My paper “ Dubai’s Peri-Urbanity: An investigation on the city’s desert side” was selected for oral presentation at this interesting conference organized by the Effat University in Jeddah.
Venice here we come again!
I am super happy to announce that Kyong Park (UCSanDiego), Mijoo Park (RAT School), Alex Valentino and myself (Laboratorio Architettura Nomade) are among the participants in the Future School/Korean Pavillion curated by Haewon Shin at the 17th Architecture Venice Biennale .
Cool City is a multidisciplinary research/action project that proposes urban experimentation aimed at achieving the following objectives:
- Resilience to climate change - Urban regeneration - Urban re-naturalization - Protection and increase of biodiversity
The study focuses on the metropolitan areas of Seoul and Naples. It aims at the recovery of dispersed and no longer used water to mitigate the rise in temperature at the city level. Cool City aims at the improvement and re-functionalization of the abundant spring waters that have characterized the hydro-geological history of the cities and that today are channeled into sewers or spills connected to the sea. In this regard, Cool City brings together expertise in the fields of urban design, air pollution, hydraulic systems, air conditioning systems, environmental engineering, biology, urban sociology, archeology, and geology.
The CoolCity Lab will run in Seoul, Naples, and Venice. Workshops are open to all students. They will be held in Naples September 8-11, 2020 ( Laboratorio Architettura Nomade near Porta Capuana) and in Venice September 14-18, 2020 (Korean Pavilion, in the Giardini).
Contact for more info : crikx@yahoo.com
I am delighted to be among the jurors for the 8th Annual Architizer Award product category. The super stellar jury (Ben Van Berkel, Karim Rashid, Jonathan D.Solomon, just to name few) will choose entries submitted on the theme "What does the future of architecture look like?"
The final entry deadline is March 27th. More info and to enter on awards.architizer.com
#ArchitizerAwards #FutureOfArchitecture
I am very grateful to Prof. Jose Carrillo (AUD) for the invitation to contribute with my research in this exciting workshop. The joint lecture “Dubai: What isn’t heterotopic?” will be given in Madrid within the activities of the first part of the workshop.
Another great opportunity to assess the quality of recently built and future real estate projects in the region.
“This year's theme is highlighting the ways in which the real estate market is adapting to change in terms of new technology, sustainability and changes within consumer and commercial patterns.
The Cityscape Awards for Real Estate in Egypt will celebrate excellence in real estate development and architecture. Covering a range of categories, the awards offer international architects and leading real estate developers a prestigious platform to collaborate and share their vision for the future, from culturally integrated city skylines to sustainable urban communities.”
Great turnout for my lecture "Projects for Sharjah's instant modernity" @ Heriot Watt University in Dubai.
Another great opportunity to talk about the work done in my SPACE[LESS]CITY design seminar.
Lecture @ School of Architecture / American University of Ras Al Khaimah.
Good News! The project designed by Akhila Girijan and Aashika Shibu for my ARC501 Design Studio in Fall 2019 is shortlisted for the Future Generation Competition at Middle East Energy 2020. Good luck with the next phase girls!!
I am honored to be part of this prestigious jury. The competition is organized by one of the most influential contemporary Iranian architects Kourosh Hajizadeh, and it seeks architectural solutions for immediate relief after disasters. It also foresees steps and precautions that can be taken beforehand to lessen damages and ease the process of rebuilding.
Competition website: https://uni.xyz/competitions/reborn/info/about
The sustainable mixed-use development designed by Tigran Kostandyan for the Al Khor Lagoon in my ARC501 design studio course is published on Compasses world Issue # 32 / 2020
I was delighted to be invited to give a presentation about Space[Less]City projects to the Urban Design / Planning and Architecture departments at Parsons Dubai. It was a good opportunity to know about their very strong team and interesting ongoing projects.
Students from my ARC501_F19 Design Studio were selected to present their Al Nasserya Urban Regeneration project at the Sharjah Engineering Forum. Congratulations girls!
Is architectural education nowadays still relevant to the profession? Why do we have so many fresh graduates who lack basic skills? What academia should teach to students? These are long-lasting questions, and to provide answers, one has to face the complexity of such a pedagogical dilemma. At design MENA summit 2019, I tried to address this issue together with esteemed colleagues both from practice and academia.
It has been a great pleasure to take part in the pre-final reviews at IUE and talk about the urban phenomenon of Dubai. Good work, fun students, great place and people!
“It was incredibly rewarding to debate and discuss the projects with the students and witness the emphasis placed on creating livable, human-centric places and spaces with consideration to the wider context.” Richard Fenne
The ARC501 fall course has ended with a successful final review day. For the first time, at AUS, a design studio developed the work of a MUP (Master of Urban Planning) course conducted in a previous semester.
Moreover, for the first time, the whole class worked as a single team in defining a holistic and sustainable strategy for the regeneration of a large area of Sharjah. The prestigious invited critics highly commended the outcomes. I am very proud of my students. Well done guys!
Guest Critics:
Yoonju Kametani - Principal Landscape Architect at Landscape Architecture Consultancy
Richard Fenne - Principal and Regional Executive Chair Middle East Region at Woods Bagot
Tariq Khayyat - Principal at Tkdp
Rafael Pizarro - Professor at AUS
Chris Wan - Head Design Management at Masdar
with good friend Kourosh Salehi Design Director – LWK + PARTNERS
I am looking forward to visiting one of the best schools of Architecture in Turkey and present my ongoing research on Dubai’s “global” urbanity
It was a great night at Al Serkal Avenue. Very interesting presentations given by dedicated scholars researching on sustainability.
I will present the intro of my research on Dubai’s Peri-Urbanity at the PechaKucha Night organized by UAE Modern. DATE: November, 15 VENUE: Warehouse 58, Alserkal Avenue TIME: 6pm
