the Kulture Files
Tête-à-tête
Urban Canvas with el Seed interview by Naji Moujaes
/ GTA
10
De la barre à l’îlot by Naji Moujaes
Urban Doodles
Speculative Architecture
Adaptable Housing
10
AHP-1 Beirut by PAD
AHP-2 Berlin by PAD10
Critical Infographic Essay
Kuwait Mnemonics by PAD
10
Geneology of a Family Dwelling in Kuwait by PAD
Events Listing
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Vol. 07 April 2022
Vol. 07 April 22, 2022
Editor’s Note
The first issue after Covid-19, where the world will not make sense unless some sort of leadership steps up to enact a global force majeur; some sort of a marshall plan… Otherwise, Ukraine and Russia will not be able to absorb all the blame repressed within 2 years of global curfew. The world is rebooting and while some countries cut the line, others may decide to lay low or may be forced to pay a premium, if able, to skip the queue wait. The supply chain is being congested as all are anxious to catch up with the lag, thinking that it will add up with the same old measures. It won’t! The slowness resulting from Covid-19 has on the other end expedited the unmasking of some prejudices and fears, whereby the past model has lagging and, at times, irrelevant measures to new realities. While humanity may be stepped on, excluded, and censored, our cities will stand tall, in all ugliness or beauty, as testament to our decisions! With housing being the major facet of any functioning city, the underlying policies in this regard shape the latter on the long and short runs. Beirut and Kuwait fail to enable the majority of those who live in their cities to own in them, thus leading to animosity in one and cheapness in the other; carelessness at best! PAD explores the power of Architecture in setting a participatory framework for private initiatives to enable city dwellers to live in the cities they work on rather than commute and grow rather than move. A
through study is applied on prototype 1 (AHP-1) in Beirut and another application on prototype 2 (AHP2) in Berlin.Adaptable Housing; two prototypes, one in Beirut and another in Berlin. In this issue, we feature urban doodles, in 3 acts, as a way out from the vicious cycle of reproducing the tabula rasa precursor of the modern blocks, by carpet-bombing. This is the first issue where PADx (x being 10 in Latin) has opened in Paris and PAD7 was restored and resumed operations after its destruction with Beirut port explosion. With the 3 PAD’s operating in unison, across multiple cultures, we re-publish a past interview with el Seed, who was recently featured in Time Magazine and, whose calligraffiti traverses multiple cultures and identities. El Seed’s works cross cultures and media to blur the seemingly thick boundaries between east and west, and graffiti and calligraphy. Also, we re-publish two past researches PAD10 conducted on Kuwait: Kuwait mnemonics, shedding light on past architectural modern productions, notwithstanding the risk of voluntary forgetfulness, and a genealogy of the family dwelling in Kuwait over the past century. With the 3 PAD’s, we look forward to building bridges between France, Kuwait, and Beirut with and for clients and consultants alike!