عربي
 
 
 
 

 

 Dr  Mohammad Gharipour 

Founder and Director, International Journal of Islamic Architecture Post-doctorate Researcher, Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard Center on Garden and Landscape Studies)  

Title of presentation :History, Memory, and Identity:  Middle Eastern Architecture in the Age of Globalization
 

Global architecture has gone through major changes and developments in the last forty years.  Various factors, such as digitization of the design process, involvement of international architects, and increasing investments in construction projects have made the progression of architecture more intricate and multilayered.  Recent sociopolitical and cultural movements in the Middle East have also moved this region into an age of complexity and contradiction, a situation predicted by the late modernists.  As a result, contemporary architecture is no longer a monotonous, universal, or homogenous phenomenon.  Although some critics announced the end of Postmodernism in the 1990s, it still seems a relevant consideration in the Middle East today.  In this age of pluralism and global capitalism, Middle Eastern architecture has become a tremendously diverse entity which cannot, by any means, be generalized.  While architects in this region do not seem to be motivated by universal labels anymore, and the question of style as a set of predetermined icons and features feels outdated, the retention of identity does remain a major concern.  

 Since the 1970s local and international architects have experimented, and examined different trends.  Forty years is enough.  The current chaos of stylistic pluralism says less about c ultura l d iv ers it y in  th is  r egi on th an abo ut arc h itec ts ‟ e goc entr ic  approach or social and economic complications.  Such confusion in the construction industry affirms the absence of a systematic theoretical critic of architecture and its potential impact on culture and society.  Today, those critics and the public still share the same concern:  How can history be addressed in architectural design?  T her e hav e be en num erous  attem pts  to r eint erpr et “ tr adit io n” in  ne w projects.  I see four distinct approaches in using history:  1) the use of history as nostalgia or as a Postmodern dreamland; 2) celebration of individual and collective memory; 3) reinvention of regional, local, or authentic elements and concepts in design; and 4) full denial of history in favor of achieving a universal language.  This study examines recent approaches to the application and use of history in architectural design in the Middle East.  By considering crosscultural cases, this paper aims to categorize and analyze contemporary trends in the use of historical references in urban and architectural projects.