Coming from different backgrounds and perspectives, the participants will each contribute their own specific take on the subject: architects Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf will discuss the impact of the crisis on the Gulf and OMA’s engagement with the region through research, masterplans, and buildings; Ronald Wall, urban planner, will go into the economic connections between Gulf cities and the rest of the world as a measure of their competitiveness and of their relative global importance, and Hani Asfour, visiting assistant professor in Architecture and Design at the Lebanese American University, shares his insights into how knowledge as a spatial practice can affect change in the region The event will be introduced by Ole Bouman, director of the NAI and contributor to Al Manakh: Gulf Continued, and moderated by Arjen Oosterman en Lilet Breddels, editors of Volume magazine and of co-editors of Al Manakh, and Al Manakh: Gulf Continued.
Al Manakh: Gulf Continued
Al Manakh: Gulf Continued is presented as an essential and comprehensive guide to the cities of the Gulf, penetrating media clichés and delving deep into the new challenges facing the region in the wake of the financial crisis.
While the premier Al Manakh was the first book to assemble an urban history of the Gulf, Al Manakh: Gulf Continued explores the linkages among cities, and most importantly, their adaptation to a post-crisis scenario. Al Manakh: Gulf Continued delves into the new challenges of the Gulf by profiling six cities in five countries (UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia). It builds an inside-out perspective with local authors reflecting on their own experience and expectations. Guiding voices include editors Rem Koolhaas and Todd Reisz (OMA), Lilet Breddels and Arjen Oosterman (Archis/Volume), Daniel Camara and Mitra Khoubrou (Pink Tank) and Ole Bouman (Netherlands Architecture Institute).
The impact of the international financial crisis on the Gulf has changed our perspective of the region. However, the real dynamics are much more complex than generally perceived. In documenting important transformations in the Gulf, Al Manakh: Gulf Continued develops a new, more researched and nuanced viewpoint on the continued growth of the Gulf region.
By inviting over 140 contributors and interviewing personalities living in the Gulf, Al Manakh uncovers the structures and networks that lay beneath the stories and events of 2009. The book is not a summary of a year of crisis but an attempt to define what these transformations mean for the future of the Gulf and how to learn from them. Due to a series of visualizations, data and maps, Gulf Continued also sheds light on the region’s resilience and how it compares to other parts of the world.
Al Manakh explores Gulf cities in four themes:
Crisis and Crises analyzes the events and responses of the Gulf to the economic crisis. Vision reveals the extent of the infrastructural plans, including connectivity, infrastructure, energy and water are observed. Within the Cohabitation chapter, Al Manakh examines the integration of culture in cities and the dynamics of urban living. Finally, Export Gulf illustrates that export is not only about products and models but also about the effects and new forms of influence.
About the participants:
Hani Asfour is a founding partner of Polypod, an award-winning design collaborative based in Beirut. He is also a visiting assistant professor in architecture and design at the Lebanese American University. In 2007-08, as Director of Knowledge at The Edge, a high-end development and services company based in DIFC, Dubai, Asfour helped establish a think tank to study the impact of the knowledge economy on the future of spatial practices with a special focus on Dubai and the Gulf Region. Asfour received his masters in architecture from Harvard University with distinction and his Bachelors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Reinier de Graaf is Partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), he joined in 1996 as project director for ‘De Rotterdam’. In 2002 he became a director for AMO, the think tank of OMA and was responsible for the production of ‘The Image of Europe’, an exhibition that provides a history of European political representation. As Partner of OMA he is working on the Commonwealth Institute redevelopment and masterplan for the White City area, both in London; a harbour redevelopment in Riga including a contemporary art museum. Recently he has taken responsibility for OMA's growing engagement in the Middle East and leads several master plan projects in Dubai, including Waterfront City, Kuwait, and Ras-Al-Khaimah, and buildings in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
Rem Koolhaas founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. He graduated at the Architectural Association in London and in 1978 published Delirious New York, a Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA and established connections between contemporary society and architecture. He heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the conceptual branch of OMA focused on social, economical and technological developments and exploring territories beyond architectural and urban concerns. Rem Koolhaas is a professor at Harvard University where he conducts the Project on the City.
Arjen Oosterman is currently editor-in-chief of Volume magazine, an independent quarterly that sets the agenda for design. He was trained as an architectural historian at the University of Utrecht. As an educator he has taught architectural history and thesis writing at architecture schools in The Netherlands. As researcher and writer he published in an array of Dutch and international magazines. He wrote and edited several books on contemporary Dutch architects and architecture. Most recently he curated (with Anneke Abhelakh) an exhibition on the Dutch architect Jos. Bedaux, and co-organized the Architecture of Peace conference in Rotterdam.
Lilet Breddels is interested in art and architectural practices in their societal context. She is director of the Archis Foundation and one of the editors of Al Manakh and Volume magazine.
Ronald Wall is an urban planner, and holds a doctorate in economic geography. He has worked for Erasmus University, OMA, West 8, MVRDV and the Rijksplanbureau. Between 2001 and 2009, he has been professor in urban planning at the Berlage Institute and the Academies of Architecture and Urban Planning Rotterdam and Amsterdam.