An architect in Beirut illustrates how a small splash of color can completely transform a concrete environment. But trust us, that is just the beginning of this city’s problems. I judge a country by its public transportation, and Sandra Rashini, an architect who held a magnifying glass over Lebanon’s colossal urban problem for Mashallah, will tell […]
A 1770 hectare site between Abu Dhabi and Dubai is set to get a green makeover. After long consultations between residents, prominent community members, and the Abu Dhabi municipality, the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) has unveiled the Shahama and Bahia Revitilization Master Plan. A 1770 hectare site between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which […]
Two city extensions East and West of Cairo are each expected to accommodate 2.5 million people within the next 10 years. Cairo feels and looks like an apocalypse zone. When I last traveled through the city, small children huddled in dirty doorways, a bloody-faced man groveled on the ground looking for money, and trash piled […]
200 Beirut residents reminded others that cities can (and should) be green. Fed up with the absence of greenery in Beirut, 200 residents of the city gathered this past Saturday in a decidedly concrete Sassine Square to collectively say that they wanted to “Green the Grey”. Beirut has definitely been taking steps towards being “green” […]
The proposed canal has been slammed by Turkish environmentalists. But authorities at Turkey’s center for hydrogen energy technology see a silver lining: the canal could enable Turkey to become one of the world’s most important producers of hydrogen energy. When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his self-termed “crazy project” last month – a […]
Tel Aviv’s architecture weekend takes note of green spaces and green issues. For the past decade or so, Tel Aviv has been undergoing a type of ‘renaissance’ and as a result it is considered one of the hippest tourism destinations in the Middle East. Alongside its architectural facelift and infusion of stylishness, though, the city […]
We speak to Bashar Masri, the man behind Rawabi, which means “The Hills”, Palestine’s first planned and green city. Since announcing plans to build Palestine’s first planned and green city back in 2008, the Rawabi project has faced its fair share of criticism. From political complications over using Jewish National Fund trees, concerns by environmentalists […]
Founding director of Property Development at the Masdar Initiative, Khaled Awad claims that fuel and water subsidies preclude meaningful sustainable development. Green building won’t be viable until the United Arab Emirates end water and fuel subsidies, according to Khaled Awad. The founding director of Property Development at the Masdar Initiative and co-founder of Grenea, a […]
Turkey’s prime minister has announced a plan to build a second waterway through Istanbul, just west of the existing Bosphorus Strait. As Turkey’s June parliamentary elections draw nearer, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has unveiled what he calls “the biggest project of the century”: a canal from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea. […]
Climatology models applied to urban planning could yield greener cities. If you have ever walked down the street in a city full of high rises and felt a sudden blast of cold air, or witnessed a swirling mass of dried leaves, chances are you experienced an artificial microclimate created by the surrounding buildings. It turns […]
Middle East city planners take note: These seven steps to creating more efficient cities could literally save the world. Cities account for 80% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), 30% of which are generated in Canada and the United States. Both countries have massive sprawling cities, where the super-highway model reigns supreme. But […]
A leading Muslim group denies the Cairo municipality’s request to relocate graves in the crowded city. Following the success of Al-Azhar park in Cairo, also known as the city’s lungs, the municipality looked to cemeteries as possible venues to develop more community parks in Egypt’s crowded capital. But Dar Al-Ifta, the research institute tasked with […]
“The city is not the problem, but the solution,” says architect Jaime Lerner. Throughout history, philosophers have been dreaming about the utopian city. The current age is faced with environmental challenges, and so many of today’s thinkers are dreaming of the sustainable utopian city. Mayors, visionaries, academics, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers and architects will all gather […]
Representatives from Jerusalem and Chicago will sign a “green” MOU next month in the windy city. We need mammoth human collaboration in order to surmount our global environmental problems. And let’s face it, we have a few of those: coral reefs potentially a thing of the past by 2050, oil set to peak just as […]
Palestine’s green city attracts new criticism after developers admit they will be replacing 3,000 JNF trees with indigenous olive trees Rawabi, Palestine’s first planned and green city was bound be a project full of stumbling blocks. An ambitious plan to help revive the fortunes of the West Bank, it not only had to prove its […]