Should architects design prisons? The debate has been going on for some time. Some architects and architecture collectives have taken a stance and vowed never to design buildings that are used to cause harm and that violate human rights. The continued misuse of detention centers has been denounced by the American Institute of Architects. But […]
Earlier this year, a new traffic island was created at Lakdikapul, which became a great solution to streamline traffic at what used to be very haphazard and confusing turning. However, what came on top of the island– in dissonance to the alleviation of traffic logjam– is nightmare-inducing to say the least. Not just for an […]
It is a time for re-evaluation and re-evolution. Growing up Muslim in Saudi Arabia, I have had plenty of opportunities to pray at various mosques in the Kingdom, and sometimes even on beaches and in the desert. I have seen how the place one stands to pray transforms into a magnet with an organic congregation […]
In order to direct attention toward the fast-aging social housing, public buildings and entire urban sectors that have dated rapidly and been unable to keep up with the developmental impulses of cities in the GCC, a movement toward adopting buildings and adaptive reuse is underway to breathe new life into old shells across the region. […]
As a child, you knew how best to use your body: to jump up to reach a box of cookies on a high shelf, to slide down a banister, to leap over a rain puddle, to contort to fit into the smallest of gaps, to run towards a moving ice-cream van, to run away from […]
A decade ago, when the first movie in The Matrix trilogy was released, it was a wild addition to the genre of science fiction. The Internet was relatively new, and its inherent potential was yet to be harnessed, or even realized. The Matrix was a metaphorical representation of cyberspace, as a virtual, intangible, parallel reality. […]
Takbir Fatima II 