Oculus Book Talk: The Arab City

Please join us at the Center for Architecture for a discussion on the book The Arab City: Architecture and Representation by Amale Andraos.

Moving beyond reductive notions of identity, myths of authenticity, fetishized traditionalism, or the constructed opposition of tradition and modernity, The Arab City: Architecture and Representation critically engages contemporary architectural and urban production in the Middle East. Taking the “Arab City” and “Islamic Architecture” as sites of investigation rather than given categories, this book reframes the region’s buildings, cities, and landscapes and broadens its architectural and urban canons. Arab cities are multifaceted places and sites of layered historical imaginaries; defined by regional and territorial economies, they bridge scales of production and political engagement. The essays collected here investigate cultural representation, the evolution of historical cities, contemporary architectural practices, emerging urban conditions, and responsive urban imaginaries in the Arab World.