International Journal of Islamic Architecture: Most Cited Articles http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/ijia?TRACK=RSS Please follow the links to view the content. Msheireb Heart of Doha: An Alternative Approach to Urbanism in the Gulf Region http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.1.1.131_1?TRACK=RSS The objective of this article is to highlight some of the challenges faced by emerging Gulf nation states in modernizing their cities. The Msheireb Heart of Doha Masterplan is used as an exemplar project to offer an alternative approach in urban planning and regeneration in the region. The article describes how the challenges of land ownership, privatization, climate, social diversity and cultural relevance are dealt with in the masterplan, which seeks to create a modern Qatari homeland that is rooted in its local traditions and heritage. Towards the end of the article, reflections and evaluations are examined to prompt further thoughts and discussions. Rosanna Law and Kevin Underwood Thu Oct 20 08:44:13 UTC 2022Z Mobilities of Architecture in the Global Cold War: From Socialist Poland to Kuwait and Back http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.4.2.365_1?TRACK=RSS Abstract This article discusses the contribution of professionals from socialist countries to architecture and urban planning in Kuwait in the final two decades of the Cold War. In so doing, it historicizes the accelerating circulation of labour, building materials, discourses, images, and affects facilitated by world-wide, regional and local networks. By focusing on a group of Polish architects, this article shows how their work in Kuwait in the 1970s and 1980s responded to the disenchantment with architecture and urbanization processes of the preceding two decades, felt as much in the Gulf as in socialist Poland. In Kuwait, this disenchantment was expressed by a turn towards images, ways of use, and patterns of movement referring to ‘traditional’ urbanism, reinforced by Western debates in postmodernism and often at odds with the social realities of Kuwaiti urbanization. Rather than considering this shift as an architectural ‘mediation’ between (global) technology and (local) culture, this article shows how it was facilitated by re-contextualized expert systems, such as construction technologies or Computer Aided Design software (CAD), and also by the specific portable ‘profile’ of experts from socialist countries. By showing the multilateral knowledge flows of the period between Eastern Europe and the Gulf, this article challenges diffusionist notions of architecture’s globalization as ‘Westernization’ and reconceptualizes the genealogy of architectural practices as these became world-wide. Ukasz Stanek Sun Jun 05 16:55:33 UTC 2022Z Surprising Alliances for Dwelling and Citizenship: Palestinian-Israeli Participation in the Mass Housing Protests of Summer 2011 http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.2.1.41_1?TRACK=RSS Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, or Palestinian Israelis, are marginalized in a society based on Jewish nationalism, religion and ethnicity. While Israel witnessed numerous social struggles for equality and inclusion, none attempted to challenge Jewish nationalism as its core principle. The 2011 eruption of mass social unrest, the largest since the 1970s, focused on popular demands for housing as a basic right of citizenship. Indeed, protest started with a housing act: the creation of dozens of tent camps all over the country. Protesters called for a new polity based on housing, expressed by one of the movement’s symbols: an Israeli flag whose national/religious Star of David was replaced by a house. The right to housing was thereby proclaimed as the primary criterion for social inclusion. While the housing-based social movement initially puzzled Palestinian Israelis, tents soon appeared in Arab towns. Palestinian-Israeli participation proved significant, forming surprising alliances among social strata previously understood as irrevocably polarized. Examining the camps of Jaffa and Qalansuwa, this article looks into the history and implications of housing for Palestinian Israelis, and for Israeli society at large. Using Chantal Mouffe’s and Bruno Latour’s work, we ask: ‘Can dwelling be a strong enough ground for a citizenry-based polity?’ Yael Allweil Thu Oct 20 08:48:05 UTC 2022Z Expertise in the Name of Diplomacy: The Israeli Plan for Rebuilding the Qazvin Region, Iran http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.5.1.103_1?TRACK=RSS Abstract After the September 1962 earthquake in the Qazvin region of Iran, Israel sent planning experts to assist Iranian relief efforts. A small project, the reconstruction of one village, led to a larger project initiated by the United Nations, in which a team of experts from Israel were sent to survey and plan the region devastated by the quake. This resulted in a comprehensive regional plan, and detailed plans for several villages. Israeli assistance to Iran was also intended to reinforce bilateral relations between the countries. The disaster offered an opportunity for demonstrating Israeli expertise in a range of fields including architecture, and to consolidate Israel’s international image as an agent for development. This article examines transnational exchange via professional expertise, using the participation of Israeli architects in the rebuilding of Qazvin as a case study, in order to demonstrate that architects were agents of Israel’s diplomatic goals. The architects had professional objectives, namely the creation of a modern plan for the region and its villages. At the same time, these objectives were intertwined with the Shah of Iran’s national modernization plan, and with Israel’s desire to become Iran’s ally in this drive for change and modernization, in the hope of promoting a different, more modern, Middle East. Neta Feniger and Rachel Kallus Sun Jun 05 17:20:18 UTC 2022Z The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul: The Emergent Unfolding of a Complex Adaptive System http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.4.1.39_1?TRACK=RSS Abstract The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul offers an example of a physical environment containing specific districts that have emerged over time. This paper theorizes that the Grand Bazaar exhibits the characteristics of a Complex Adaptive System. Next, it considers specific urban elements found in the Bazaar, in light of complexity theory, to see how these facilitate processes that lead to the emergence of contiguous districts. This study repurposes Kevin Lynch’s categorization of urban elements to provide a useful framework for discussing complexity theory. This research is further informed by economic analysis derived from Evolutionary Economic Geography, which examines the emergence of business clusters. Sharon Wohl Sun Jun 05 16:38:39 UTC 2022Z Responses to the Destruction of Syrian Cultural Heritage: A Critical Review of Current Efforts http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.5.2.381_1?TRACK=RSS Abstract The Syrian civil war has resulted in over 250,000 deaths and several million displaced refugees within Syria and abroad. In addition to this human toll, the conflict has resulted in the devastation of the country’s acclaimed cultural heritage sites and the historical fabric that composed the country’s social landscape and the identity of its population. In this article, we consider the reaction of the international heritage community to this moment of crisis. To date, the international heritage community has developed three kinds of projects: site documentation projects; public-awareness-raising projects; and emergency training and mitigation projects. Most of these undertakings have prioritized the collection and dissemination of information about heritage loss. Less attention has been given to emergency interventions to support Syrians inside the country and the at-risk heritage. A significant gap exists between international knowledge about heritage in this crisis and the immediate needs of Syrian heritage professionals. Here, we consider some of the reasons for the divergence between on-the-ground-need and international response, along with the intended and unintended outcomes resulting from the documentation and public-awareness-raising projects. In terms of tangible results, there is no substitute for efforts conducted within a humanitarian framework. The challenge is in encouraging the international heritage community to embrace such an approach. Salam Al Quntar and Brian I. Daniels Sun Jun 05 17:52:39 UTC 2022Z Urbanism of Grandiosity: Planning a New Urban Centre for Tehran (1973–76) http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.3.1.69_1?TRACK=RSS Abstract In the 1970s a grand-scale ceremonial urban centre, with an extensive programme of governmental, commercial and residential buildings, was planned for north Tehran. Construction began in 1975, but was soon halted by the eruption of the street protests that led to the 1979 revolution. This essay analyses the project’s conception, socio-political underpinnings and ultimate failure, by contextualizing it within Tehran’s urban landscape and by tracing its design trajectory. As a grandiose project made possible by the oil boom, the final plan of Shahestan, drawn up by the planning firm Llewelyn-Davies International, not only reflects the megalomania of Mohammad Reza Shah (r. 1941–79) but also reveals the totalitarian nature of the Pahlavi regime in the 1970s. But prior to hiring the planning firm, Queen Farah supported a rival design by the internationally famous architects Louis Kahn and Kenzo Tange, who were indeed involved in the project for a few months before Kahn’s death in 1974. I argue that this duality of patronage, and all the oppositions that it embodies, is echoed in the gendered representation of monarchy in the final plan and signifies how the project subverts a liberal narrative of modernism. Moreover, the new urban centre was not at the city’s physical core but rather at the centre of its northern part – the locus of an expanding upper middle class. The discrepancy between the intended purpose of the project and the social realities of its urban context epitomizes the regime’s paradoxical approach to modernity and modernization. Farshid Emami Sun Jun 05 15:55:29 UTC 2022Z Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.6.2.229_2?TRACK=RSS This article aims to conceptualize some of the varied ways Muslims have engaged with antiquity over time. Beginning with the example of Palmyra, it argues that the restoration of the Temple of Bel by the French archaeological team led by Henri Seyrig in the early twentieth century and the destruction of that same temple by ISIS in 2015 are both ideological acts oriented toward reviving an imagined and idealized past. While ISIS erased the remains of the ancient site recreated by the French, the French had previously erased 1,800 years of Christian and Muslim heritage at Palmyra. Both actions are the outcome of the logic inherent in globalized, cosmopolitan heritage ideals. As a means of moving beyond the problematic discourse of the globalized heritage model in which certain heritage values are ‘authorized’ and others are not, the article then proposes an initial conceptualization of imaginings of heritage in Islamic societies over time, suggesting a range of diverse ways Muslims have valued and continue to value ancient localities, and introduces the articles contained in this special issue. Stephennie Mulder Mon Jun 06 17:05:03 UTC 2022Z Ornamented Facades and Panoramic Views: The Impact of Tourism Development on al-Salt’s Historic Urban Landscape http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia.2.2.307_1?TRACK=RSS Abstract This article discusses a series of tourism development projects for historic al-Salt in Jordan that began in the 1990s. A critical analysis of these projects reveals how their emphasis on tourism development results in superficial treatments that overlook the distinctive nature of the city’s morphology and the productive relationship between architectural elements and cultural, economic and political processes. Thus, using al-Salt in Jordan as a case study, this article reveals how preservation efforts can be rejected by a local community, particularly when the specifics of social, cultural, political and economic identity are not considered. According to the findings, these historical specificities contribute to shaping the city’s distinctive urban morphology. As such, al-Salt’s rehabilitation was reduced to superficial beautification and surface treatments that prioritize a fleeting visual experience for tourists but fail to address the fundamental aspects of rehabilitating the historic urban landscape. Luna Khirfan Sun Jun 05 15:21:54 UTC 2022Z Records of Dispossession: Archival Thinking and UNESCO's Nubian Campaign in Egypt and Sudan http://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijia_00015_1?TRACK=RSS Abstract This article discusses the creation of architectural and archaeological archives in newly independent Egypt and Sudan during the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, organized by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). This initiative took place in the contiguous border regions of Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia from 1960 until 1980 in response to the building of the Aswan High Dam. Contingency in these archives demonstrates the necessity of acknowledging the (post-) colonial social and historical conditions in which they were produced. UNESCO's campaign sought to record ancient remains that would be submerged by the High Dam's floodwaters. During the campaign, UNESCO set up 'documentation centres' that helped codify what knowledge about Nubian architecture/archaeology might be archive-worthy, producing index cards dedicated to this purpose in Egypt (concentrating on monuments) and Sudan (centring on archaeological sites). This practice – echoed by other organizations involved in the work – was often purposefully forgetful of contemporary Nubia, whose material traces were also soon to be flooded. Nevertheless, such practices rendered visible other unauthorised histories of Nubia that subverted archival knowledge production: histories of local involvement with the campaign and now-submerged Nubian settlements. This article therefore argues that it is not only possible, but also ethically imperative, to repurpose the Nubian campaign's archives towards the acknowledgement of erased Nubian histories. William Carruthers Mon Jun 06 03:14:55 UTC 2022Z