Qatar Foundation HQ, Education City, Doha...

Some photos from a recent visit to the OMA designed Qatar Foundation Headquarters in Education City, Doha...

Practical Sheet and Metal Work by Evan A. Atkins...

Whilst meandering around the web, I came across this, to me, quite intriguing book titled Practical Sheet and Plate Metal Work by Evan A. Atkins, published in 1908 by Sir. Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd.

The images along are truly inspiring and, when combined with their suggestive utilitarian qualities, can easily lend themselves to an abundance of designs...

Food for thought (& action)...

You can access the related website by clicking here...

The Extraordinary Ordinary - Our Living Room Bookcase...

"Your Library is your Portrait"... Holbrook Jackson...

Small Bizarres No. 94 - Drinking Clay water, Cambiano, Italy

Recently, during a 'brick-making' workshop at the Carena Fornace in Cambiano, Italy, we had a chance to try/ drink some 'clay-water' made of clay found in the local (adjacent) quarry...

The flavor was something aching to - textured water... The claim is it's good for ones digestion... 

Good (interesting) times...

The Extraordinary Ordinary - Field Trip Fun, Italy...

A MFA Student relaxing on the way back from a workshop...

Interdisciplinary Design Symposium, May 17 - 18, 2014, Doha…

The MFA in Design Department here at VCUQatar will be hosting a two day symposium exploring and debating the research and practice based paradigms of interdisciplinary design… 

An international cohort of presenters will be exploring this challenging topic both at the Msheireb Center on May 17, and at the HBKU Student Center in Education City on May 18… 

The schedule for the event's two days is included below (please click on the images to enlarge them). We've also included an invite for the event beneath the schedule pages… 

If you wish to join us please RSVP our Administrative Assistant Rebecca Davis at: erebecca@vcu.edu 

Good times… 

Small Bizarres No. 83 - Conference Cat, Istanbul...

Currently attending a conference in Istanbul, which had a somewhat unexpected attendee joining us in the auditorium… 

Architects Independent Website is Live...

Our new website, Architects Independent, is in the ether... You can inspect the results by clicking here... 

Our London based sister company, Independent Architects, can be accessed by clicking here... 

Small Bizarres No. 69 - The Jockstrap Manifesto, Doha...

In the top-floor men's bathroom here at VCU in Qatar a somewhat peculiar manifestation has appeared onto the bathroom mirror, a manifesto, called the Jockstrap Manifesto, arguing for a more pronounced role for members of the less fairer sex within regional art & design schools... 

The project is (assumedly) a part of an assignment titled Daily Provocations given by our current visiting Critic in Residence Alice Twemlow. 

More about the assignment can viewed here... 

The Tasmeem Doha Event Begins in Three Weeks...

The biannual Tasmeem Doha Conference begins in three weeks time. It's the biggest Design Conference of the MENA/ GCC region that, this year, not only includes a two day talking-heads component, but also five days of Student Labs, done in collaboration with the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; a set of Academic Research Workshops, a number of exhibitions by both regional and international artists, designers and architects, and a film festival. The keynote speaker is Rem Koolhaas... 

There's still much to do during the next few weeks (I'm co-chairing the event) but I think it's going to be a very exciting and interesting eight days... 

Shared Glass Exhibition at the Katara Cultural Village in Doha...

'Path' by Sameh Ibrahim (Image sourced from Designboom)

An Image from the ongoing exhibition titled 'Shared Glass' taking place at Building 5 at the Katara Cultural Village here in Doha... 

Read more about the event and work on the smArchitecture blog... 

Tasmeem Teaser...

Greetings From Doha from Simone Muscolino on Vimeo.

A brilliant teaser prepared by Simone Muscolino, Michael Hersrud and a number of other individuals affiliated with VCUQ, for the recently held (this April) Tasmeem - Synapse: Designer as Link conference, which shows the everyday good, and some of the somewhat frustrating (traffic etc.), aspects of the city of Doha and Qatar...

MFA.DESIGN. Open Day at VCUQ...

We're having an Open Day here at VCUQ next Wednesday, February 16, starting at 6 PM...

Our program is in many ways quite unique, as not only is it the only accredited Masters degree in design of the Gulf region, it is also structured to push boundaries in regards to what the practice of 'design' entails in the region as well as establishing a program that introduces something unique on a more pervasive, world-wide, scale... The facilities here are also in line with some of the other top schools around the world - we have the only 'Material Library' (and Materials Curator) of the MENA region, a large Green Room for filming/ video production, a decent Digital Fabrication Lab, as well as a great (uncensored) library. The program is also unprecedented in that the faculty to student ratio is about 1:2 (one faculty to each two students), as we only accept six (6!) students into each year of this two year program...

The whole MFA.DESIGN. faculty will also be present on Wednesday to present the program and answer any questions visitors might have...

VCUQ - Opening of New Wing...

View of the ad-hoc 'logo' from the studio entrance...

Today VCUQ has the inaugural opening event for the school's new wing. The shots above and below are a few, somewhat off the cuff, photos taken from various locales up here on the top MFA floor.

In the upcoming weeks more blog entires will follow from my recent trips to Bahrain, Venice and London...

Constantin Boym, the Department head of the MFA Program, making some last minute adjustments to MFA Student Robert Canak's Anamorphic installation...

The 'stretched' anamorphic blocks that form the colored areas/ highlights of the text...

A, somewhat aligned, view of the words highlighted by the anamorphic blocks of color in the background space...

A MFA student's studio space that's gradually beginning to look a bit like a design studio space should...

Some students looking down, into the atrium, from the MFA floor...

View from the student lounge on the MFA floor...

Module 7 - an Exhibition by KASA at the Avenues Mall...

The Kuwait Architectural Students Association (KASA) will be exhibiting at the Avenues Mall in Kuwait from the 4th to the 8th of April, 2010. These events are always worth a visit as, particularly the student work by the various 'creative' faculties at KU, have always something interesting and catalytic to offer...

The opening ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 4, at 7 pm, and is presented under the patronage of Sheikh Talal Al-Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah...

Mud Brickin' it in Oman...

A short note to bring to your attention an ongoing project outlined on this blog's sister-blog smArchitecture discussing how to both make as well as (eventually) develop traditional (Omani) mud-bricks... The two related posts can be accessed by clicking here & here...

'We learn everything from history - this doesn't mean we have to duplicate it'...

This fine dictum of the title above was stated by the Finnish architect Juha Leiviska a few decades back (similar statements have been made by others, but this is the only one I can recall the author of)... It formed as both the catalyst and a encapsulation of the spirit in which this project was pursued. For this final project the students, all Graphic Design majors, were asked to:

A) Explore a feature, tradition, design, ceremony etc. which they consider to be an inherent component of Kuwaiti or middle-eastern culture...

B) Define it, understand it, and...

C) ...Develop a contemporary, more updated, rendition of it which needed to include a text or presentation component as well as a 'designed' element...

Images of some of the results, accompanied by brief project descriptions, are shown above and below...


Top and above - An updated rendition of Sadu weaving, here appropriated into the format of Op-Art. The disc is made from a rigid plastic sheet roughly 30 cm in diameter...


Above and below - A dessert where 'gahwa' (Arabic coffee) is combined with an Italian pudding to form something unique and also, flavour-wise, quite delicious...



Above - A project exploring the key role formerly occupied by the 'Al-Kandary' - the 'water bearer', who used to deliver water to various residential quarters. Here the, now often forgotten, role and value of water in this region is reconfigured as a carry-with-you water bottle which precious content can only be accessed by unwinding a long paper strip containing a narrative explaining the extended effort that was required in the not too distant past to get sweet-water to Kuwait (it was usually imported by boat from Iraq)...


Above and below - A study which aims to update the three key forms of calligraphy into a more contemporary format, here realized by interpreting various 'pictorial' male and female names through the appropriated typographical mediums...



Above - An updated and novel use of henna as a natural means for cooling the body, along with it also functioning as a way to decorate the (now both male and) female extremities...


Above - A research project into the role of dates in regional culture. The cover is made out of dried leaves from a date tree...


Above and below - This project takes various both everyday practical as well as more celebratory outfits from Kuwait's past and reinterprets them in a contemporary context. Some of the outfits were modelled on small hand-made rag-dolls...



Above and below - A project that examined and documented traditions and uses of 'Bukhour' - middle-eastern incense, which can be used not only to change the ambiance of a space through a fragrance but also as a way to perfume one's body and clothes (achieved by letting the aromatic smoke pass through one's clothes). The final hand-in included a number of 'peel-and-smell' (seen below) samples of various bukhours and oudhs...


Unfortunately this was the last class I taught at KU... I wish all my students, both present and past, the best of luck with all their academic and other pursuits... Remember, focus, persevere and don't dilly-dally...