Ricardo Camacho,
Sara Saragoça Soares,
Roberto Fabbri (Hrsg.)
From the late 1940’s at the inception of the oil exporting industry, via political independence in 1961, through to the late 1980’s when Kuwait was invaded, the city-state experienced an extraordinary social and civic transformation, deeply inscribed in its built environment. The old coastal town was radically transformed through architecture and urban planning in the process of gaining wealth and autonomy. Important foreign and local architects found here the possibility to expand their professional horizons and the challenge to impose an entire city, creating important examples of Late Modern Architecture during these four decades. This publication is based on several years of multidisciplinary research, featuring a repertoire of more than 150 buildings, all fully illustrated and analyzed in order to understand the dynamics of change and innovation they represent.
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Ricardo Camacho,
Sara Saragoça Soares,
Roberto Fabbri (Hrsg.)
Published in 2016, Modern Architecture Kuwait 1949–1989 is the first systematic analysis of Kuwait’s building production. This second volume collects essays, arguments, and interviews that focus on the role of individuals and corporations in the process of perceiving, transforming, and building the modern state of Kuwait.
The post-WWII environment along with political and artistic solidarity in the emerging Arab World promoted an exchange of ideas and individuals throughout the region. This edited collection uncovers the regional context that established the modern practice of architecture and planning between the 1940s and 1980s. The editors of “Modern Architecture Kuwait 1949–1989” selected a diverse group of contributors from both Kuwait and abroad to produce expertly researched and crafted essays and arguments. The interviews conducted by the editors between 2012 and 2016 appear as transcripts, while other relevant published materials produced in or on Kuwait from 1949 until 1989 are also featured. In their own essays, the editors explore broader topics such as the political and socio-economic process of modernization in the country, the educational and professional establishment of the architectural practice in the region, and the development of a contemporary construction industry in Kuwait. Also, the volume’s introduction includes an atlas that traces the movement of architects, planners, and projects for and from Kuwait, mapping a series of unprecedented reciprocities between geographical, economic, political, and social realities in the Arab World. The second collection expands far beyond the first volume, challenging different narratives while also connecting divergent spheres to offer readers a critical look at a local perspective based on a regional context.
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The History of Architectural Practice in The Middle East
Ricardo Camacho,
Dalal Musaed Alsayer,
Sara Saragoça Soares
Following two publications in 2016 and 2017 on Modern Architecture of Kuwait, this new publication expands on the growing interest for the building and urban practice exchange between territories throughout the Middle Eastern region which remains at the threshold of architectural theory, postcolonial critique, and visual cultures studies. This book format exposes relevant and critical material on the individual’s education and experiences as well as the architecture practice and influence in the Middle East.
Using Kuwait as a case study and Pan Arab Modernism as a lens, this book comes to fill two voids in the literature on Middle Eastern architecture: one is in practice and the other is in history. The current practice of architecture in Kuwait, the Gulf and the larger Middle East, is typically a-contextual and lacking any understanding of the local context. The architectural history, on the other hand, ignores the larger context of the Middle East and the influence of Pan Arabism is not configured into many analyses. Thus, this project seeks to tackle both. By providing a contextualization of the architectural history of Kuwait and bringing forgotten protagonists back into the dialogue, a nuanced reading of Pan Arab Modern architecture emerges.
This book intents to be both a guide for practitioners and a document of analysis. The authors and editors envision the stories of our protagonists as a model for the coming generation to emulate and in doing so, hoping to create an importance of the local. In doing so, the book will inspire a new generation of local imprinters that will allow Kuwait locally, and the Gulf regionally, to break from the over-reliance on foreigners shaping how their cities look and operate. It aims to create a “knowledge generation” which can redefine how a local generation is being influence on the ground. With a symbiosis between the “facts on the ground” and the “ideas in the air.” Thus, this publication is a first step towards documenting and analyzing the realties on the ground.
With contributions of:
Prof. Michael Kubo (Univ. of Houston, Texas) on the relationship between The Architects Collaborative (TAC) and the local Kuwaiti firm Pan Arab Consulting Engineers (now PACE); Caecilia L. Pieri ( Associate Researcher – Institut Français du Proche-Orient) on the influence of Iraq modernization in Kuwait; Prof. Iain Jackson (Univ. of Liverpool) on the influence of British Architects on the Middle East (tropical architecture, expertise); Prof. Hyun-Tae Jung (Lehigh University) on the relationship between Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and PACE and the photographic work of the artist Antje Hanebeck commission by PACE for this project
You can purchase Pan Arab Modernism 1968-2018 on Actar Publishers web-store or on Amazon.
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