Urban Crossroads
Introduction
Urban Crossroads is a regular column written by Mohammad al-Asad, the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE) in Amman. Its articles address issues relating to the urban built environment, with an emphasis on Amman and other cities in Jordan. The articles explore the various dynamics that shape our cities, including the physical, geographic, cultural, social, economic, and political, and examine how such dynamics may be harnessed to bring about improvements in the quality of urban life.
The first Urban Crossroads article was published on April 15, 2004. The articles have appeared in a number of publications including The Jordan Times, Jordan's English-language daily; the online portals www.tareeq.me and www.7iber.com; and Krunoslav Ivanisin and Josep Lluis Mateo (eds.), Middle East: Landscape. City. Architecture (Zurich, 2013). Moreover, all Urban Crossroads articles are available on the CSBE website. The articles were published in English until September 2011, and have been published in both English and Arabic since then.
About the Author:
Mohammad al-Asad is an architect and architectural historian, and the founding director of CSBE. He studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and history of architecture at Harvard University. He held post-doctoral research positions at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He also has taught at the University of Jordan, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was the Alan K. and Leonarda Laing Distinguished Visiting Professor, and was an adjunct professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. He has published a number of books and articles in both Arabic and English on the architecture of the Islamic world, and contributed a column on architecture and urbanism to The Jordan Times, Jordan’s English daily newspaper.
He served as a reviewer for a number of cycles of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture since 1989, and is currently a member of the Award's Steering Committee. He also has been a member of the board of directors for a number of Jordanian cultural organizations and commissions including the Jordan Museum, the Royal Society of Fine Arts – The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, and the Amman Commission. In addition, he has served as the Coordinator of the International Academic and Curatorial Committee of the Discover Islamic Art project of the Museum With No Frontiers, which has developed a virtual web-based museum of Islamic art in the Mediterranean.
Table of Contents:
Urban Crossroads #131-140
Urban Crossroads #121-130
Urban Crossroads #111-120
Urban Crossroads #101-110
Urban Crossroads #91-100
Urban Crossroads #81-90
Urban Crossroads #71-80
Urban Crossroads #61-70
Urban Crossroads #51-60
Urban Crossroads #41-50
Urban Crossroads #31-40
Urban Crossroads #21-30
Urban Crossroads #11-20
Urban Crossroads #1-10
Content
Urban Crossroads #134: Unnecessary Trips (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #133: How is Amman’s New Mayor Doing? (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #132: Amman Has a New Mayor (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #131: The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #130: The Newest Phase of Amman’s Growth (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #129: Innovation. Design. Fabrication: The story behind the film (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #128: The Singapore Model (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #127: Assessing The Quality of Life In Your Neighborhood (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #126: Local Governance (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #125: Film Review: Urbanized (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #124: Amman Urban Charter (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #123: Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #122: Three Public Spaces in Amman (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #121: Hostile City (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #120: Save Amman's BRT (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #119: City Clusters
Urban Crossroads #118: Nine Per Cent Parking
Urban Crossroads #117: Gallery 27: Rethinking the Architectural Exhibition
Urban Crossroads #116: The University and the City
Urban Crossroads #115: Managing Amman (in Arabic or English)
Urban Crossroads #114: Tales From Two Cities: Tunis and Cairo
Urban Crossroads #113: Commemorating Oleg Grabar (1929-2011)
Urban Crossroads #112: Peeking Into the Future: The 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Urban Crossroads #111: City Components
Urban Crossroads #110: Too Many Short Trips
Urban Crossroads #109: Memories and the City II: The Personal Past
Urban Crossroads #108: Memories and the Cities I: The Collective Past
Urban Crossroads #107: Managing the Traditional Arab City
Urban Crossroads #106: The Nimby Reaction
Urban Crossroads #105: The End of Globalization
Urban Crossroads #104: Connecting with the Built World
Urban Crossroads #103: Building Challenges: Urban Transportation
Urban Crossroads #102: Building Challenges: Housing Affordability
Urban Crossroads #101: Building Challenges: Energy Efficiency
Urban Crossroads #100: The Bilbao Effect
Urban Crossroads #99: Tomorrow's Designers of the Built Environment
Urban Crossroads #98: Amman's Garbage Problem
Urban Crossroads #97: Rethinking Public Transportation: Bus Rapid Transit Systems
Urban Crossroads #96: Moving in Amman: the Pedestrian Experience
Urban Crossroads #95: Bringing Nature Back into the City
Urban Crossroads #94: Urban Charters
Urban Crossroads #93: Aspiring for the Car-Free City
Urban Crossroads #92: Actions: What You Can Do With the City
Urban Crossroads #91: Good and Bad Urban Density
Urban Crossroads #90: Istanbul Today
Urban Crossroads #89: The Sustainable Human Settlement
Urban Crossroads #88: Linking the Cities of Jordan
Urban Crossroads #87: Amman How Big Is Too Big?
Urban Crossroads #86: Preserving Amman's Heart and Soul
Urban Crossroads #85: Amman's Heart and Soul II: Jabal Amman's First Circel Area
Urban Crossroads #84: Amman's Heart and Soul: The Downtown Area
Urban Crossroads #83: Public Art
Urban Crossroads #82: The City's Creative Energies
Urban Crossroads #81: A New Amman, for Better and for Worse
Urban Crossroads #80: Bottom-Up Urban Development
Urban Crossroads #79: Urban Life and Rising Commodity Prices
Urban Crossroads #78: Urban Change: Management and Resistance
Urban Crossroads #77: Architecture for the Rich; Mere Shelter for the Poor
Urban Crossroads #76: Celebrating Water
Urban Crossroads #75: Wakalat Street... Again!
Urban Crossroads #74: The Amman Report Card
Urban Crossroads #73: Architecture Serving Humanity: The Winning Project of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Urban Crossroads #72: Managing Amman's Traffic
Urban Crossroads #71: Cairo: A Ray of Hope
Urban Crossroads #70: To Tax or Not to Tax: Amman's Empty Land Plots
Urban Crossroads #69: The Municipal Three-Legged Stool
Urban Crossroads #68: To Kill the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg
Urban Crossroads #67: The Trans-Jordan Trail
Urban Crossroads #66: The Dubai Model
Urban Crossroads #65: Urban Planning and Daily Stress
Urban Crossroads #64: Sharing the Road
Urban Crossroads #63: Where Should All the Garbage Go?
Urban Crossroads #62: Smart Growth
Urban Crossroads #61: Desperately Seeking Amman (by guest contributor Babar Mumtaz)
Urban Crossroads #60: The Urban Planning Moment
Urban Crossroads #59: Zero Tolerance
Urban Crossroads #58: The Demands of the Few and the Rights of the Many
Urban Crossroads #57: Staking Territory
Urban Crossroads #56: Goodbye Nature
Urban Crossroads #55: Have to vs. Want to
Urban Crossroads #54: Whose Street is it Anyway?
Urban Crossroads #53: What Happened to my Neighborhood
Urban Crossroads #52: Exploring a Traffic Intersection
Urban Crossroads #51: Building Communities
Urban Crossroads #50: Moving Around Amman
Urban Crossroads #49: Moving Around the City
Urban Crossroads #48: Searching for the Inoffensible Gas Station
Urban Crossroads #47: Sweifieh Revisited
Urban Crossroads #46: Model Streets
Urban Crossroads #45: To Centralize or Decentralize
Urban Crossroads #44: Educating Architects and Planners
Urban Crossroads #43: What if...
Urban Crossroads #42: Ever-growing Amman
Urban Crossroads #41: Exploring the Early Islamic City
Urban Crossroads #40: Rehabilitating Old Aleppo
Urban Crossroads #39: The Landscaping Challenge
Urban Crossroads #38: "If You Can't Maintain It, Don't Build It"
Urban Crossroads #37: Disposable Buildings
Urban Crossroads #36: Buy Now, Pay Later
Urban Crossroads #35: Taking the Bus
Urban Crossroads #34: The Street Where I Live
Urban Crossroads #33: City Infrastructure
Urban Crossroads #32: Underpasses Everywhere
Urban Crossroads #31: Fixing Sweifieh
Urban Crossroads #30: Urban Solutions: Easier Said than Done
Urban Crossroads #29: Amman's Urban Fabric: What Went Wrong?
Urban Crossroads #28: Energy Consumption in the City
Urban Crossroads #27: Sweifieh: A Case of Urban Deterioration
Urban Crossroads #26: The Growth of Buildings
Urban Crossroads #25: A Tale of Two Shops
Urban Crossroads #24: The Economics of Zoning: Jabal Amman’s First Circle Area
Urban Crossroads #23: Nooks and Crannies
Urban Crossroads #22: Surfaces of the City: Concrete
Urban Crossroads #21: Signs of the City
Urban Crossroads #20: Empty Plots Everywhere
Urban Crossroads #19: Amman's Most Beautiful District
Urban Crossroads #18: Amman Street Maps
Urban Crossroads #17: Soundscapes of Amman
Urban Crossroads #16: Airport Road
Urban Crossroads #15: Parking in Amman: Privilege or Right
Urban Crossroads #14: Time Zoning
Urban Crossroads #13: To Commute or to Telecommute
Urban Crossroads #12: The Shopping Mall
Urban Crossroads #11: Apartment Living
Urban Crossroads #10: Sidewalks of Amman
Urban Crossroads #9: Riyadh
Urban Crossroads #8: Property Rental Laws
Urban Crossroads #7: Beirut
Urban Crossroads #6: Public Transportation
Urban Crossroads #5: Cities of the Arab East
Urban Crossroads #4: Zoning
Urban Crossroads #3: Urban Sprawl
Urban Crossroads #2: The Domination of Amman
Urban Crossroads #1: Introduction: An Anatomy of the City