Critical Encounters: Thinking Through Architecture in the Arab World

Celebrating the launch of ‘Critical Encounters: Nasser Rabbat,’ the second volume of the Dongola Architecture Series published out of Beirut, please join us for a conversation about the importance of homegrown architecture publishing with Sarah Chalabi, co-founder of Dongola publishing house and Raafat Majzoub, editor-in-chief of the series. 

Dongola Architecture Series (DAS) is a platform to publish multi-layered readings of conversations with Arab architects and architectural thinkers working across the region’s contemporary landscapes. Dongola’s inquiry of architecture is rooted in the discipline’s lack of discipline, in the way it generatively leaks into other fields as a true intersection of thought and practice. Architecture allows us to speak to the nature of our times, and in this case, the pertinence of our contemporary cultural production in expanding our world beyond current pessimism about the future.

The Dongola team will be joined by Prof. Rabbat. The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Azra Aksamija.  The team members will share their process behind the first three volumes of the series (the first on Ammar Khammash, the second on Nasser Rabbat, and the planned third on Bernard Khoury).   They will share their vision for its growth and impact on knowledge production and architecture education for the Arab region. Prof. Rabbat will expand on the issue of the production of architectural knowledge, especially outside the West, historically and today.