Contemporary Architecture And Urbanism In The Middle East

Architecture in Context: Designing in the Middle East provides a foundation for understanding the critical context of architecture and design in this region. It does this by: presenting a practical overview of architectural know-how in the Middle East, and its potential for cultivating a sense of place introducing local architectural vocabularies and styles, and how they can still be reactivated in contemporary design exploring the cultural and contextual meaning of forms as references that may influence contemporary architecture discussing important discourses and trends in architecture that allow a rethinking of the current global/local dichotomy. Highly illustrated, the book covers architecture and design in North Africa, the Levant, the Gulf, and Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

"A documentation of over 100 major architectural projects in the Middle East from 2000 through 2009"--

This provocative collection of essays is the first book-length treatment of the development of modern architecture in the Middle East. Ranging from Jerusalem at the turn of the twentieth century to Libya under Italian colonial rule, postwar Turkey, and on to present-day Iraq, the essays cohere around the historical encounter between the politics of nation-building and architectural modernism's new materials, methods, and motives. Architecture, as physical infrastructure and as symbolic expression, provides an exceptional window onto the powerful forces that shaped the modern Middle East and that continue to dominate it today. Experts in this volume demonstrate the political dimensions of both creating the built environment and, subsequently, inhabiting it. In revealing the tensions between achieving both international relevance and regional meaning, Modernism in the Middle East affords a dynamic view of the ongoing confrontations of deep traditions with rapid modernization. Political and cultural historians, as well as architects and urban planners, will find fresh material here on a range of diverse practices.

"Coupling case studies with over 100 never before-seen illustrations, this volume chronicles modern architectural developments in the nations of Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, and Sudan. All types of buildings are discussed - from government offices and public spaces, to houses of education and religion. The featured examples include designs for both commercial and private client."--BOOK JACKET.

Essays on architecture in Kuwait, Iran, Israel, and other nations in the region, and how it can and must address the needs of local residents. As oil-rich countries in the Middle East are increasingly associated with soaring skyscrapers and modern architecture, attention is being diverted away from the pervasive struggles of social housing in those same urban settings. Social Housing in the Middle East traces the history of social housing—both gleaming postmodern projects and bare-bones urban housing structures—in an effort to provide a wider understanding of marginalized spaces and their impact on identities, communities, and class. While architects may have envisioned utopian or futuristic experiments, these buildings were often constructed with the knowledge and skill sets of local workers, and the housing was in turn adapted to suit the modern needs of residents. This tension between local needs and national aspirations are linked to issues of global importance, including security, migration, and refugee resettlement. The essays collected here consider how culture, faith, and politics influenced the solutions offered by social housing; they provide an insightful look at how social housing has evolved since the nineteenth century and how it will need to adapt to suit the twenty-first. “Essential reading . . . for architectural and social historians, planners, and policy makers.” —CAA Reviews

This book presents an in-depth critical analysis of the internationally recognized, place-specific works of three Iranian architects (Nader Ardalan, Kamran Diba and Hossein Amanat) during the 60s and 70s, and their significant contribution to the emerging anti-modernist discourse.It argues that from the mid-19th century onwards architecture and urban design in Iran has been oscillated between two extremes of modernity and tradition. Drawing on the theory of ‘critical regionalism’ (Kenneth Frampton), the book critically analyses writings and works of the above-mentioned architects and contends that they created a ‘space-in-between’ which unified two extremes of tradition and modernity in a creative way (Khalq-i Jadid: New Creation). The book also contains three in-depth interviews with architects to discuss their singular narrative of the creation of ‘in-between’. A concluding chapter addresses the promises of critical regionalist architecture and urban design in post-Revolutionary Iran as well as the Middle East, where the dichotomy of tradition and modernity is yet a valid account.

The Middle East is well-known for its historic gardens that have developed over more than two millenniums. The role of urban landscape projects in Middle Eastern cities has grown in prominence, with a gradual shift in emphasis from gardens for the private sphere to an increasingly public function. The contemporary landscape projects, either designed as public plazas or public parks, have played a significant role in transferring the modern Middle Eastern cities to a new era and also in transforming to a newly shaped social culture in which the public has a voice. This book considers what ties these projects to their historical context, and what regional and local elements and concepts have been used in their design.

At the end of the 20th century, Dubai attracted international media attention as the world sought to make sense of the city’s extraordinary growth. Exuberant projects such as the Burj Arab, the Burj Khalifa and the Palm Islands attracted investment in dreams to transform the region. While the global financial crisis kept dreams from becoming reality, this issue of AD seeks to present a view of architecture and urbanism in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other states in the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at a time when greater economic stability promises new beginnings. The issue presents examples of architecture that transcends preoccupation with fabricating images, and traces the process of making contemporary Gulf cities, from material tectonics to large-scale masterplans. By presenting the architecture of UAE and the Gulf within the context of broader regional developments and global trends, it highlights how projects in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have contributed to unprecedented urban growth, while emphasising the continuing environmental challenges of building in the region. In addition to highlighting various sustainable initiatives intended to counteract these challenges, the issue also explores how computational design and new technologies are being innovatively employed to mitigate the impact of arid climates. Contributors include: Ameena Ahmadi, Kelly Hutzell, Varkki Pallathucheril, Todd Reisz, Rami el Samahy, Terri Meyer Boake, Jeffrey Willis. International architects: Foster + Partners, Frank Gehry, HOK, IM Pei, Legoretta + Legoretta, Jean Nouvelle, Reiser + Umemoto, Allies and Morrison. Regional architects: AGi (Kuwait), DXB.lab (UAE), X Architects (UAE).