And the Winner is...

Eduardo Suoto De Moura has recieved the 2011 Pritzker Prize of Architecture. The video is an interview discussing his M9 competition proposal in Mestre, Italy.

Interesting readings about De Moura here :

 More information
Key Projects
More Key Projects
Interview for D'Architettura magazine

Slipknot - Snuff

سكرانــــــــة

سكرانــــــــة

من كام شهر
خدت قرار مش هاكتب شعر
وإني هذاكر وانجح أفلح
واخد البكاليريوس وأتجوز
وأشتري عفشتي بالتقسيط
من كام شهر
أنا كنت عبيط
من كام شهر
زرعت المياه وطرحت فجلة
جاب العجل الفجلة لعجلة
وقالها مهرك
ريحة قهرك
فايحة في نهرك
قالت إوعا تعيش كسلان
بابا نويل بيوزع يويو في حرب إيران
شامم ريحة جبنة قديمة
فيلم السهرة مكنش سياسي
كان عباسي
عبدالناصر حب يقلب فينا الروس
ساوى الروس
لبرل نفسك
لأجل ما تبقى مثقف زي صاحبنا إياه
عندك ماركس عندك هيجل
عندك حسن البنا وحجي
عندك زحمة
صفي ونجي
منحى عرض النسكافيه واخد إفيه
حاصل ضرب النكسة في حرب أكتوبر في معاهدة ديفد
بيساوي حاصل ضرب النار في التار في العار
وزي إمرؤ القيس وجلامدة
اللي بتنزل من علي
عندينا واد اسمه علي
بيطلع الدبابة ويلف بيها في البلد
ومراته دايرة بشعرها تدور عليه
ومتسألوش أنا قصدي إيه
أنا نفسي مش فاهم كلامي
بس الكلام واعر حويط
أنا اللي دون الناس ... عبيط
من كام شهر وكنت بحبك
كنت بوضب روحي واحبك لأجل ما أقابلك
كنت في كل حلاتك قابلك
تفرحي قابلك
تزعلي قابلك
تتقلي قابلك
كنتي الأرض وكنت سنابلك
كنتي الحرب وكنت قنابلك
حتي في بعدك وإنتي مسافرة
وبيني وبينك ألف محطة
كنت بقابلك
عمري يا نانا ما قلبي اتنازل ولا ساب حقة
زي ما سابلك
عمره ما ضحى بسهده وسهره وجاب من عمري
زي ما جابلك
هذا الوجع بقاياكي
سحر تمدد بين ضلعي
وتواري خلف سلم منزلك
ترك لكي رسالة كل صباح
وسافر
يشهد عليكي السلم المستني خطوتنا
تشهد عليكي الشبابيك اللي فتحتيها علشاني في نص الليل
وعز البرد
يشهد عليكي محل الهدايا اللي ع الناصية
وكشك الورد
تشهدعليكي هدومك اللي قولتلك ما تلبسهاش
تشهد عليكي إمتحاناتي اللي علشانك مدخلتهاش
تشهد عليكي ودني هوستن جورج مايكل
عم شوقي بتاع الفطير
كيف يصير الحال كده
م الإبتدا
أنا اللي غلطانلك
وأنا اللي محقوقلك
وأنا اللي دون الناس
عشقتك
كنت عايش جوه صدرك حلم دافي
كنت بنسى الناس وأجيلك يوم معادك
يكش حافي
كنت أبسط من بسيط
واكتشفت إني ف هواكي
كنت دون الناس
عبيط

هشام الجخ

You...

I’ve finished them all… over you… the letters… the words… the screams… the tears… the sleepless nights… the torturing thoughts… the blinding memories… I can no longer smell the scents of flowers, see the beauty in sunrises… I can no longer smile back at a baby… I can no longer feel cold or pain… or the warmth of the sun on my skin… I’ve finished all the truths in my life… over you… all the genuine happiness…all the disturbing confusions.

and all my choices were you.

written : 26.02.2011

The Egyptian Revolution 02 : On Streets, Sidewalks, and Gangs

On Friday the 28^th of January, at approximately 6pm, and with the complete failure of police and security forces to control and contain the protests all over Egypt, there was a complete and total withdrawal of all police forces all over the country, followed by assurances that the army is now taking over security. What happened in the hours between both was the first real assurance that the system is failing. Prisoners fled their prisons, guns were taken from police stations, and with the complete cut in phone services, Egyptians all over the country lived the most disturbing night in their modern history. As complaints on state TV came from residents being robbed, attacked, and killed all over the country, there was nothing to do but to defend yourself with whatever weapons you had. Men and teenagers filled their streets holding sticks, knives or whatever they had at home to defend their neighborhoods themselves. Doctors, engineers, students, businessmen, and many others suddenly dropped their professions and became temporary police officers. Barricades and checkpoints were made at entry points, groups with different tasks were formed, and danger signals were agreed upon as they all stayed up all night securing their families and homes.

In the modern individualized society Debord discusses the status of detachment of individual experiences through the ‘spectacle’ from the reality of life. As I took to the streets on Friday night, I suddenly realized that we had been living in our own individual cocoons for our whole lives without any sense of communal network of ties. I did not know any of my neighbors, I did not know any of their families, yet suddenly I had to defend them as if they were my own. I could not help but think how lucky I was to live in a densely populated neighborhood, and wonder how those living in the suburbs were dealing with their problems. Now, Jane Jacobs with all her writings about street security was all I could think about. Her call for a continuous supply of activities and eyes on the street as a major constituent for security and safety in a neighborhood was very relevant. Her call for reviving sidewalks for casual public contact at local level that creates public identity of people and a resource in time of personal or neighborhood need was a reality that I was living. The way we had planned and built our impersonal city streets had truly created anonymous people.

During the following nights, I had already become friends with some of my neighbors, with whom I had shared my security duty. With the feeling that calmness had returned to the streets, and the army had captured some of the criminals, we all started to be less uptight and more casual. Groups of neighbors started to use their time all night on the street in some type of activity. On the recreational side they were playing cards, watching movies via projectors, or even street football tournaments. While on the services side they were cleaning the streets or moving garbage that had piled up because of the halt in public services. The scene turned into an all-night festival. While days ago these people would only pass as familiar faces from the neighborhood, the revolution had truly changed something in our lives. It had revived our dead neighborhoods, our dull sidewalks and our segregated communities. Most importantly, it revived our local social life. We were no more individuals, we were no more anonymous, we were now united in a peaceful gang and our streets were our turf. Togetherness was not only in Tahrir square, it was in every city, in every neighborhood, and in every street. Even those in the suburbs, realized that they could not live as individuals anymore. And like the image of our regime, the image of our suburban extensions was broken by its own mistakes.

Pritzker Architecture Prize

With the Pritzker Prize for architecture coming up soon, there are several candidates for recieving it this year. Closest candidates include Steven Holl, Charles Correa, Toyo Ito, and David Chipperfield.

The Egyptian Revolution 01: On Battlegrounds and Utopias

I will not talk much about the politics of the recent Egyptian revolution, but I will document a number of architectural notes that I made during the past 18 days.

One cannot avoid discussing the place where all these events took place. Tahrir, liberation, or even now called martyrs, square has been the focus of the whole world for the last 18 days (for a complete review of the square check this post by Ahmed Zaazaa http://cairomsc.blogspot.com/2009/11/el-tahrir-square-multi-layered-history.html ). Whether it was in the foreground or the background of these events, it remains a crucial element in the equation of defining the results.

-          “when we took tahrir square 2 days ago, we did not…

-          “I’m sorry, you ‘took’?”

-          “yes… we ‘took’  tahrir square… we control it… we own it”

The words from this tv interview with one of the protestors made me wonder about the importance of controlling this space in the process of protesting. Since the 25^th of January, there was a continuous battle to control it. And with the famous 'camel charge', suddenly tahrir square became the battleground, and both parties symbolized their control of the country in the control of an urban space. Tahrir square had exceeded its reputation as just the downtown center for major political protests into a completely new identity. Perhaps because of the vital institutions overlooking the square, it now became the negotitated-upon instead of the negotiated-from.

But tahrir square did not stop there. As days passed by, the symbol became stronger and stronger, and with the need to organize and manage the protests tahrir square became the message itself. Committees for cleanliness, security, medical aid, media… among others took on the challenge and turned tahrir square into a small republic of its own. When the VP told ABC that Egyptians were not ready for democracy, tahrir square was the response. And while the most common comment about the square during the protests was “it is exactly the Egypt we dream of having”, I did not believe it till I visited. It was young, fresh, creative, organized, safe, and most importantly democratic and liberated. Protestors turned tahrir square to a more meaningful entity than just a symbol. They turned it into a dream. Everybody wanted to be part of that dream, everybody wanted a role. And when a dream turns to reality, it was useless to fight, the battle was already won, and sooner or later Egyptians would have their utopia.

A great map of Tahrir http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12434787