Prospects for Research in Architecture and Urbanism. Ashraf M. Salama, 2019 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 2017
This article commemorates a decade of discourse and published research on architecture and urbanism in ArchNet-IJAR (March 2007-March 2017). While the journal does not publish regular editorials associating each issue, it is believed that offering key highlights of growth since the inception of the journal is now due. The article presents the current position of ArchNet-IJAR within the international provision of journals in architecture and urban studies in key databases and index-bases. This is substantiated by key statistics of submissions, published contributions, and acceptance rates during the past 10 years. Coupled with analytical discussion on the global reach of the ArchNet-IJAR, the article identifies 11 research fields, which were covered in 10 volumes since the journal's inception. Analytical discussions of recent two theme issues as well as latest developments and contributions during the past few years are presented to reflect on the rigor and quality of the journal while depicting its thrust and interest. The article concludes by key aspects relevant to the future aspirations of ArchNet-IJAR while highlighting initiatives and prospective endeavours.
Excellence in Architectural and Urban Research, Ashraf M. Salama, 2008
Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 2008
Salama, A. M. (2008). Excellence in Architectural and Urban Research. Archnet-IJAR-International Journal of Architectural Research, Volume 2, Issue 1, PP. 7-15. ISSN # 1938 7806. __________________________ This issue marks the beginning of a new year for Archnet-IJAR. A considerable effort has been put to position the journal among other distinguished journals in the field. After a year, the three issues included in the first volume accommodated 23 research paper and 14 reviews and trigger articles. While research papers are refereed by the independent panel of reviewers who are well versed in their areas of specialization and expertise, the reviews and trigger articles are reviewed by the editor based on relevance and the targeted reader. As a result of this effort and the rigorous review process, Archnet-IJAR is now standing among the leading periodicals in architecture, planning, and built environment studies. This is reflected in the recognition the journal has received over the past year. What was a pleasing news piece I received this year is a message responding to my request of including Archnet-IJAR in the Avery Index of Architectural Periodical at Columbia University, United States. After conducting the necessary reviews Mr. Ted Goodman, the general editor of Avery Index mentioned: I am happy to say that we will add your journal to the Avery Index. It fits in perfectly with our strategic goals of increasing global coverage and indexing online journals.” Starting from January 2008, Archnet-IJAR became part of the Avery Index of Architectural Periodicals, and is aspiring to be part of other indexing..... ……I now return to where I began; the efforts undertaken to establish Archnet-IJAR over the past year resulted in attracting both a large body of readers while distinguished professors and scholars started to contribute their work. In this issue, a considerable number of giants in the fields of architecture and human environment interaction offer their thoughts and words of wisdom out of decades of experience in teaching and research. There are great contributions from authorities such as Amos Rapoport; Henry Sanoff; Jack Nasar; Nikos A. Salingaros and Kenneth G. Masden II; Roderick Lawrence; Wolfgang Preiser; and Xinhao Wang. High quality contributions from younger committed scholars include those of Ceridwen Owen; Ashraf M. Salama; Yasser Mahgoub; Magda Moustafa; and M. Salim Ferwati and M. Alaa Mandour. Metaphorically, one can argue that in this edition of Archnet-IJAR different generations meet to reflect on their experience, interests, and concerns. Amos Rapoport offers some further notes on culture-environment relations based on four decades of exploring and synthesizing ideas from different fields toward a more responsive interpretation of culture as it relates to the everyday physical environment. Referring to his latest book: Culture, Architecture, and Design (2005) as his “last word” on the subject, Rapoport relates some of the concepts…… ________________________ Please see more by downloading the full article.
International Journal of Architectural Research: ArchNet-IJAR, 2017
This article commemorates a decade of discourse and published research on architecture and urbanism in ArchNet-IJAR (March 2007-March 2017). While the journal does not publish regular editorials associating each issue, it is believed that offering key highlights of growth since the inception of the journal is now due. The article presents the current position of ArchNet-IJAR within the international provision of journals in architecture and urban studies in key databases and index-bases. This is substantiated by key statistics of submissions, published contributions, and acceptance rates during the past 10 years. Coupled with analytical discussion on the global reach of the ArchNet-IJAR, the article identifies 11 research fields, which were covered in 10 volumes since the journal's inception. Analytical discussions of recent two theme issues as well as latest developments and contributions during the past few years are presented to reflect on the rigor and quality of the journal while depicting its thrust and interest. The article concludes by key aspects relevant to the future aspirations of ArchNet-IJAR while highlighting initiatives and prospective endeavours.
Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 2015
Salama, A. M. (2015). Advancing the Debate on Architecture, Planning, and Built Environment Research. Archnet-IJAR-International Journal of Architectural Research, Volume 9, Issue 2, PP. iv-viii. ISSN # 1938 7806. _________________________________ With an acceptance rate that does not exceed 25% of the total papers and articles submitted to the journal, IJAR – International Journal of Architectural Research is moving forward to position itself among the leading journals in architecture and urban studies worldwide. As this is the case since the beginning of volume 5, issue 1, March 2011, one must note that the journal has been covered by several data and index bases since its inception including Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, EBSCO-Current Abstracts-Art and Architecture, INTUTE, Directory of Open Access Journals, Pro-Quest, Scopus-Elsevier and many university library databases across the globe. This is coupled with IJAR being an integral part of the archives and a featured collection of ArchNet and the Aga Khan Documentation Centre at MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. In 2014, IJAR was included in Quartile 2 / Q2 list of Journals both in ‘Architecture’ and ‘Urban Studies.’ As of May 2015, IJAR is ranked 23 out of 83 journals in ‘Architecture’ and 59 out of 119 in ‘Urban Studies.’ Rankings are based on the SJR (SCImago Journal Ranking); an Elsevier- SCOPUS indicator that measures the scientific influence of the average article in a journal. SJR is a measure of scientific influence of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where such citations come from. See here for more information (http://www.scimagojr.com/index.php) and (http://www.journalmetrics.com/sjr.php). While the journal is now on top of many of the distinguished journals in Elsevier- SCOPUS database, we will keep aspiring to sustain our position and move forward to Q1 group list and eventually in the top 10 journal list in the field. However, this requires sustained efforts and conscious endeavours that give attention to quality submissions through a rigorous review process. This edition of IJAR: volume 9, issue 2, July 2015 includes debates on a wide spectrum of issues, explorations and investigations in various settings. The issue encompasses sixteen papers addressing cities, settlements, and projects in Europe, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Papers involve international collaborations evidenced by joint contributions and come from scholars in universities, academic institutions, and practices in Belgium; Egypt; Greece; Italy; Jordan; Malaysia; Palestine; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Serbia; Spain; Turkey; and the United Kingdom. In this editorial I briefly outline the key issues presented in these papers, which include topics relevant to social housing, multigenerational dwelling, practice-based research, sustainable design and biomimetic models, learning environments and learning styles, realism and the post modern condition, development and planning, urban identity, contemporary landscapes, and cultural values and traditions. _____________________ Please see more by downloading the full article.
2019
We are pleased to invite you to the seminar series “From Cities and Multiculturalism to Research and Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism” of Prof. Ashraf M. Salama (PhD, FRSA, FHEA, AoU, A-RIBA), Professor of Architecture and Head of the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom. The seminar series forms a part of the collaboration project KA107, ERASMUS+ Research Mobility: University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and University of Belgrade, Serbia. Seminar 1: Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf: Paradoxes and Realities Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf offers a comprehensive analysis carried out to reveal the various complex layers of contemporary urbanism in the world’s biggest urban growth scenario rooted in foreign migration. Within real estate markets housing has become the top commodity and thus a main factor of economic growth in all Gulf cities. The direct interdependency of economic growth and housing has led to the paradox of increasing land prices and the resulting lack of affordable housing and growing challenges for future growth built on continuously exchanging migrant societies. Today, Gulf cities are expressions of controversies: vacant mega projects and crowded high-density agglomerations; themed spectacles and monotonous built environments; continuous urban sprawl and intense high-rise conglomerates and rapid internationalization and traditional conservatism. All these internal factors and external influences represent tensions that have led to highly fragile entities. These identify housing development as the most crucial element keeping Gulf cities alive or eventually leading to exacerbating these tensions if not comprehensively considered from an integrated perspective of sustainable urbanism. The seminar is based on the recent book: Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf: Urban Transformations in the Middle East, by Florian Wiedmann & Ashraf M. Salama, published by I.B.Tauris/Bloomsbury 2019, London. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/building-migrant-cities-in-the-gulf-9781788310680/ Seminar 2: Research Paradigms in Architecture and Urbanism The purpose of this seminar is to contribute an inclusive insight into methodological research in architecture and allied disciplines and unravel aspects that include philosophical positions, frames of reference and spheres of inquiry. Following ontological and epistemological interpretations, the adopted methodology involves conceptual and critical analysis which is based on reviewing and categorising classical literature and more than hundred contributions in architectural and design research developed over the past five decades which were classified under the perspectives of inquiry and frames of reference. Postulated through three philosophical positions – positivism, anti-positivism and emancipationist – six frames of reference were identified: systematic, computational, managerial, psychological, person–environment type-A and person–environment type-B. Technically oriented research and conceptually driven research were categorised as the perspectives of inquiry and were scrutinised together with their developmental aspects. By mapping the philosophical positions to the frames of reference, various characteristics and spheres of inquiry within each frame of reference were revealed. Further detailed examples can be developed to offer discerning elucidations relevant to each frame of reference. The content of the presentation is viewed as an enabling mechanism for researchers to identify the unique particularities of their research and the way in which it is pursued. The seminar is based on the recent article Methodological research in architecture and allied disciplines: Philosophical positions, frames of reference, and spheres of inquiry, by Ashraf M. Salama, Archnet-IJAR 2019, International Journal of Architectural Research, Emerald. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ARCH-01-2019-0012/full/html Seminar 3: Design Studio Teaching Practices Design education in architecture and allied disciplines is the cornerstone of design professions that contribute to shaping the built environment of the future. In this seminar, design education is dealt with as a paradigm whose evolutionary processes, underpinning theories, contents, methods, tools, are questioned and critically examined. The seminar features a comprehensive discussion on design education with a focus on the design studio as the backbone of that education and the main forum for creative exploration and interaction, and for knowledge acquisition, assimilation, and reproduction. Through international and regional surveys, the striking qualities of design pedagogy, contemporary professional challenges and the associated sociocultural and environmental needs are identified. Building on twenty-five years of research and explorations into design pedagogy in architecture and urban design, this seminar authoritatively offers a critical analysis of a continuously evolving profession, its associated societal processes and the way in which design education reacts to their demands. Matters that pertain to traditional pedagogy, its characteristics and the reactions developed against it in the form of pioneering alternative studio teaching practices. Advances in design approaches and methods are debated including critical inquiry, empirical making, process-based learning, and Community Design, Design-Build, and Live Project Studios. Lessons learned from techniques and mechanisms for accommodation, adaptation, and implementation of a ‘trans-critical’ pedagogy in education are conceived to invigorate a new student-centered, evidence-based design culture sheltered in a wide variety of learning settings in architecture and beyond. This seminar is based on Professor Salama’s recent book: Spatial Design Education: New Directions for Pedagogy in Architecture and Beyond, by Routledge, London in 2015. https://www.routledge.com/Spatial-Design-Education-New-Directions-for-Pedagogy-in-Architecture-and/Salama/p/book/9781472422873
Plurality and Diversity in Architectural and Urban Research, Ashraf M. Salama, 2017
Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 2017
Demonstrating the essence of the journal as a truly international platform that covers issues of interest and concern to the global academic and professional community, this issue of Archnet-IJAR, volume 11, issue # 2, July 2017 includes various topics that manifest plurality and diversity as inherent qualities of architectural and urban research published in the journal. Topics include architectural education and design studio teaching, urban and rural slums, heritage and historic environments in various contexts, participatory planning and the charrette process, assessment of public spaces and plazas, and human perception of the built environment. These topics are debated and analytically discussed within cities, settlements, and urban environments in Bahrain, Bangladesh, California-USA, Libya, Scotland, and Spain. The issue also includes three papers selected from the Fifth Architectural Jordanian International Conference – 1-3 November 2016, which uniquely speak to the context of Jordan and the wider Middle East. The edition ends with a book review that highlights emerging issues related to border landscapes and social ecologies.
ArchNet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, Volume 12, Issue 1, March 2018, 2018
Salama, A. M. (2018). From architectural theory to urban studies and from spatial analysis explorations to built environment education. ArchNet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 12(1), 4-10. DOI: 10.26687/archnet-ijar.v12i1.1575 __________ Archnet-IJAR, volume 12, issue # 1, March 2018 reveals the multitude and multiplicity of architectural and urban research, which I have discussed in an earlier editorial. The journal remains committed to cover issues of interest and concern to the global academic and professional community. This issue is intensive in terms of quality and quantity and encompasses a wide spectrum of topics that range from architectural theory and history, to urban studies, and from spatial analysis and application of technical systems in building design and components, to education for sustainable development, and architectural and planning education. The edition includes a section that is exclusively dedicated to selected papers from the Education and Training Forum of PLEA International Conference – Design to Thrive, Edinburgh – July 2017. By and large, the contributions presented here cover many parts of both the global north and the global south, raise questions, introduce proposals, and offer lessons important to their contexts as well as to the wider community of architectural and urban researchers.
Architecture Beyond Construction
Neo-liberalism and the Architecture of the Post Professional Era
The last decade of urban space-making practices in Turkey has been dominated by a construction frenzy caused by the neoliberal alignment of capitalist market forces and urban governments. Not unlike the current global architectural scene, the effect of this situation toward professional architectural practice in Turkey is twofold: On the one hand, architecture and design in general are becoming booming professions as creative forces of the construction industry that forms the core of the national economy. The job opportunities and commissions for practicing architects are proliferating, and the clientele profile has been expanding with national-international investors as well as the central and local governments promoting large-scale urban development projects. On the other hand, the architectural practice is so immensely dominated by the neoliberal policies focused on "building as a means for economic growth" that there is virtually no room for a professional discourse encompassing disciplinary ethics charged with social agenda, informed by spatial intelligence, formulated with public participation, aiming for the greater good. This paper aims to discuss the current state of the architectural profession and the practicing architect as a spatial intellectual in the globalized world, focusing mainly on the İstanbul experience and reflecting on the possibility of an architectural practice beyond the constraints of the construction industry. In the course of the paper, firstly a brief account on the condition of normative/conventional urban space-making practices at the age of neoliberal urban politics is given through the example of İstanbul. Then, a reflection upon the capabilities and capacities of the architectural profession in terms of producing alternative spatial practices is delved upon. Lastly, concluding remarks underlining the necessity for an architectural practice beyond construction are introduced.
Shores of the Mediterranean: Architecture as Language of Peace, 2005
Salama, A. M. (2005). Architectural Identity in the Middle East: Hidden Assumptions and Philosophical Perspectives. In D. Mazzoleni et al (eds.), Shores of the Mediterranean: Architecture as Language of Peace. Intra Moenia, Napoli, Italy. PP. 77-85. ISBN# 88-7421-054X. The built environment conveys and transmits non-verbal messages that reflect inner life, activities, and social conceptions of those who live and use that environment in association with the actions and values of society. Societies however tend to re-evaluate the meaning and desirability of built environments rather rapidly. What was visually acceptable some years ago becomes now unacceptable and what was considered eyesore while ago has become valued and acquired meaning overtime. Identity goes beyond the visual appearance of the built environment and involves meanings of those built environments to the people who created them and to the people who occupied them. The search for an architectural identity seems to be a preoccupation with countries that have cultural richness and multi-layers of history. Intellectuals, architects, and designers in those countries find themselves dealing with a paradox needing to project a certain image of themselves through their built environment. In the Middle East, identity has been an issue in debate for over three decades, more so because of this region’s cultural uniqueness and plurality. However, it is this cultural uniqueness that has made it a tough quest and has – in many cases – culminated into sacred symbolism that is painful to behold or comprehend. The questions I am raising here are philosophical in nature, and have been raised by many before with no clear answer. However, such questions are rephrased in a manner derived from recent practices of architecture in the last decade. Is it necessary to refer or resort to cultural or religious symbolism in architecture to reflect a Middle Eastern or Arabian identity? Or should architecture embody the collective aspirations of Middle Easterners or Arabs? On the other hand, there are many who have questioned the need to define an architectural identity at all, claiming that it merely displays a lack of “self-confidence” as a region or as a group of nations? Reviewing the recent practices and searching the recent identity debates reveal that we still seem to be at odds with the issue after several decades of independence. In response to this confusion, I believe it is critical to examine the subject in philosophical terms and elucidate some hidden concepts. The discussion of the issue of identity in general and in the Middle East in particular would be irrelevant if concepts such as imageability, legibility, critical regionalism, and environmental meaning are not debated and somehow theorized. This paper aims at raising questions of some hidden assumptions and philosophical perspectives relating to these concepts. Critical issues that pertain to identity crises in the Middle East are debated. A classification procedure of architectural trends in Egypt is conducted to establish the link between philosophical perspectives and actual practices.
2018
Salama, A. (2018). Recent Discourse and the Promise for Global Networks in Architecture and Urbanism. International Journal of Architectural Research: ArchNet-IJAR, 12(3), 02-10. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.26687/archnet-ijar.v12i3.1833 __________________________________________________ Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research has recently published an outline article that commemorated a decade of discourse and published research on architecture and urbanism since its inaugural issue of March 2007 and up to March 2017. The article offered a comprehensive coverage of the distinguished status of the journal being one of the top high quality journals. The purpose of the present article is provide reflections on some of what the journal has published since March 2017 and presents thoughts on latest developments including collaborations with academic and professional organizations and the move to Emerald; one of the prestigious global publishers in various areas and disciplines including relevant fields in built environment, place making, and urban planning and design. This will enable deepening and broadening existing relationships with various international research organizations and ensure that Archnet-IJAR remains a key channel for those organizations while meeting its promise for global coverage and presence.