Aesthetics of Interruption: Professional Disconnection and Façade Transformation in Post-2017 Mosul Residential Design

Post-conflict reconstruction research has examined façade materiality and symbolism, yet the process conditions under which aesthetic specifications are systematically overridden during construction remain neglected. This study investigates why designed architectural aesthetics fail to survive implementation in post-2017 Mosul, Iraq. A mixed-methods design combined formal visual analysis of 12 recently completed residential façades with a structured survey of 45 practicing architects. Survey data reveal that designers are excluded from construction supervision in 76% of projects and that clients intervene in material and color selection in 70% of cases. Visual analysis identifies a sophisticated design language—orthogonal massing articulated through contrasting materials—that is rarely realized in built form. Where designers retain supervisory authority, projects most consistently achieve material–form coherence. The study advances the concept of an aesthetics of interruption (the systematic degradation of designed form–material relationships through the fragmentation of professional authority during construction). Exclusion produces four distinct pathologies: material substitution, execution degradation, language override, and ornamental hollowing. The findings demonstrate that aesthetic degradation in post-conflict reconstruction stems not from design incapacity but from broken process structures. Safeguarding architectural quality requires contractual frameworks mandating designer supervision and material-substitution protocols that protect design intent.