At the heart of Beirut, Zakaria counters corporate cafe culture with art and heritage As larger coffee and restaurant chains take over the streets of Beirut and other Lebanese cities, smaller, local cafes are abandoning their businesses as they are faced with too much competition. Walking away from the scene is not only a coffee shop […]
It sounds like a sci-fi B movie, but the problem is real. Super-sized rats infesting Tehran are so huge that a special team of sharpshooters using night-vision-equipped rifles have been tasked with extermination. Rats have long plagued Iran, and the problem worsens when springtime arrives: melting mountain snows flood the critters’ nests, and millions are […]
Construction of the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, also known as the Kingdom Tower, has been plagued by political, economic and labour issues, with the proposed completion date of 2020 deemed unrealistic for many years now.
It sounds like a sci-fi B movie, but the problem is real: Super-sized rats infesting Tehran are so huge that a special team of sharpshooters using night-vision-equipped rifles have been tasked with extermination. Rats have long plagued Iran, and the problem worsens when springtime arrives: melting mountain snows flood the critters’ nests, and millions are flushed […]
Everything old is new again in Abu Dhabi’s Central Market “The Souk” where developers are inspired by the emirate’s not-so-distant past. Kinda crazy that the 1970’s can be viewed as olden times, but in the rapidly developing United Arab Emirates, thirty years represent radical transformation. Nestled in the base of the Emirate’s new World Trade Center […]
In the book “Racing Alone”, Nader Khalili pursues his own revolution using fire, earth, air and water. In “Racing Alone”, the late Iranian earth architect Nader Khalili who died in 2008 recounts the years leading to the realization of his dream; building a dwelling that infuses Persian culture, history, art, and ingeniousness, and a structure […]
March 23 at 8:30 PM marks Earth Hour. Will you switch off? Writing for Slate magazine, Bjorn Lomborg argues against what he believes to be the futility of Earth Hour. But Mr. Lomborg’s inability to see the value in such collective environmental efforts makes a compelling case for why we need them. As I pointed out […]
On a man-made Abu Dhabi island, fake wind towers heat homes instead of cooling them. I recently photographed a new housing development on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. You can see it on Google Earth. The wind tower design originates from Persia. The earliest examples of wind towers, used for cooling houses, in the United Arab Emirates can […]
Istanbul residents have been dreading this moment: construction has broken ground on an enormous International Financial Center designed to position the Turkish economy among the world’s top ten. Despite some green concessions, including green roofs, on-site renewable energy generation, and plenty of urban green space, locals who must contend with greater traffic congestion and other […]
With the region getting drier ‘at an alarming rate’, what is there to celebrate this World Water Day? In the lead up to World Water Day which will take place next Friday, I have gathered some interesting water-based facts on the issue. The Middle East and North Africa region is famously one of the driest […]
In 2012, Green Prophet reported from the front lines of the Solar Decathlon in Spain, but this year the event is taking place in China and students from Israel’s Shenkar College of Engineering and Design will be there. A US Department of Energy initiative, the biennial competition gives international architecture and engineering students a chance to […]
Starchitects OMA have won an international design competition to be the master planners for Doha’s new Airport City in Qatar. Occupying a 10 kilometer square space that will link the new Hamad International Airport with Doha, the mixed-use complex will be comprised of four circular districts connected by a “green spine.” Phase One of the 30 […]
Two years after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan, the Turkish government is moving ahead with nuclear power despite public opposition. Hundreds of Turkish activists formed a human chain across a bridge over Istanbul’s Golden Horn on March 10, the day before the second anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the world’s second […]
A host of private and government organizations in Qatar have teamed up to build the emirate’s first Passivhaus – one of the world’s most sustainable design certification systems with origins in Germany. Better yet, the solar array that will generate an annual 58,000 kilowatt hours of electricity to power the home will be provided by […]
At least 1833 people died when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, but – as far as we know – nobody went to prison for building houses on land that had sunk 17 feet below sea level in New Orleans. But Saudi Arabia recently sentenced nearly two dozen people to prison in connection […]