About This project investigates the largely undocumented role of Emirati women in shaping urban modernity between 1960 and 1990, a period of rapid urban transformation in the UAE. Focusing on everyday spaces such as souqs, clinics, schools, and municipal buildings, it examines how women navigated, influenced, and co-produced the built environment, shaping cultural norms and […]
About This project documents the cultural and urban heritage of Karama, one of Dubai’s earliest planned residential neighbourhoods, through oral histories and ethnographic research. Developed in the 1970s, Karama has evolved from a mid‑rise residential district into a vibrant mixed‑use area, shaped by migration, informal adaptation, and community life. Rapid redevelopment pressures now threaten its […]
About This research investigates the overlooked legacy of Rifat Chadirji, one of the Middle East’s most influential modern architects, whose work bridged tradition and modernity across Iraq and the Gulf. While best known for his projects in Baghdad, newly uncovered archives at the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT reveal over forty of his designs […]
About This project explores the architectural legacy of precast concrete in the United Arab Emirates, focusing on its pivotal role during the nation-building decades of the 1970s–2000s. While UAE architecture is often framed between vernacular heritage and futuristic skylines, this study highlights the overlooked middle period defined by rapid development and pragmatic construction. Precast concrete […]
Nahed Chakouf About This project explores the architectural legacy of precast concrete in the United Arab Emirates, focusing on its pivotal role during the nation-building decades of the 1970s–2000s. While UAE architecture is often framed between vernacular heritage and futuristic skylines, this study highlights the overlooked middle period defined by rapid development and pragmatic construction. […]
Urban Threads: A Wearable Archive of UAE Heritage explores how photography and clothing can activate the memory of Dubai’s mid-20th-century architecture. Focusing on Al Karama, Deira, and Satwa—neighbourhoods central to the city’s urban identity—the project draws from Charlie Koolhaas’s photographic archive (2005–2025) and new documentation of façades shaped by Gulf modernism and early postmodernism. Architectural […]
Noor Nidal About This project investigates the architectural and cultural exchange between Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates through the lens of school design from the 1950s to the 1990s. During this formative period, Kuwait played a leading regional role in educational development, exporting architectural expertise, planning models, and financial support to the UAE’s emerging […]
Rand Tayfour Zakia AlAmry About Registers of the Unseen is a research proposal exploring the fading layers of Abu Dhabi’s urban memory along a single street. Beyond iconic landmarks, the street holds intimate histories — in mid‑rise façades, neighbourhood parks, and storefronts — that have been overwritten by redevelopment. These spaces were once shaped by […]
About This project focuses on identifying, documenting, and conserving a significant industrial heritage site in Dubai through an adaptive reuse approach. Amid rapid urban transformation, Dubai’s industrial landmarks are at risk, despite their vital role in the city’s modernization. This study selects one representative site within Al Quoz, Jebel Ali, or Deira—as a case study […]
Salma Gharbi Emna Touiti About This book examines the architectural exchange between Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates during the second half of the 20th century, focusing on projects by the Bulgarian firms Technoexportstroy and Bulgarproekt. Emerging during a global wave of post-independence modernization, these collaborations reveal how architecture became a medium for political identity, […]
