Mr Nader Ardalan

President, Ardalan Associates, Consultants in Architecture Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

Title of presentation : The Sustainable Identity Quest Placemaking, Society, Nature and Spirituality

During the past few years a number of international academic and professional conferences have been held dedicated to the subject area of Cultural Identity. Some have erroneously proposed that within the concept of  “ Globalization”, cultural ident it y c an b e s tripped of associations with local heritage or regional identities. This paper holds that the relationship between society and its environmental context

(it 's  Genius Loci) and its historic civilizational context far exceed the unsustainable uniformity that neoliberal multinationalism can offer. With respect to this lecture, the context of geographic reference shall be the GCC countries of the Gulf region and their phenomenal and cultural identity challenges.  Theme Development Today, the urgency of this research subject has been greatly heightened by the apparent conjunction of three, potentially cataclysmic forces: global climate change; the loss of indigenous Islamic identity due to hyper-development projects ; a n d the  “ silver linin g” potential of  the world  economic  meltdownth at has  causeda hiatus in development. This talk will outline a conceptual and general design framework within which these diverse subjects might be holistically placed and common ground criteria established for their wholesome integration and resolution.   Concluding Remarks

To truly achieve sustainable growth that has an authentic identity, we need to begin with a cosmic, systemic awareness of the context of human existence on both materially measurable and immeasurable levels. The lecture will conclude with selected examples of designs in the region that have been motivated to respond to such sustainable identity quests.