ELHUB

Learning from Taksim Square: Architecture, State Power, and Public Space in Istanbul

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:31:40 +0200

Learning from Taksim Square: Architecture, State Power, and Public Space in Istanbul

mikasavela: Excerpts from a US army combat studies paper 2004,...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:10:00 +0200

Excerpts from a US army combat studies paper 2004, describing the Middle-Eastern city “model” to be used in military operations .

It’s a strange text in many ways, but especially if you think about the otherness aspects. This sounds more like someone explaining about the features of traditional life on an alien planet.

http://www.suspendedspaces.net/enter/news.html

Tue, 28 May 2013 09:49:30 +0200

http://www.suspendedspaces.net/enter/news.html

Housing contemporary forms of life. A project for Tehran:...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:56:00 +0200

Housing contemporary forms of life. A project for Tehran: workshop ending June 2013 at TU Delft the theme of comtemporary forms of forms of living in Teheran.

Interesting insight: get to know more about historical and socio-political realities of islamic cities in general, and Tehran in particular in order to shed light on today’s way of domestic building in Tehran.

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Mon, 20 May 2013 16:33:50 +0200

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A Terrifying, Fascinating Timelapse of 30 Years of Human Impact...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:32:49 +0200

A Terrifying, Fascinating Timelapse of 30 Years of Human Impact on Earth

you can zoom in on Lebanon and Beirut to see how concrete has overflow the sea and how fast urban growth happened in only 30 years.

letsbuildahome-fr: Wadi Al-Salaam: The Largest Cemetery in The...

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:17:00 +0200

letsbuildahome-fr:

Wadi Al-Salaam: The Largest Cemetery in The World via Amusing Planet

Wadi us-Salaam, which literally means the Valley of Peace, is an Islamic cemetery located in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq. The cemetery covers an area of 1485.5 acres and contains millions of bodies, making it one of the strongest contender for the title of the largest graveyard on earth. Najaf itself is one of Iraq’s biggest cities, with a population of nearly 600,000. But the adjoining city of the dead holds the remains of millions, stretching for up to 10km along the valley. Wadi Al-Salam cemetery is also the only cemetery in the world where the process of burial is still continuing to day since more than 1,400 years.

monnikfeed: (via Google’s luchtfoto’s: hoe gletsjers smelten,...

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:43:33 +0200

monnikfeed:

(via Google’s luchtfoto’s: hoe gletsjers smelten, steden verrijzen en meer :: nrc.nl)

“Reconstructing a camp of 27,000 refugees which was 95%...

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:25:51 +0200

“Reconstructing a camp of 27,000 refugees which was 95% destroyed during the 2007 war involved a planning effort with the entire community, followed by a series of eight construction phases. Limited land and the exigency of recreating physical and social fabrics were primary considerations. Established in 1948, the camp followed the extended-family pattern and building typology of the refugees’ villages. In a layout where roads provided light and ventilation, the goal was to increase non-built areas from 11% to 35%. It was achieved by giving each building an independent structural system allowing for vertical expansion up to four floors on a reduced footprint.”

PICTURES HERE

who-inbeirut: Interactive political and road map of the Middle...

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:02:15 +0200

who-inbeirut:

Interactive political and road map of the Middle East, including Lebanon and other 20 countries.

This was just submitted- Looks nice!

http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/segregated-roads-west...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0200

http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/segregated-roads-west-bank

Going Off-track: Rayak Train Station

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:20:00 +0200

Going Off-track: Rayak Train Station:

textbookmaneuver:

After a day at the AUB farm (AREC DAY), a few friends and I took a detour to the Rayak Train Station, located in the Bekaa Valley past the Rayak Air Base. Rayak (pronounced Riya’) is home to one of…

The caretaker on site there told us that a permission slip from Mar Mikhael in Beirut was needed to access the grounds but we pleaded and he allowed us to roam around a bit while advising us not to enter any of the buildings because it was dangerous due to the rain. When we asked him why the supposed project for a Rayak Train Station Museum seemed to be put on hold, he seemed quite discouraged. The way he put it was, the project, though ambitious and worthy, needs financing and the people in charge of our country aren’t willing to fork it over for something that isn’t seen as a priority. It seems that if this project were to ever see the light of day, it would need some wealthy private investors. It is sad that our country does not seem concerned with the preservation of such sites – remnants of our rich history and grounds related to our past. If there are no plans of renovation or innovation when it comes to public transportation, we should at least cherish the graveyards of days when we did have such machinery running along our coast.

Cairobserver: Cairo's empty highway: The Nile

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:47:00 +0200

Cairobserver: Cairo's empty highway: The Nile:

cairobserver:

Imagine going from Maadi directly to Downtown/Zamalek or from Giza to Shubra in fifteen minutes and according to a timetable.

It all depends on how one views the Nile, is it dividing Cairo down the center or is it potentially connecting it?

It is easy to forget the Nile sometimes while…

PUBLIC / PRIVATE

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:04:15 +0200

PUBLIC / PRIVATE:

Public/Private is a game that explores the topic of privacy in our cities by focusing on where we find it.

The story of a 1922 slaughterhouse in Casablanca, Marocco.

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:31:01 +0200

The story of a 1922 slaughterhouse in Casablanca, Marocco.

viewing 'public space' as a space where people can express their differences instead of a 'unifying space'

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:21:00 +0100

viewing 'public space' as a space where people can express their differences instead of a 'unifying space'

Faced with what’s has been called ‘informal...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:10:00 +0100

Faced with what’s has been called ‘informal urbanism’ or just plainly ‘buttom-up’ construction, it has become more relevant to question the utility and usefulness of ‘googlemap’ type positioning in countries and territories where it seems hard to implement. Because roads always change and morph. Because streets have no name. Because streets as most of us know them don’t exist. Because the information about streets is not centralised. Because different authorities and organisations decide on urbanism and they are not ‘public’. And more.

So, is a ‘subjective map’ possible? Is it relevant to today’s world? Is it useful?
Questions adressed by a french designer Mathias Poisson with Rennes as a case study: Cartograpahier les interstices de la ville.

Questions relevant to many developing countries.

“The spread of public transportation in the form of boats...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:38:34 +0100

“The spread of public transportation in the form of boats and trams in late Ottoman Istanbul changed the lived geography of the city and created new public spaces of interaction. In this episode, Jim Ryan discusses the debates surrounding social conduct and gender relations on the trams and how this new mode of transport fit into the larger transformations of Ottoman urban space”.

See more at: http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2013/03/public-transport-rail-tram-istanbul.html#sthash.Lb5NZSy7.dpuf

En Palestine, la résistance par l’architecture

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:04:29 +0100

En Palestine, la résistance par l’architecture

Beirut the Space in Between the People and Hope (by Rami Rajeh)

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:27:30 +0100

Beirut the Space in Between the People and Hope (by Rami Rajeh)