Between the hammer and the rubble

the death, destruction and rise of Arab cities

Deen Sharp investigates “urbicide”—the destruction of entire cities, the use of the built-environment in oppressive militarisation, and the development and securitisation of planned urban space—across the so-called Middle East.

Cityscapes magazine

Lagos: When the metro comes to town

Everyone on the platform held their smartphones and digital cameras aloft on the mild September morning when I took my inaugural ride on the first-eve … Read more

by Jesusegun Alagbe

After Hours

With its thriving nocturnal economy, London can be a cornucopia of post-modern fantasies and pleasures, or a breeding ground of anxiety. The latter ta … Read more

by Cosimo Campani

Dr Dixon Chibanda: Re-thinking (mental) health infrastructure

Enlisting the wisdom and skills of community elders, Dixon Chibanda’s innovative approach to mental healthcare in Zimbabwe is spreading across the co … Read more

by Tau Tavengwa

Chatpong Chuenrudeemol: On designing for context

Returning from the USA to Thailand, architect Chat Chuenrudeemol talked to Tau Tavengwa about letting go of his Ivy League studio education to develo … Read more

by Tau Tavengwa

The Dangote Dilemma

In May 2023, the Dangote Oil Refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, was commissioned in Ibeju-Lekki, on the outskirts of Lagos. The wor … Read more

by Mathias Agbo Junior

Nairobi: the curious case of the city in the sun

Twenty years ago when I first came to work in Kenya’s capital, I could drive myself around Nairobi easily. I had the hang of the streets, though many … Read more

by Charles Onyango-Obbo

Finding your own vocabulary

For over 40 years, the relentlessly sunny city of Dubai has expanded and densified at a dizzying rate. Almost constant construction is evidenced in th … Read more

by Wael Al Awar

Adanech Abebe: The mayor

Ferial Haffajee spoke to Ethiopian attorney and politician, Adanech Abebe. With a population of 5.4 million in a city growing by the minute, Addis Aba … Read more

by Ferial Haffajee

Joburg: What’s to be done?

Edgar Pieterse examines the factors contributing to Johannesburg’s series of infrastructure crises and the political context that’s enabled it to dete … Read more

by Edgar Pieterse

Vukosi Marivate: Finding Africa inside the machine

While the rest of us speculate about ChatGPT and Midjourney, the University of Pretoria’s Vukosi Marivate is facilitating the development of an altern … Read more

by Tau Tavengwa

Lobi

Visual artist and photographer Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 in Southern Congo’s mineral-rich Katanga province. … Read more

by Mpho Matsipa with Tomi Seyi Laja

Building an Architecture of Necessity

In mid-2021, Palestinian architect and educator Omar Yousef spoke to compatriot and fellow architect, Mahdi Sabbagh about designing for uncertainty an … Read more

by Mahdi Sabbagh

Fleeing Khartoum

Riyadh was very busy, with a lot of life and movement,” Khartoum resident Haneen El recalled. “The streets were filled with restaurants, fast food tru … Read more

by Mukanzi Musanga

Renzo Guinto & Tolullah Oni: Health in everything!!!

Tau Tavengwa spoke with global health scholars Renzo Guinto & Tolullah Oni. Originally from the Philippines and Nigeria respectively, and both traine … Read more

by Tau Tavengwa

A roof over our heads

Sheela Patel foregrounds the realities of slum dwellers in thinking about climate change resilience and financing for urban development … Read more

by Sheela Patel

Architecture is Science Fiction

Michael Awake spends the day with artist Olalekan Jeyifous and dives under the mesmerising surface of his synthetic Afro-futuristic imaginings. … Read more

by Michael Awake

Searching for the contours of an Arab World

Is it the Middle East or West Asia? The Arab world or the Muslim one? Or is the “region” better distinguished by oil-producing states versus non-oil, … Read more

Power and permanence

At a glance, the pretext for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial decision to replace the country’s old Parliament building seems strai … Read more

Claude Borna: From the ground up

Kim Gurney speaks to Claude Borna about how Benin is building a knowledge-based digital economy brick by brick in Sèmè, City of Innovation. … Read more

You can’t go home again

The horror creeps in at 40,000 feet, somewhere above Matadi. On the overnight flight from Cape Town to London, this is the point where you wake up and … Read more

A Fading Jewel

Everyone keeps talking about the future of Joburg,” photographer Mark Lewis said on a recent phone call, “but if something is not done urgently, there … Read more

by Tau Tavengwa

Mediation and negotiation as spatial practice

Picture a bustling urban marketplace in Alexandria or Tunis. Traders in stalls haggling and adapting to each customer’s demands. Constantly making … Read more

by Insaf Ben Othmane and Omar Wanas

Benjamin de la Peña: Decolonise mobility!

Across cities in the global South, “informal” transport—a misnomer—meets peoples’ needs like no new, large-scale, institutionalised transit system has … Read more

by Tau Tavengwa

Nigerian cuisine is ready for prime time

On a summer’s late-afternoon at Skylight, a rooftop bar in East London’s Tobacco Dock, the young, fashionably underdressed, mostly white clientele who … Read more

by Tau Tavengwa

Foundational shifts

We face a foundational transition that is shifting us from an age defined by a reliance on an abundance of fossil fuels into one where we will experie … Read more

by Dark Matter Laboratories

A city in crisis

At a generative and powerful roundtable discussion, author, journalist, and this issue’s contributing editor, Ferial Haffajee, was joined by co-host A … Read more

by Ferial Haffajee & Alicia Thompson

Lobi

Sammy Baloji on memory, history, environmental colonialism and the overlapping nature of time

Visual artist and photographer Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 in Southern Congo’s mineral-rich Katanga province.

by Mpho Matsipa with Tomi Seyi Laja

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