ARCHITECTURE IN CONTEXT Designing in the Middle East

Description

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.

CONTENTS

• CHAPTER 1: ARCHITECTURE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: A BACKGROUND 9
• Geopolitical and Environmental Characteristics 10
• Cultural and Religious Influences 17
• Architectural and Urban Classical Local Antecedents 31
• Colonial Architecture, East-West Encounters 43
• Decolonising Architecture: Nation Building 49
• Architecture of Development: An Urban and Housing Quest 52
• Contemporary Architecture: Faster and Higher 54
• Conclusion 56
• References 57
• CHAPTER 2: ARCHITECTURAL VOCABULARY: ELEMENTS OF LOCAL STYLES 59
• Site Typologies 62
• Biological Layer 65
• Cultural Layer 72
• Physical Layer 75
• Social and Communal Layer 92
• Environmental Layer 94
• Massing and Volumetric Composition 97
• Compactness 102
• Connectedness 104
• Transition 104
• Fragmentation 106
• Skyline 108
• Function and Space 110
• Space/Function versus Place 110
• Space as a Process 112
• Space Configurationality 113
• Scale and Proportion 115
• Human Scale and Proportion 117
• Materials and Scale 118
• Size and Scale 119
• Light and Form 123
• Light as Energy 125
• Light as Space 127
• Light as Form 129
• Light as Metaphor 131
• Order and Geometry 134
• Geometry and Order as Design 135
• Geometry and Order as Structure 138
• Geometry and Order as Allegory 139
• Ornament and Symbolism 142
• Ornament as Motif 143
• Ornament as Symbolism 146
• Building as Digital Ornament 149
• Patterns, Textures and Colours 151
• Architectural Patterns versus Decorative Patterns 152
• Local versus Imported Patterns 156
• Composition of Patterns, Textures, and Colours 157
• Conclusion 162
• References 163
• CHAPTER 3: CULTURAL AND CONTEXTUAL MEANING 165
• Cultural Value Judgment and Symbolic Codes (Cognitive Schemata, Transmission) 167
• Representation and Expression of Cultural Meaning 171
• Representation/Expression 171
• IDENTIFICATION/COMMUNICATION/TRANSMISSION 174
• INTEGRATION/DEVELOPMENT 176
• Spatial-Cultural Arrangement (Transformation and Experience) 177
• Climate and Environment (Adaptive and Creative Sustainability) 181
• Building Know-How and Processes of Production 189
• Local/Global Building Know-How 189
• Technology-Based Culture 191
• Morality, Ethics and Responsibility 193
• Conclusion 195
• References 196
• CHAPTER 4: TRENDS AND DISCOURSES OF CONTEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE 199
• Regionalism and Internationalism: A Design Reference 204
• A Paradoxical Design: Reactivating or Mimicking ‘Islamic’/‘Arabic’ Architecture 207
• Reinvention of Tradition or Heritage in Design: Continuity or Discontinuity 211
• Designing with Nature 215
• Nationalist, Post-Orientalist and Fantasist Design 220
• ‘Theme Parks’ and Megaprojects: Designing in the Gulf 225
• Sustainability-Based Design 227
• Conclusion 230
• References 231
• APPENDIX: ORIENTATION: TOWARDS A MODEL OF CONTEXTUAL ENQUIRY-BASED DESIGN 233
• CONCLUSION 239, ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 241, INDEX 242

256 pages / 19 x 24,5 cm / English