Architectural week

Event: الاسبوع المعماري - Architectural Week
Target: Architecture, Architects, Landscape, Construction Materials, Tourism, Resorts
Start Time:
Monday, June 22, 2009 at 5:00pm
End Time:
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 5:00pm
Location:
Jordan Contractors Association - Abdoun
Phone:
0796456115
Email:
info@sadda.jo

Lecture at Beit-Almemar: "Pedestrian Road Safety"

As part of our efforts in building the capacity of Road Safety professionals in Jordan. The Jordanian Architects Society with cooperation of The Road Safety Center of Excellence is holding a public lecture at the "Jordanian Architects Society", targeting the architects and engineers.

The lecture titled: "An Architectural Perspective on Pedestrian Road Safety "


Who: Architect Emad Amin Salameh, RSCOE GM


When: Saturday, March 21st at 6:00 PM


Where: Beit ALMemar ( Jabal Alqal3a )

Invitation is open for the public.

Conservation Standards in Architectural Practice

Jordanian Architects Society is honored to invite you this Wednesday 17/12/2008 - 5:50PM at JAS Headquarter / Jabal Al-Qala'a to an architectural gathering under the title(Conservation Standards in Architectural Practice) that will be presented by Dr. Salim Elwazani ( Professor of Architecture & Environmental Design at Bowling Green State University, Ohio State, USA) and will include some of his distinguished theoretical and practical experience in this field.

From an Out of Place societies to an Out of Place Identities

Dubai Dancing Towers model presented at the Guggenheim Museum in NY
Photo by Emad Salameh

....continued
I prefer to be realistic, and I want to keep positive. I don't see any famous global architectural firm or building technology that comes from the middle east. CCC are contractors working for Oil companies "with Headquarters in Greece". Zaha Hadid is Iraqi who worked and practice in London. Meanwhile, working for others is what we are good at for sure. On the other hand, the world pioneers comes from a minority group of %1 of the world population: Richard Meier, Frank Gehry, Daniel Lebskind, Peter Eisenman, etc... are all Jews who designed and built environments that reflects their believes and ideas.

I am not negative or criticizing I am defending our out of place architects , who end up working for other global companies or in other countries to design for other societies, whom became another kind of aliens.

In our lands we see alien buildings built by aliens "architects and developers" building the future of our societies, being out of place.

We need to answer this question: Do we have any Building Materials or Building Technology company from the middle east?

I looked into the specifications of major projects and realized that %99.9 were Foreign companies.

So, lets try to think about building our own technology and manufacture our own products instead of competing for the largest or the longest and building the Sea.

From an out of place architecture to an out of place identities.

We shall not forget that the Arts (Architecture, interior, music, painting, etc) are reflections of the societies. Our societies didn't produce those buildings and they can't compete to produce them. We just, with our money, bought these alien designs. The "under construction" projects in the Arabic world "and not only the Gulf" are out of place, and we can't say that the architects failed to compete. They are part of the equation and local companies don't have that competative advantage. Filling the gap between the academic and profession is always important but not enough. We are losing our identity in The Arts because we are rejecting our identities and adopting the western capitalistic idiologies. The architecture in the Arabic world is becoming more and more "Out of Place," and will refelct this in the furture of our societies identity. An "Out of Identity, out of Place" societies.

© AmmanVoice

No to Abdali Project Nor to Abu Ghazaleh / A different perspective

Obviously, Abdali project was planned and created without being initially part of any development plans of the city. The new GMA Interim strategy, which was inspired by the vision of our beloved wise King Abdullah last year, came later after and the GMA took that project as the key element for the development of the city.

We need a more comprehensive study for the city of Amman development taking into the considerations all the Stakeholders for the city development, and everybody should cooperate.

I can say, the municipality started doing that by building the GMA interim strategy not by only talking to the community asking for suggestions but to be transparent in the process. There will be mistakes along the way that can be prevented. However, this debate is only the beginning but we don't need more mistakes and corruption. On the other hand, the GMA strategy need to be more comprehensive and careful of addressing such problems.

But why now after all this effort of producing such a plan we still see debates and corrupted actions like that? Is this the beginning only? Will the new city development plan cause debates? or can the municipality actions continue being transparent

We need Amman to be environmentaly sustainable and green

One of the strategies being experienced in other cities when developing a modern new buildings is done by creating a new locations and new city centers. There was an opportunity to create a new city for Amman, put all these high rise buildings in one area creating a new magnet and away from the crowded center of the city. This will not only preserve the city fabric and history but will also decrease traffic congestions, .

Take for example Paris, they built a new city called La Defense and built the modern high rises there maintaining the character of the old city.

On the other hand, the new high rise building located at the 6th circle in Amman, they call it "City gate"..gate in the middle of the city!!!, now under construction, is a big mistake. The two glass towers are located at one of the highest points of Amman, imagine building at the top of that location two glass boxes that doesn't relate to the city skyline and doesn't relate to the city character.

Other cities have the same problem. In NY they are building a new "Trump" tower in Soho and the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, but the city of New York accepted to substitute the affected residents. And the law supported the Trump tower to exist.


The problem is that every time GMA found a peace of land in the city they take it and build on it a project. It happens all the time, and it continues.

They did this in "Rass Al-Ein" where it should have been kept as a Green park with no buildings. Other location I want to mention is Al-Abdali project, a major transportation hub being transformed to a high density use center. Moreover, many locations been spread everywhere. More about the debate regarding GMA and Al-Abdali can be found under the topic “No to Abdali project Nor to abu Ghazaleh / a different perspective.”

We need to see more green, and less traffic in the city. These two points besides others I mentioned earlier under the topic “Regarding the new GMA Interim strategy” are the most important concerns to be achieved when you develop a city. Clearly, they are environmental issues.

It's clear that the Strategy adopted by the GMA is not doing that. My suggestion is to minimize construction of new buildings and limit it to conservation and development of existing projects and start planting trees, and build a whole new modern city with the infrastructure that can give an example of modernization, call it the Business or Financial district. Mixed use locations fragmented all over the city is not the solution. It will bring Chaos and disorder which will at the end affect the quality of life and the economy of the city.