Being an Arab architect, I know the only magazine that talks about Arab architecture in Arabic is Al-Bina’a, there is a few others but in English - not fully dedicated to Arab architecture, neither is Al-Bina’a. domus, the Italian architecture and design magazine, has launched a new edition in arabic last month, I assume aimed at Arab architecture, but not fully dedicated as well, and I quote Editor-In-Chief Dr. Fahad Al-Sa’eed:
It is well known, that creativity has no boundaries, and is full of surprises, and the magazine had put that in mind in the making of the first issue. The editorial calendar was planned for the upcoming issues, in God’s will, out of trust in those creative Arabs who deserve the best, always.
This is a breakthrough in the world of architecture, and in this region’s architecture. Architecture’s strongest influence has been derived from Europe and the US for a long time now, and never has architecture been this elitist and well covered in media to the point of idealizing heroes behind architectural icons. It is time to shed the light on creative minds from this region. There is something about this region that makes it require that. The culture of this region is different from western culture, but the religious background is shared with other regions in the east, meanwhile some cultures in the east are largely influenced by western culture, that mingle with Muslim Asia. For a while, we’d needed a focus on some of our greatest thinkers and creatives such as the great Hassan Fathi, Rifa’at Chadirji, Rasem Badran, Mohammed Makkiyya, Jaafar Touqan, and the list goes on. Now time has slightly changed since those, our architecture is more adapting and versatile with globalization being more evident, so are some of those architects, and what we need is to learn to expose our thoughts more intelligently, rather than wait for them to be recognized.
This was the motive for enKlosure. To dedicate a space for those thoughts, not fully, but focus on them and oversee their course of development in the form of urbanization, architecture, and design. But resources are scarce; existing ones rely on the flashy stories of the new Arab cities going about building giga-projects for unknown audiences, and that is not the essence of this region. I’m not saying we should neglect the modern world and go back, we should focus on the thoughts that will move us forward, within our cultural context, for our culture, learning from others and from ourselves.
I believe we will witness more of this kind of coverage, but I don’t think it will happen soon, perhaps an enKlosure magazine that I’ve been thinking of for a long time now. For now enKlosure will remain digital, meanwhile Arabia has a lot to offer. April’s Issue 002 is filled with chairs, by the way.
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COMMENTS / 2 COMMENTS
Izzy said on May 30 09 at 12:26 amI think it’s a long span to take for The Arab architecture and design to reach maturity; it’s actually pity how we’re not even out of the box yet! But trials like Domus and Albinaa are just steps on the way there.. not so soo,n but I believe people like them (except more dedicatedly) will make it eventually rise.
Though I have subscribed for Domus for a couple of years, (the English version) but in the long run I found the New Zealand magazine “URBIS” more stirring in terms of Revolutionary international iconic original design and Architecture. My earliest copy of Urbis dates back to 2002, even the content of that appear merely up-to-date.
mais said on Jun 04 09 at 1:09 am..as of Arabian magazines, it’d be unfair to miss the “architecture creations: ebda’at handaseya magazine” a good sample of a magazine that succeeded not to fall into the commercialism trap..
to me an arabian magazine is not necessarily one that exclusively address the architecture/architects of the region..it should address its audience in content as well as in its genuine arabic literacy ; an underestimated value in most magazines of such arabic appearance … isn’t it the automatically spirit-less translation behind us ” the english-educated architects/ arch. students” forcing ourselves to continue reading the one article we have just started …if we had any self-obligation…or maybe even .. if we started any!
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