Benjamín Murúa Arquitectos | Kaunitz Yeung Architecture | Aziza Chaouni Projects | Hassan Fathy | Salba Estudio | Diana Kellogg Architects | Salma Samar Damluji | Khammash Architects | AAU Anastas | Donald Judd
AR October 2023
Deserts comprise one third of the Earth’s land area. Despite this, they are often marginalised and viewed as empty, expendable spaces that are inhospitable to life – a view that erases the complex ecosystems that thrive in desert environments, and the Indigenous communities that have made them their homes for millennia. AR October 2023 examines historical notions of ‘the desert’, and how they have underwritten – and continue to legitimise – a host of violent colonial projects. But it also highlights the work of architects who are resisting the notion that deserts are empty, and who acknowledge that the cultural, material and climatic conditions governing desert environments vary greatly around the world. From the Atacama Desert to New Mexico, and from the Negev to the Antarctic, AR October 2023 understands deserts in the plural form – not the monolithic singular.
Deserts
Keynote: Experimental Saharanism, Brahim El Guabli
Building: ALMA sports hall by Benjamín Murúa Arquitectos in the Atacama Desert, Chile, Alejandra Celedón
Essay: Nuclear colonialism in Maralinga, David Burns
Building: PAMS health centre by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture in Newman, Australia, Rory Hyde
Essay: Border sands, Juanita Sundberg
In practice: Aziza Chaouni Projects, Aziza Chaouni
Outrage: Great Green Wall crumbling, Spoorthy Raman
Revisit: Dar al Islam centre by Hassan Fathy in Abiquiú, New Mexico, Lillian Makeda
Building: Walirumana educational centre by Salba Estudio in La Guajira, Colombia, Kurt Hollander
Building: Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls’ School by Diana Kellogg Architects in Rajasthan, India, A Srivathsan
Retrospective: Khammash Architects, Ali Karimi
Case study: Wadi Al Hidan visitor centre in Wadi Al Hidan, Jordan
Case study: Royal Academy for Nature Conservation in Aljoun, Jordan
Essay: Unsettling the Negev, Irit Katz
Building: Wonder Cabinet by AAU Anastas in Bethlehem, Palestine, Nadi Abusaada
Reputations: Donald Judd, Julian Rose
Essay: Apocalypse urbanism, Gökçe Günel
Interview: Salma Samar Damluji, Bushra Mohamed
Book: Desert dystopias, Max L Zarzycki
Book: Dry ice, Elise Misao Hunchuck
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