The Wall

Is architecture an art of wall design? Why the Man had created the wall? Do we need all walls that we built? What are the urban consequences of building walls? Is safety one of major reasons for creating the walls? How mass communication can contribute to safe living environments with fewer and better walls? Since early human history, the Man has invented the wall to contain the human life and to achieve different sorts of domains such as safety, privacy, community. In many cases the walls have developed to have symbolic roles and meanings such as dominance and power rather.  The different application types have transformed the cities to a forest of walls. Therefore, the wall is an important component that  creates forms and characters, contains activities, needs, and realizes strategies such as safety and sustainability. Each particular society has developed a particular wall culture which decides how to apply the wall in the different conditions of the built environment. This method has strong relationship with the local conditions, heritage, and the nation’s cultural, economic and social structure. Therefore, wall  has an important role in creating the local architectural character in any particular society . This paper is discussing  these issues by studying  how the demand for safety creates demands for applying and forming the walls in our built environment. The paper will use the fence wall as a case study and  how it had been applied in old cities to achieve safety? which kind of decision making and communication model had been applied in these cities to form and build the wall as safety structure?  How these issues are applied in the present? The paper is using cases from cities in Middle East. The paper concludes that in order to make architecture and urban design responsive to safety issues, it is necessary to establish better understandings about the wall as an important design component for our buildings and cities where we form and built less, better and smarter walls.  Architectural media can be an important to support the wall safety functions by  creating a contiguous arena for communication between the community, decision makers,  and professionals which can raise their awareness and involvement in built environment safety as an alternative for building more walls Keywords: Wall, Design, Urban Design, Safety, Rules, Media, Architectural Education

Architectural Identity in an Era of Change

This paper attempts to enhance knowledge about architectural heritage of large number of ignored human cultures. Different global geopolitical changes since collapsing the Eastern Block and the recent political changes in the Middle East have revealed the need to reconsider the architectural identity in the new development process.  The resent street demonstrations that toppled the existing power systems in Middle are  revealing national demands and realities that suffered suppression for several decades.  One of the areas that has suffered from the previous control systems is neglecting and deconstructing  architectural identity of the different cultural groups. The local architectural  identity of any particular society is an important life container which reflects among other its cultural values and meanings that evolve over time. Emerging the new democratic systems in Arabic Spring countries rise an important global phenomenon that I call it liberalizing  architectural identity. Our present architectural knowledge and practice should seize this historical change in order to liberate itself from practices that have influenced or guided by the previous control systems. The paper is based on case study and observations. I have used an inductive method in observing the development of the whole architectural identity situation of the two cases in order to define what aspects are central in constituting architectural identity in a multi ethnic country. The paper is using Iraq as a case study of a country with different cultures where each culture has its own architectural tradition. The study shows how the architectural diversity of the country has been damaged by ignoring the multi cultural reality of the country. The study will also show role of  the architects, architecture schools, authority,  and users in this phenomena.. The case study will show Iraq’s historical architectural development since 1921 till the present to develop evidences that are used in analysing the present architectural identity as a product and a process. The two case studies are, first case of  Baghdad ( capital town of Iraq and centre of Iraqi government since establishing of Iraq in 1921) and second is case  of Erbil ( main city of Kurdistan Region north Iraq). Keywords: identity, multi-cultural groups, The Arabic Spring, Iraqi Architecture, Kurdistan, Kurdish architectural heritage, liberal architectur

City Centers as Urban Growth Cores

The urban growth is a continuous challenge for any city. It requires continuous development strategies to meet the new economic and social requirements. Historical evidences show that architecture and urban design can be important tools to stimulate the urban growth by establishing urban cores to contain, facilitate and stimulate economic and social activities. The city’s history shows that the city center is an important area in any city for its dominating role in creating the city’s architectural characteristics and supporting its economic and social functions. The cities have developed different patterns of city centers in order to achieve the urban growth. This study shows how can architecture and urban design be used as a strategy to create livable city centers and how can this livability be an important source for urban growth? The paper is using three models of city centers Brasilia, Oslo and Dubai where all have attempted using the city center to generate urban growth but by applying different strategies. Brasilia has applied functionalism to build one city center which cannot be changed, Oslo has applied new multi city centers in its central area, Dubai has developed multi city centers spread in the whole city. Keywords: City Center, urban core, Urban Design, Architecture, urban growth, economic growth, Street, Livability, Sustainability, Dubai, Oslo, Brasilia