Remember

Walk the streets… wait helplessly to cross… and remember me.

Drink the water… enjoy the meals… and remember me.

Speak the language… and when you fail… remember me.

Let the loud horns drive you crazy… and the polluted air paralyze you… and remember me.

Spend hours in traffic… go brand shopping in the mall… end your day in the same café… and remember me.

Look with disgust at the tainted dirty buildings… and the donkey carts…

Feel overwhelmed by the smiling faces… and the scarcity of trees…

And remember me.

At every corner… every shop… every sidewalk…

And with every special place… or memory… stop… and remember me.

May every second you spend… every breath you take… every scene… every person you look in the eyes… may every step you walk… every word you say… and every feeling… remind you of me... and how wrong you were.

Remember me… and suffer…

Over and over again…

Remember me…

And suffer.

written: 28.04.2011

Another Photo series from Dubai

A wonderful photograph series taken from a helicopter portraying Dubai's interrupted development here by Thomas Kalak

and another post i came across, the charter of dubai by SMAQ here, a manifesto of urban readjustment for dubai's halted development.

via deconcrete.org

How Do I Love Thee?

How Do I Love Thee?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death

AASTMT Design Review & Exh.

Last week we had our final studio projects evaluation and exhibition at the aast in cairo. Our design studio this semester focused on notion of space, and spatial qualities. Students were required to start designing their projetcs from the inside first, focusing on 4 themes, light, color, scale, and texture. More information here.
Most students were able to grasp the power of these qualities in creating specific atmospheres and were successsful in conveying statements such as grandness, seclusion, diversity... etc. Here are some selected images of the finished projects.

Projects by:
Amr Al Awady
Heba Bayoumi
John Mourad
Saeed A. Moneim
Salma Sabry
Shady Mohamed
Hasan Ashraf



The followwing day the department hosted the semester design studio review and exhibition. An underground memorial in tahrir square, a community center in downtown helipolis, a municipality office building, an auto mall, along our forum building, portrayed the diversity of projects undertaken by different studios, with the multitude of themes they addressed such as context, structure, materiality, sustainability, and space. While a common thread of rationale seemed to be passing through all the projects (see my previous notes on the AUC exhibition here), I was concerned with several issues regarding the processes by which the projects have been achieved. It was clear there was a general lack of diverse opinions within the studio critiques. The one-way discussions that occur inside the studios, are apparently not enough to generate students with critical thinking skills, and who are able to disscuss and question their and others work. This is a very common pedagogical issue in the way egyptian architecture schools are being run, dominated by a clearly outdated tradition of teaching. But that is another story.

Merryland Park, Heliopolis

CairObserver