I can’t remember the last time I was at a conference that was this much fun! Four days of listening, discussing, drawing, learning, meeting, laughing, observing, eating, walking… all things related to ‘green’ in the city. What is the impact of trees on air quality? Are green walls worth the hassle? How can we finance […]
The Nature of Cities Summit – what a week! Read More »
The obsession with green in cities could be better managed if the binary of desert versus green could be broken. Doherty, 2017, p. 147 Three years ago, I posted about a need for a more sustainable approach to landscaping, particularly green spaces, in the GCC. Since then, the provision of urban green spaces has gained
Green Spaces in the desert? (Part II) Read More »
I had the pleasure of attending the Cities of the Arab World conference at Michigan State University last week. I have to admit I wasn’t sure what to expect, given it was the first academic conference I’ve attended in a long time. What I found particularly valuable was the interdisciplinary nature of the conference, with
Cities of the Arab World – thoughts on an interdisciplinary conference Read More »
I wrote my latest piece for Nature of Cities on the work we have undertaken at Arup on planning and designing a more sustainable future for cities in arid environments. This is an ongoing area of interest and research for us… would love to hear your thoughts. Excerpts below, full article here In the 21stcentury,
Changing the 20th century paradigm for Arid Cities Read More »
Well, not exactly a whole house… and definitely not on my own. Here’s what happened… In July, I put my hand up to go on a trip with Habitat for Humanity to Indonesia. This was part of Arup\’s Community Engagement programme, and I was fortunate to be one of five Arup volunteers chosen to join
The time Huda built a house… Read More »
Just over two years ago, I posted on the need for us to start taking adaptation seriously. At the time, I was unaware of any serious conversations on the topic in the UAE – a lot has changed in two years! I was invited recently to attend a series of risk assessment and capacity-building workshops
Let’s talk Adaptation – finally! Read More »
It was a real treat to read Farah Al Nakib’s book: Kuwait Transformed: A History of Oil and Urban Life. I’ve captured some of my thoughts in a recently published review piece, excerpts are below: Al-Nakib vividly depicts the economic, social, and political interactions occurring in the port, the suq (market), the mixed-class firjan (neighborhoods), and the homes of pre-oil
Kuwait Transformed: linking urban development to social change Read More »
I had the honor of attending and speaking at the Meeting of the Minds Annual Summit in Cleveland two weeks ago. The event revolved around themes related to smart and sustainable cities and the digital economy and occurred amidst global debate on controversial data-driven projects like this one. I have to confess that I usually
Highlights from Meeting of the Minds Read More »
Provocation In his recent book, The Well-Tempered City, Jonathan Rose describes the development of cities from 3100 BC to the present day. I was struck by his description of the “Islamic City”: “Islam offered the cities it captured a coherent, integrating vision, accompanied by economic and religious freedom that encouraged diversity and contributed to prosperity.” (p.80) Rose
Planning the ‘Islamic City’ Read More »
My latest article on The Nature of Cities highlights and explores some of the questions raised by Marwa al-Sabouni’s thought-provoking book, The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria. The article does not do justice to Marwa’s book, which is packed with brave questions, observations, and challenges to current thinking and
The Battle for Home: exploring questions of identity and architecture Read More »