku. Religious places have more Islamic calligraphy drawn on the columns and other places on the structure. In December 2000, the Old City of Baku, including the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and Maiden Tower, became the first location in Azerbaijan to be classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

File:Qız qalası ümumi 2016.jpg, Maiden Tower
File:Şirvanşahlar saray kompleksi.jpg, Palace of the Shirvanshahs
File:Baku ShirvanshahsPalace DivanKhana 004 1537.jpg, Divankhane in the Palace of the Shirvanshahs
File:Muhammad Mosque (Baku) 1.JPG, Mahammad Mosque with Minarat, located in Inner City of Baku
File:Təzəpir məscidi cut.jpg, Tazapir Mosque
File:Juma Mosque of Baku.jpg, Juma Mosque of Baku
File:Baku Bibi-EybatMosque 004 8705.jpg, Bibi-Heybat Mosque

Islamic buildings continued to be constructed in Baku during the Imperial period. In particular, the Ajdarbey Mosque in then outskirts of the city was built in 1912–1913.

Imperial Russian and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic era

Urban development and construction

With the boom of the oil industry in Baku came an influx of both foreign western cash and ideas. Eclectic architecture fusing not only east and west, but several western styles as well became prevalent in the architecture found in the city outside the medieval walls. Local oil industrialists had the opportunity to travel, particularly to Europe, where they came back with ideas of the European architectural styles, and had both the desire and the capital to recreate them. Two industrialized districts would be created to the east of the original medieval city and Russian garrison, the denser and older Black City and the newer, sprawling White City.

The Black City was the first example of a planned industrial district in the Russian empire, it would be separated from the original residential and commercial zones by a two-kilometer buffer zone. A dense 80 sq meter block grid would be created, designated for a flexible factory-based use. Contemporaries would comment on how dirty this district was, with the black oil smoke that filled the air giving the area its name.

As Baku grew industrially, the White City would be developed to house the growing industry. It was characterized by its lack of a block structure, instead opting to have larger blocks (about 500x300 meters on average), irregular in size, which would accommodate to the shape taken by the factories rather than the other way around. The White City would grow to mainly house only select new refineries, which were cleaner than those used in the Black City, and would also be home to some of the workers housing developments created by the owners of the factories and refineries.

What had started as an oil boom in Baku soon turned to a construction one with the quick and massive influx of capital to the city. The city's population grew rapidly, at a rate faster than contemporary New York. The foreign population started to exceed that of the local Azeri's, and with it came western influence in construction. Due to the intensity and rapidness of development, the city was developed both vertically as well as horizontally, with most new construction boasting large foundations meant to have more levels added to it with the next influx of capital. Most of the construction was made using the local limestone quarried near the city, and the first few layers of development tended to be of vaulted masonry, meant to be structurally strong enough to develop additional stories on top later on. It was an architecture characteristic of that of an oil boomtown, one that was meant to be adapted and added to with the next boom. A side product of this rapid development, however, was un regulation in proper city planning, something complained about by contemporaries. There was a lack of proper street planning, lighting planning, transportation systems, and sanitary arrangements.

In a second cycle of construction, oil industrialists who had made their fortunes in the 1870s and 80s would develop the area between the medieval walled city and the Black City in the 1890s and early 1900s, creating the metropolitan Baku that would be nicknamed the "Paris of the Caspian." They would model the area after the great European cities of the time, with wide canopied boulevards, a seaside esplanade, monumental civic buildings, and all the new technologies in communication and transportation. The oil barons competed with each other to donate the most lavish and monumental civic buildings, but the initial construction was spearheaded by Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev

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