Architecture in Context - by Hassan Radoine (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

Architects are building in the Gulf and across the Middle East as if there were no context. The iconic abstract architecture that dominates current worldwide architectural discourse and practice is being replicated across the Middle East, even in countries that have rich past and current architectural and urban landscapes. Students of architecture and practising architects in the region are also being taught from solely foreign historicist or modernist surveys that may not be directly relevant to the context in which they are designing. This book explores the environmental significance, cultural meaning and design vocabularies of architecture across the region.

Architecture in Context: Designing in the Middle East critically provides a foundation for understanding the cultural 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.

About the Author

Hassan Radoine is an architecture curator, critic, educator, author and consultant. He is currently the Director of the École Nationale d'Architecture (Morocco), and was previously the Head of the Architecture Department at the University of Sharjah (UAE). He received his first Architect Professional Diploma from the École Nationale d'Architecture. A Fulbright Scholar, he completed his MSc and PhD in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and as a Prince of Wales Scholar he also earned a second Master's degree from the University of Wales, UK. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, University of Sharjah, American University of Sharjah, and Al Akhawayn University, and worked as an international expert for UNESCO, UN, UN-Habitat, ICCROM, MCC, and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. A contributor to several journals and books, his research and practice explores architecture and urbanism in the Middle East and North Africa region.